Art agency leads talks on coping if cuts occur

You'd think a meeting with the Colorado Council on the Arts about possible funding cuts for local arts groups would be a downer. You'd be wrong.

"I wasn't sure what to expect," said Bettina Swigger, executive director of the Cultural Office of the Pikes Peak Region. The two-hour meeting of about 50, she concluded, left her energized. "It's exciting."

The council is a state agency that parlays state and federal funds to support Colorado artists and creative nonprofits. Grants for the 2009-10 season, which won't be affected by any state budget cuts, were up by about 20 percent over last year: $197,000 for El Paso County and $1.6 million statewide.

But as the state sets about making up for a $632 million budget shortfall this year, Gov. Bill Ritter proposed a wide range of cuts for 2010-11, including halving the funding of Colorado Council on the Arts.

"We're hoping that's the worst-case scenario," said Elaine Mariner, executive director of the council and moderator during a dozen stops of the council's "listening tour" that came to Colorado Springs on Thursday.

Mariner doesn't expect a solid budget number for the council until April.

The local meeting, the fifth in the state, included arts groups large and small.

"I would say none of the meetings have been whine sessions, which is what I expected," Mariner said.

Mariner sidestepped any debate on funding, instead focusing on the challenges these organizations report facing now and their successful strategies for staying afloat and even prospering.

At the end, Mariner asked attendees to offer their top three priorities for spending (a theoretical) $800,000. They voted to gear future council efforts toward retaining existing arts and cultural enterprises and promoting and supporting arts education.

"The main outcome I was looking for was help on how to spend our reduced funding," Mariner said. "It's only $800,000, but still, it's $800,000."

And while many organizations said regular funders were cutting back on support, some added that ticket sales or donations were either holding to last season's levels or increasing.

"You know there's a certain amount of optimism in facing reality," said Patricia Reed, operations manager of the Colorado Festival of World Theatre, which received a $21,000 grant from the council for 2008-09. "If you admit things are not so good, you say, ‘I have to figure out another way to do it.' It's our passion. We have to find another way."