October 25, 2023
Policy & Advocacy
2025 Chicago Budget
Join us as we advocate for critical arts funding from the City for next year.
View talking points and opportunities to get involved on this page.
Share your Story
Fill out this form to express interest in participating in our ongoing advocacy around this year’s budget. We’ll be sharing information about upcoming budget hearings and how to engage your city council members. You also have the chance to submit a story we can use in our ongoing campaign.
Sign-on Letter to Mayor Johnson
In September, Arts Alliance and over 1,000 creative workers, organizations, and leaders collectively signed and sent a letter to Mayor Johnson calling for the city to avoid any further cuts to the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events’ direct grantmaking budget in 2025.
- Arts and culture deserve a committed investment from the City. The arts nourish social, cultural, and policy change, create safer and more inclusive communities, spur community development, and promote public health.
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- The arts have been shown to reduce crime, bringing safety and vitality to neighborhoods and community engagement to young residents. The presence of public art installations in neighborhoods can help reduce firearm-related police incidents (NEA, Busy Streets Theory and Public Art, 2024), and arts-based programs can directly contribute to lower crime levels (Cheliotis & Jordanoska, The Arts of Desistance, 2016).
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- The Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) is the primary driver of direct city support to Chicago’s 63,000 creative workers.
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- Other major cities are increasing their investment in arts and culture. New York City’s budget this year—which just passed—includes a never-before-seen $254M investment in the city’s cultural affairs department. Chicago has an opportunity to not only keep pace with other cities, but set an example for the value of investing in arts and culture. Though this is a challenging budget season, Chicago cannot afford to move backwards in its funding of our city’s artists and cultural organizations.
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- The arts sector is a crucial revenue driver for our city and state. Chicago’s nonprofit arts sector alone delivers over $336 million in local and state government revenue each year (Arts Alliance Illinois).
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- Investing in the arts is a racial equity issue. Despite productive efforts from the City to tackle funding inequities, BIPOC and BIPOC-led organizations of color still receive far less funding than their white counterparts. Arts organizations of color receive only 50 cents for every foundation grant dollar received by white organizations (Enrich Chicago). The City must continue to lead the way in advancing racial equity in arts funding by prioritizing grants to communities of color.
- While facts and talking points serve as helpful anchors for your comments, the most impactful public comments include stories that speak directly to your experiences.. Describe how the presence or absence of City funding impacts you and your immediate community!
Past City Budgets
Read about arts funding for the City of Chicago in past years, including analyses from the Alliance, past resources, and more.
October 5, 2022
August 25, 2022
August 25, 2022
