Your Turn

When government is asked to choose between funding for the arts or funding for crime prevention, the arts will lose. For too long, the arts have been seen as irrelevant to pressing social issues such as crime, poverty and homelessness. However, it is time to change our thinking. Both arts organizations and government agencies must realize that when it comes to arts funding, it doesn't need to be an either/or situation.

The arts have already demonstrated that they are an impetus to economic development. We've seen that when a theatre is open, restaurants do more business and stores are open later, more people are out and the streets are safer.

But the arts can do more than just economically benefit the area in which they operate. They can be used to benefit the community socially as well. By partnering with local governments, artists and arts programs can be used to help address the societal needs of a municipality.

The Chicago Cultural Plan is a good guide for this type of partnership, pairing arts programs with the programs and budgets of other municipal departments. Just a few months ago, for instance, the Chicago Transit Authority announced that it had saved over $4 million in cleaning and anti-vandalism costs by creating "permission wall" murals to provide an outlet for the work of graffitists. Professional artists and the School of the Art Institute were also involved in the program.

In addition, we must not view these art and government partnerships as one-time projects that simply scratch the surface of an issue. It is impossible to solve problems such as violence or child neglect overnight — these partnerships must be longlasting to have an impact on the plights they are designed to confront.

Further, the potential for these ongoing partnerships increases dramatically when they start with government agencies and artists and expand to include other community organizations that have something to both give and receive.

Take the example of the major downtown

arts institutions. With rising costs and declining attendance, most urban symphonies and art museums are looking down the road at a generation of young people who are not interested in what they provide and will not fill their seats or galleries in 20 years. The major institutions are aware of this trend, and several of them have initiated outreach programs to address this problem and grow an audience for the future. However, outreach often means bringing kids from the neighborhoods downtown to a free or subsidized exhibit or performance, with perhaps a study guide to prepare them. But is this enough? What does it really give back?

What if, instead, a world-class organization like the Chicago Symphony Orchestra — not only the musicians, but the administrative staff and the board of trustees — decided to adopt an inner-city community? This "adoption" would be approached as long-term recognition that the institution needs the support of the community as much as the community can utilize the symphony's services.

A variety of alliances could be formed. An alliance with the schools would show students not only the technical aspect of the musicians' work, but also the unique teamwork, cooperation and common goals that an orchestra needs to perform a piece. The orchestra's marketing department could form an alliance with the Chamber of Commerce to discuss ways to bring jobs and economic development back into the neighborhood. Community groups could benefit by members of the orchestra's board of trustees becoming part of their local boards to lend much-needed expertise.

The result would be a diversely enriched community life and an improved future of the orchestra, which would now have local allies who appreciate what it does and are likely to become patrons and encourage others to do so as well.

The arts can and are making a difference. It is up to municipal officials to recognize the value of partnerships with artists — partnerships that will help work toward the common goal of a better society for all of us.

Michael C. Dorf, a partner in the Chicago law firm of Schuyler, Roche & Zwirner, is a cultural policy expert who served as special counsel/or Congressman Sidney Yates, (D- III.). Dorf also directed the creation of Chicago's first Cultural Plan under Mayor Harold Washington. 

10/August 1994/Illinois Issues