By JESSICA C. WEBER
A public information officer for the State
Education Office, she is a free-lance writer
and a sometime graduate student. She
was a reporter for the now merged
Illinois State Journal in Springfield
for five years.
Bringing art to the people: The Illinois Arts Council
Next year the state will spend more than one million dollars in support of community arts programs. With reorganization behind it, the Illinois Arts Council now hopes to sponsor a variety of new projects which will encourage grass roots interest in the arts
THE ILLINOIS ARTS Council has them dancing in the schools.
And weaving in Galesburg. And listening to poetry in Bushnell. And watching, listening, or otherwise becoming involved with the arts in communities all over Illinois.
And it will be doing even more of these things in even more communities in the future, according to its director, Michelle Brustin. The council's staff has been undergoing a reorganization, Ms. Brustin said, to improve its functioning in two major areas, grantmaking and involvement on the local level. "I think the biggest problem with the council in the past has been that it simply has not developed community contacts. That whole region south of Springfield is really basically unknown to us except for Centralia and Mount Vernon and East St. Louis," she said.
The council has hired a full-time community arts specialist whose job is to work directly with communities as a consultant. The specialist travels to various towns to work with community arts councils. If there is no such council, the specialist helps organize one. Local arts organizations play a variety of roles, some operating their own programs or setting up arts festivals, some acting as clearinghouse for arts activities in the area.
Reevaluating the grant process
In addition to the community arts
specialist, the entire staff will be traveling around the state to assist local arts
efforts. "We haven't gotten out as much
as we will, because of this internal reorganization this year. I think it's
terribly important that the director get
out, even if it is only to a performance
that we assisted . . . because it helps to
make the contact. Local people begin to
feel confidence in you," Ms. Brustin said.
The Arts Council probably is best known for the grants it awards to arts activities and this grant-making function is being closely scrutinized during the reorganization. The total amount of grant money awarded by the council has grown steadily: from $72,467 in its first two years of operation, 1965-67, to $393,139 for 1970-71, to $910,000 for the fiscal year just ended. Lists of grants awarded by the council during that period show many small grants of $25 to $1,000 and a smattering of substantial ones. For example, in 1969-70 more than $240,000 was awarded for an engagement of the Stratford Festival Theater of Canada in Chicago.
More substantial grants
"We want to give more substantial
grants in the future," Ms. Brustin said.
A system has been established to
evaluate organizations which receive
money, so the council can learn exactly
how the money was used and what kind
of management capabilities the
organization has. To be eligible for
financial help from the council, not-for-profit organizations must have been of
active service to the Illinois public for at
least one year before the date of
application. In rare circumstances the
one-year requirement can be waived for
special grants. Organizations involved
in architecture, dance, film, literature,
music, public media, theater, and visual
arts are eligible, as are social service
agencies with distinct arts components.
Higher educational institutions may
apply for grants for programs serving
the wider community which cannot be
funded entirely with regular institutional funds.
Grants may be used to improve the quality of services offered by cultural organizations, expand public participation in the arts, and improve the extent and quality of the organization's services to artists in Illinois. Grants are not made for capital improvements or construction, purchase of permanent equipment, deficit financing, out-of-state
September 1975 / Illinois Issues / 275
Every dollar the Arts Council awards a project is matched, in effect, by several dollars from other sources
touring, or subsidizing an individual's academic study.
Application forms may be obtained from Illinois Arts Council, 111 North Wabash Ave., Chicago, 60602 (telephone 312/ 793-3520).
The next two deadlines for applications are October 15, 1975, for programs occurring between February 1 and August 31, 1976; and March 1, 1976, for programs occurring between June 1 and August 31, 1976.
All applications are reviewed by one of eleven panels of experts in various branches of the arts. A total of 81 persons, including practicing artists, critics, and scholars, serve on the panels. The advisory panels make recommendations to the 21-member council, which meets four times a year to make grants. Council members are appointed by the governor for four-year terms. The grants are administered by the staff.
