October 21, 2025
Policy & Advocacy
Chicago's FY27 Budget: Arts & Culture Funding
Arts Alliance is organizing a citywide sign-on letter calling for increased arts and culture investment in Chicago’s FY27 budget. Read our letter to Mayor Brandon Johnson and add your name as an artist, cultural worker, organization, or supporter.
Arts Alliance is gathering artists, cultural workers, organizations, and supporters on a citywide letter urging the City to increase DCASE grantmaking by $15 million, restoring it to its historic 2023 peak of $23.5 million.
In an interview with WBEZ earlier this month, Mayor Johnson said that he wants investment in arts and culture to be “the way to define [his] administration.” This budget season is his chance to make that happen, and this sign-on letter is our chance to ask him for it.
Our city’s cultural fabric is a rich tapestry of communities across Chicago, and DCASE grants help keep our local neighborhoods vibrant and thriving. Increasing DCASE’s available funds for grantmaking means more direct support going into the hands of local artists and organizations so they can keep creating and expanding access to cultural experiences.
As federal policies continue to harm our cultural organizations and communities, we need local cities to step up to support artists and creative workers who are struggling. Arts and culture makes up 11.3% of Chicago’s economy, yet last year Chicago was the only one of the nation’s five largest cities to cut funding for our local arts agency.
Sign on as an individual, an organization, or both before Wednesday, September 30 at 11:59pm.
We’ll share the letter with Mayor Johnson as his administration develops its FY27 budget proposal.
Letter to Mayor Brandon Johnson
Dear Mayor Johnson,
We are a group of Chicago arts and culture leaders and supporters writing on behalf of the creative sector across Chicago. We recognize the challenges of the current budget season, but believe investment in the arts should be a key part of Chicago’s FY2027 economic strategy. As you recently told WBEZ, “You don’t cut your way towards prosperity. You invest towards prosperity.” We agree.
Together, we urge the City of Chicago to restore DCASE grantmaking to our historic 2023 peak of $23.5 million, with an increase to the DCASE budget of $15 million. Returning to this level of investment would provide $8.70 in funding per resident, which is in line with New York City’s per resident community cultural grantmaking. |
DCASE’s direct grantmaking programs serve as a key source of support for our neighborhoods. And the Chicago arts sector continues to be impacted by federal policies that harm local cultural organizations, limit direct investment in the arts, and attempt to limit free expression and the creativity at the soul of our democracy.
Arts Alliance Illinois’ latest report shows that the arts and culture sector is the city’s third largest industry. It represents 11.3% of the city’s economy, supports 212,875 jobs, and generates $50 billion in economic output and $5.7 billion in tax revenue. Funding the arts means funding jobs, businesses, and economic activity citywide. And that report’s data comes from 2023, when the city’s grantmaking investment was $23.5M.
Chicago is one of the greatest cities in the world, but also the only of the nation’s five largest cities to cut funding for its local art agency last year, while New York, Los Angeles, and Phoenix increased theirs.
Government support of arts and culture is felt not only in our theaters, our community art centers, and our studios, but across shared priorities including violence prevention, youth development, education, public health, and community building.
You recently told WBEZ that you want investment in arts and culture to be “the way to define [your] administration.” As the City develops its FY27 budget, we ask you to demonstrate that commitment through restoring investment in the artists and cultural organizations that make Chicago great.
Sincerely,
Sign the Letter
From the Field
“City funding allows people to make art, and that helps maintain Chicago as a center for cultural innovation.”
“DCASE grants allow artists who have lived and worked in Chicago to actually stay in Chicago and continue making work.”
“Group theaters across the country are facing financial difficulties. But smaller and medium sized theaters like Latino theaters, Black theaters, BIPOC theaters are actually seeing their audiences grow.
DCASE's support shows its commitment to a growing demographic that now represents the largest minority in Chicago.”
"DCASE funds not only make it possible for people to keep working, but to do so without having to leave Chicago. They are a commitment to amplify voices too often neglected or excluded by mainstream media."
Past City Budgets
Read about arts funding for the City of Chicago in past years, including analyses from the Alliance, past resources, and more.
November 8, 2024
October 25, 2023
October 5, 2022
