Tip-Toeing Through CT Arts Grants

 In researching *how to* apply for government arts grants (my art career plan B), I started with local grants and that exercise exploded in my face and escalated to Regional and Federal levels of interest. It is unavoidable. And it's circular.  I'm back to the CT State mosh pit of Arts funding.

As a software engineer there's a conceptual framework that ought to apply to the awarding of Fellowship grants or institutional funding is "As above, so below". For sports enthusiasts this translates to "The goalposts shouldn't be moving." In CT anything can happen.  Let's dive in.

The CT Artist Fellowship Program 2023 Recipient List is here. The accuracy of the information appears to be approximate on closer inspection. My interest as a visual artist was to attempt to identify some kind of pattern of award and what I found was a rich, superficial diversity of identity politic types. Any discrimination in that regard appears co-incidental - I poked through a number of years. I had no real ability to speak to viewpoint diversity.

What I did find are a few backdoor things that imply that the rules for Fellowship qualification are not rigorously enforced.  One problem was actual residency (being a New England artist isn't someone necessarily paying CT State taxes) and the second problem is the greased pig identity problem of whether or not such a person really exists.  Later.

Of the 69 Fellowships awarded, I teased out that 31 of the 69 artists listed had something to do with the Visual Arts - my particular special interest. So I really took a close look at those and sampled a few others to confirm the problem I found.

And that problem involves the fact that 15 of the 31 Fellowships went to instructors or employees in Higher Education institutions. Six of those 15 are associated with Yale and 9 in other higher ed schools.

I think a similar ratio of Fellowship particulars will play out with the rest of the non-Visual artists listed.

As feedback that could and should alert the DECD that the system is broken. If a quarter or more of the Fellowships being awarded are going to the graduates of the world's richest University and another quarter to graduates of exclusive institutions, then Federal and State money intended to promote equity is in fact being money laundered back into the pockets of the rich.

What my research has helped me to do is conclusively define who the "underserved" CT artists actually are.  The underserved community consists of anyone who did not graduate with an MFA from Yale or other exclusive institution.  This is worth unpacking.  It is not patriarchy, racism, systemic government breakdown or any other popular victim narrative that suppresses a livelier arts culture in CT (and maybe New England), it is social class education.

The total amount of money at the end of the spigot for actual artists struggling to create a maker budget is half of that more or less $200K yearly payout. ALL the rest of the arts funding is administrative overhead - we're talking about hundreds of millions of dollars.

But we can't be done yet,  What about institutional funding?

"The pandemic and COVID-related restrictions have hit these organizations hard. Theaters and other performing arts venues were recently given the go-ahead to open to the public as part of the state’s Phase 3 reopening plan but only at 50% capacity, further undermining their ability to turn a decent profit.

In a news release, Connecticut’s Flagship Producing Theaters, a consortium of theaters that includes Eugene O’Neill Theater Center, Goodspeed Musicals, Hartford Stage, Long Wharf Theatre, Westport Country Playhouse and Yale Repertory Theatre called the grant program “a welcome step toward helping theaters recover.”"

So what the hell is the Yale Repertory Theater doing in this mix? Make this make sense. Was there ever some doubt that F'n YALE was in danger of going under?  And the State put some qualifications on this funding that YALE, of all places, would have absolutely no problem maxing out should they so choose.

Google:

And about 5% of that is spent funding Yale:

So what condition is Yale Rep in these days?

"“I think her legacy is already operating out there in the field,” said James Bundy, who as dean of the Yale School of Drama and artistic director of Yale Rep has worked alongside of Nolan for 17 years. “It’s in all the leaders that she’s had such an important role in training.” Nolan, who announced her decision back in October and is succeeded by Florie Seery, has seen the theatrical landscape evolve first-hand from her multifaceted position at Yale. As a shrewd managing director and innovative educator, Nolan is as responsible as any one person for how theaters operate across the commercial and nonprofit spectrum countrywide.

Naturally, her influence started in New Haven.

“We were a $16 million operation then,” said Nolan of Yale Rep’s operating budget, “and $40 million now."

DECD funds Yale Rep approx. $43325 per year (2018 - today, likely long before 2018 as well). These Directed Local Funds got even funkier in 2022 and 2023 when some kind of 2 year state carry forward windfalls were added $129,975 and $86,000 were added to the funding. SWEET. Go Yale.

Compare and contrast.

Friends of mine compare applying for arts funding as a crab bucket exercise.    There's no such intention here.  This process is highly flawed and needs fixing. I hope these essays clarify some solutions.

My first recommendation is that if funding is going to involve residency then that residency have a threshold of three continuous years in the State. Residency less than that limits the grant to its lowest possible award.  This rewards long term resident artists and limits academic drive-bys.

Second, add aliases. The gaming of identity masks the number of applications, awards, and residences that craftier agents use to obfuscate their history.

Encrypt all personal characteristics of the applicant. Let the quality of the art speak to the virtue of the application and the individuals involved.  Nobody wants their awarded funding to be diminished by the innuendo that they "didn't earn it" (DEI).