In addition to financial grants, the council's staff provides consultative help, ranging from telephone recommendations to a full-scale consultation on a project. Legal help also is available to individual artists or organizations through the council. Several lawyers volunteer their services for this council-sponsored program, to give advice on incorporation, leases, copyrights, and so on.
Artists-in-the-schools
An example of the kind of program
the council likes to assist is the artist-in-the-schools program. This council-sponsored project places a practicing
professional artist in a school to give
performances and to work with students, and sometimes to give community performances. The length of the artist's work in a particular school varies,
and the artist may be a poet, dancer, or,
as in Galesburg, a weaver. Galesburg
liked its weaver so well the town decided to hire her to continue working in the
school and the community. In
Woodstock, a director-in-residence
worked with all music groups in the
McHenry County area, including those
in the schools.
Supporting visits by artists to schools and communities work to the benefit of both, according to Ms. Brustin. It helps the artist "to know he's not just an isolated member of society, that it really is crucial for him to work with people in a community." The community, on the other hand, learns "to understand the role of an artist, that it's not just someone who is that insulated, isolated person."
A dance touring program, which brings professional dance companies to tour the state, began in Illinois with funding from the Illinois Arts Council and the National Endowment for the Arts. The program is now a major nationwide program of the National Endowment for the Arts.
Illinois authors to libraries
In cooperation with the Illinois
Library Association, the council has
sent eleven books by ten Illinois authors
to 36 libraries throughout the state, and
sponsored trips by the authors to the
towns. Recently more than 100 people
in Bushnell turned out to hear Illinois
poet John Knopfle. This is a good example of the kind of program Ms.
Brustin likes to see the council involved
with. First, it is done in cooperation
with another organization, bringing
that organization's support to the arts
and also stretching the council's dollars.
Second, it is a program that can serve
any community, because "everybody
has a library. They may not have an
orchestra, they may not have a dance
company, but they have a library."
The council will soon be noting the nation's bicentennial with "Illinois Architecture: A Revolution in the Prairie." This multi-faceted program is designed "to sensitize and educate people to architecture," according to Alexia Lalli, project director. A film, museum exhibits, a series of posters, tours of Chicago architecture, mini-courses and school visits, and some traveling around the state to highlight architecture found in various towns will be part of the project.
A touring theater company, a changing photo gallery in the lobby of the council's offices, annual awards to writers published in Illinois literary magazines, a three-day conference for members of the dance community, and traveling art exhibits are other examples of projects sponsored or aided by the Illinois Arts Council.
Grubby money
It goes without saying that the council doesn't have enough money to do
everything it would like to do. The
governor recommended a $1,360,000
appropriation for the council for the
1976 fiscal year, a 45 per cent increase
over the 1975 appropriation. In addition the council receives grants from
other organizations such as the
National Endowment for the Arts,
monies for special projects from such
sources as the Bicentennial Commission, and donations from private
sources.
Ms. Brustin feels, naturally, that more money could be put to good use. One of the staff's jobs, she said, is to broaden the council's constituency so that the arts become more important to more people, especially those outside metropolitan centers. A more -widespread grass roots interest in the arts would encourage local legislators to look favorably upon the arts council around appropriations time. Support must be sought, too, directly at the local level. Every dollar the Arts Council awards a project is matched, in effect, by several dollars from other sources, including donations and money raised by the recipient organizations.
In addition to money for expansion, more money is going to be needed in future years just to hold the line. Arts organizations are not immune to inflation, and expenses for rent, travel, publicity and everything else have risen, Individual artists, too, are paying more for everything from food to toe shoes. A less direct effect of inflation on the arts is the possible drying up of private contributions and the reluctance of a citizenry strapped for cash to pay for, tickets to cultural events.
Ms. Brustin points out, though, that support for the arts is economic wisdom, since theater productions, concerts and art shows draw people into an area and generate business for restaurants, motels, transportation, and the other businesses.
In the end, it seems, even so lofty a goal as "Bringing Art to the People" depends on the grubby realities of money and politics. �
See "Calendar" for Illinois Arts Council sponsored Bicentennial Chicago Symphony concerts.
276 / Illinois Issues / September 1975