A record 257 arts and cultural organizations in Cuyahoga County will share nearly $12-million in funding from a cigarette tax, this coming year. Who gets what was announced in a public meeting Monday night. But, not everybody is celebrating, because that tax income is on a steady downward trend.
The Cleveland Orchestra is getting about a 26 percent cut in funding due to dwindling cigarette sales. Speaking for the Musical Arts Association which governs the Orchestra, David Hooker says the cut took his organization by surprise.
"We think the fair way to go about this is to show us how they reached that conclusion," he says. "The fair thing to do is to let us all see what they’re doing. And we don’t feel like we’ve got those answers yet."
Cuyahoga Arts and Culture (CAC) distributes the smoking tax revenues, and they announced planned funding cuts, last month. But, CAC said the larger cuts this cycle are part of a ten-year program that will soften over time and promote a level of budgeting predictability for the grantees.
"Ultimately there are less dollars to go around," says Tara Turner, speaking for the Cleveland Botanical Garden. She adds that the 32 percent cut to her organization’s grant this year was tough, but they knew something like it was coming.
"We have to accept that fact and we have to be grateful for the money that we’re getting from them and will be getting from them in a very consistent way for a period of time."
85 percent of this round of grants will go for General Operating Support (GOS) for organizations like the Botanical Gardens and the Orchestra. Although there is a 20 percent reduction in GOS funding overall, CAC calculates the "average reduction in grants to individual organizations is about 14 percent". Some will get higher cuts, some cuts will be lower, and some organizations are actually getting more money this round.
The remaining 15 percent of funding announced Monday supports special projects, ranging from the Chagrin Documentary Film Festival to the West Creek Conservancy.
CAC executive director Karen Gahl-Mills argues that her staff made a concerted effort to inform all stakeholders of the pending cuts.
"But, it’s difficult news," she acknowledges. "And we understand that difficult news is sometimes hard to hear. We are absolutely committed to talking with organizations about this financial decision, helping them understand how it plays out for them."
Gahl-Mills says CAC will hold a public meeting in January to discuss that decision and to figure out ways to improve the process. ideastream receives funding from Cuyahoga Arts & Culture
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The biggest proportion of the cigarette tax revenue is devoted to General Operating Support (GOS). Here is a comparison of the funding allocations for the last round of grants versus the new amounts:
ORGANIZATION Yearly grant amounts for 2015, 2016 & 2017
Yearly grant amounts for 2018 & 2019
Apollo's Fire, the Cleveland Baroque Orchestra $106,917
$100,916
Art House $25,038
$22,691
Artist Archives of the Western Reserve NA
$23,140
Baycrafters-BAYarts $49,053
$48,825
Beck Center for the Arts $172,280
$134,721
Broadway School of Music and the Arts $23,847
$18,933
Center for Arts-Inspired Learning $150,471
$95,254
Chagrin Valley Little Theatre $39,946
$33,216
Cleveland Botanical Garden $351,286
$239,395
Cleveland Choral Arts (North Coast Men's Chorus) $27,192
$23,899
Cleveland Institute of Art $672,572
$529,101
Cleveland International Film Festival $164,506
$151,303
Cleveland Jazz Orchestra $33,977
$31,740
Cleveland Modern Dance Association (DANCECleveland) $55,941
$55,304
Cleveland Museum of Art $1,232,694
$977,345
Cleveland Museum of Natural History $577,499
$470,869
Cleveland Music School Settlement (The Music Settlement) $225,193
$175,529
Cleveland Play House $337,280
$295,362
Cleveland POPS Orchestra, Inc. $80,224
$65,899
Cleveland Public Theatre, Inc. $109,278
$93,804
Cleveland Restoration Society $83,412
$70,478
Community Partnership for Arts and Culture $92,515
$67,574
Contemporary Youth Orchestra $27,100
$27,459
Dobama Theatre $35,816
$37,954
Eleanor B. Rainey Memorial Institute (Rainey Institute) $69,486
$80,807
Great Lakes Museum of Science, Environment & Technology (Gr. Lakes Sci. Ctr.) $361,952
$284,437
Great Lakes Theater $215,042
$188,395
GroundWorks Dancetheater $46,293
$44,743
Heights Arts Collaborative, Inc. (HeightsArts) $23,075
$24,303
ideastream $879,245
$642,871
Inlet Dance $22,376
$22,754
Intermuseum Conservation Association (ICA-Art Conservation) $92,381
$81,182
Karamu House NA
$83,447
Lake Erie Ink: a writing space for youth NA
$25,027
Lake Erie Nature & Science Center $105,772
$78,723
LAND studio $231,920
$161,334
Maltz Museum of Jewish Heritage $155,493
$126,368
Morgan Art of Papermaking Conservatory and Educational Foundation NA
$27,771
Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland $158,954
$148,714
Musical Arts Association (The Cleveland Orchestra) $1,518,755
$1,118,231
Near West Theatre $62,461
$53,943
Piano Intl Competition of Northeast Ohio (Cleveland Intl Piano Competition) $70,177
$56,669
Playhouse Square $1,395,695
$1,164,989
Professional Flair, Inc. (Dancing Wheels) $50,262
$38,408
Progressive Arts Alliance, Inc. $47,105
$49,534
Roots of American Music $25,984
$22,370
Shaker Lakes Regional Nature Center (Nature Center at Shaker Lakes) $80,495
$73,262
SPACES $52,853
$34,962
The Children's Museum of Cleveland $89,434
$57,742
The Cleveland Opera $19,200
$18,527
The Musical Theater Project NA
$39,554
The Northern Oh. Children’s Performing Music Found., Inc. (Singing Angels) $44,216
$33,343
The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum, Inc. $989,574
$702,063
The Sculpture Center $16,582
$18,452
The Shaker Historical Society $18,805
$15,363
Ukrainian Museum-Archives $14,583
$11,437
Valley Art Center $34,359
$33,372
Verb Ballets $39,674
$37,282
Western Reserve Historical Society $280,343
$222,126
Zygote Press $31,234
$28,967
Total allocation for the GOS program $12,666,221
$10,200,000
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