It is vital for the City of Chicago to substantially grow its investment in arts and culture. For the past two fiscal years, the City has committed $10 million in Corporate Fund dollars to the grantmaking budget of the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) as part of the department’s overall annual budget.
We call on the City to increase its capital fund investment in DCASE to $25 million in FY24, dedicating the funds to additional grantmaking that prioritizes historically marginalized communities.
Arts Alliance has drafted talking points below that anyone who supports this action can use while engaging with the City of Chicago about the FY24 budget.
Talking Points
- Especially given the economic fallout of the pandemic, the arts sector needs more diverse, sustainable, and consistent funding. Increasing DCASE’s support from the corporate fund is critical to stabilizing the City’s creative landscape. (Share your current experience(s) of COVID impact here, e.g., if/how you and/or your organization are still feeling the financial effects.)
- Arts and culture are essential to the soul of our city. They are key to building a “culture of repair,” supporting artists in work that confronts racial inequity, calls for justice, and helps heal pain within our communities.
- Increased funding will allow more, needed support for artists involved in community art making that advances transformative, restorative justice.
- The arts strengthen neighborhood vitality by bringing innovation to community development, promoting public health, and creating positive pathways for youth.
- Extreme inequity exists in Chicago arts funding. BIPOC organizations receive only 50 cents for every foundation grant dollar received by white organizations (Enrich Chicago). The City must lead the way in advancing racial equity in arts funding by prioritizing grants to marginalized communities.
- The arts and culture sector drives Chicago’s economic development and tourism. The sector’s nonprofits alone deliver more than $336 million in local and state government revenue each year. (Arts Alliance Illinois).
- Cultural and arts workers are at the heart of Chicago’s creative sector. Increased funding will empower a worker-centered DCASE approach by enabling the department to provide livability and technical assistance, as well as increased unrestricted grants to individual artists.
- Arts learning provides career skills, meaning, and community connections to Chicagoans of all ages. We must ensure equitable access to arts education, including K-12 after-school arts programs, intergenerational arts activities, and adult arts education.
If you have any questions, reach out to Erick Deshaun Dorris, Director of Community Organizing, at dorris@artsalliance.org.
