Arts under siege, starved of funding

Since 2003, California’s Governors and the Legislature have allocated $1.1 million annually to the Arts Council, the bare minimum to qualify for more than $5 million in annual federal grants. This lack of foresight has put California dead last among all 50 states in per capital funding for its arts agency.

Although the Council was created under Gov. Brown in 1976, he has for now abandoned his own history, allocating slightly less than $1.1 million in his proposed 2014-15 budget, currently under review in the Legislature.

A report commissioned by the Otis College of Art and Design in Los Angeles in 2013 (and funded in part by my company Ovation) examined the annual economic impact of California’s creative industries. Using 2012 data, the 2013 “Otis Report” found that more than 1.4 million California workers are employed, that’s roughly one in 10 jobs, directly or indirectly thanks to the state’s creative community. These industries generate 7.8 percent of the total gross state product; $273 billion in various economic impacts that translate into $13 billion in state tax revenues.