by Harold McMillan

I enjoy writing this column. It gives me a monthly writing assignment. The word count is equal to the space available at the back of the magazine. And since most of my pieces are autobiographical, I pretty much write about whatever I want, whatever is going on in my life or in my head at the time. There is much to ponder.

I'm the 40-something single dad of my best friend, 4-year-old Hayes McMillan. I am listed as the publisher of this little magazine. DiverseArts, which I founded some years ago, is an active player in Austin's art and culture community. And, I'm lucky enough to play music (bass) on occasion with some of Austin's best musicians (all of whom are much better musicians than I am). I know Austin and understand the pervasive sensibilities of those folks who call themselves "real Austinites; 'been here over 20 years now. And, I also happen to be a thinking person with strong views.

Therein lies the blessing...and the curse. In a lot of my pieces I try to keep it light, even funny on occasion. There are times when I have to work hard to do that, though. When one writes autobiographically, there are also those times when life just ain't funny.

What to do when that is really the case, but I still have the writing assignment, a deadline, and a full head of worry and concern? Where do I draw the line to separate my legitimate "thoughtful musings" from inappropriate self-indulgent ranting, bitching, moaning, or sappy journal entries?

I think this is one of the times that I end up testing that limit. I'll try not to cross the line and I'll keep it brief (not much room at the back of the book this month anyway). I won't, however, bother you with my personal life drama. That is a whole 'nother can of worms. The drama at Austin Downtown Arts and DiverseArts is what currently makes my headache. And I don't think four Advil or an Aleve will make this headache just go away. It's about money. And my immediate thoughts center on DiverseArts, but my concern is with larger issues that involve how Austin goes about funding nonprofit arts groups.

Oh, yeah. And then there is this nasty economy.

My reasons for focusing on DiverseArts and this little magazine should be obvious. I am responsible for making sure there are sufficient funds to operate my organization. Concerns about money for operating a nonprofit arts enterprise in an economy such as this is a constant, a given.

It's a lousy economy for most everyone in Austin. For DiverseArts, ad revenue is down. Individual contributions are down. Art sales and admissions are down. Pledges for contributions, sponsorships, and programming made in previous months, have now been withdrawn without a promise of later re-instatement. To say the least, this is one of the toughest seasons we've endured.

The icing on this ugly cake: DiverseArts' City of Austin funding recommendation for FY2002-2003 is currently at about $5000. That's $5000 for 12 months of cultural programming and associated expenses, rent, salaries, artists fees. That's $30,000 less than our funding for the current season. That's about $45,000 less than our City funding two years ago. That's a huge enough reduction to force me to consider going out of the public arts business. That's about enough to make my head ache real bad.

It's probably obvious to most of you that, given the political nature of government money and this nasty economy, there are a number of factors involved here. I'd guess, however, that most of you assume that I'm speaking of grant money. I am not. City of Austin Cultural Contracts funds are just that: Cultural Services Contracts. Decidedly and definitely not grants.

It works like this. DiverseArts proposes to provide a slate of art and culture services to the City of Austin, for the benefit of Austin citizens. Our services have remained fairly consistent for the last several years. We promote and publicize the arts community and provide training and experience to writers, graphic artists, photographers and editors through Austin Downtown Arts Magazine.

We provide performance opportunities, experience, exposure, and employment to non-commercial musical artists, poets and spoken word performers, dancers and others by producing concerts, club dates, and series such as Word/Jazz and the Clarksville Jazz Sessions.

We produce Austin's longest running multidisciplinary jazz festival, along with its associated exhibitions, publications, and educational components.

We operate what is perhaps the only nonprofit visual arts gallery west of IH35 that has a stated mission of showcasing the best of emerging and established artists of color -- especially African American artists.

We founded, house, and maintain what is probably Austin's most extensive multimedia archive dedicated to preserving the legacy of the city's African American music community.

We provide free and /or inexpensive support and technical services to other arts groups and individual artists. And, we provide experience and training each season to interns and students in fields as varied as desktop publishing, arts management, and technical production for live music events.

Most, if not all, of what we do as an organization is in the service of providing access for Austin's arts community to the public at large, and vice versa. It's about service; it's about helping the City of Austin meet some of its stated cultural goals. We've had a contract with the City to support these activities for approximately 10 years. Some companies have contracts with the City to provide laundry services. We provide cultural services. Pretty simple.

So, you might ask, if we're essentially talking about renewal of a contract, does that mean that DiverseArts defaulted on or failed to meet the conditions set out in the prior contract?

The answer is: "No, that apparently has nothing to do with it!" We met the conditions of last season's contract just fine, yet we are being recommended to receive 1/7 of our last years contract amount.

So, I ask you now, if we are just barely squeaking through this season, in this nasty economy, with seed moneys from the City of only $35,000 to get through the entire year, what are we supposed to do when our allocation gets cut to a mere tenth of where we were two years ago? If this amount won't even cover our rent for 12 months, how do we stay in business, do programming, hire artists, pay wages, and keep the lights turned on?

Some of the possible answers are ugly, but simple: We find other funding and/or we cut programs and services. After all, in this economy almost everyone has to make adjustments to get through this bad year (or two). Or, we just go out of business.

I am trying not to over dramatize this. We actually are doing what we can, and have been attempting this for years, to diversify our funding base. And we are having some success with this effort. It just so happens that a good number of the corporate foundations, firms and individuals from whom we solicit funds are also having a bad year (or two). The crucial piece to understand here is that DiverseArts historically has matched, from a variety of sources, each dollar of Cultural Contract funds we've received. Our Cultural Contracts funding is traditionally the largest single-source income in our budget. It is the seed money that allows us to present our programs while we secure funds to provide our match. And, in that way it is not a bad system.

Problems do arise, however. When organizations such as DiverseArts successfully complete the terms of their contracts, and it's time to renew for the next season, they may have their allocations fluctuate tens of thousands of dollars from one year to the next. And this happens, even if the organizations propose to do much of the same work in the coming season. It happened this year and last to long-established organizations such as the Children's Museum, Austin Museum of Art, Texas Folklife, Women and Their Work, Women in Jazz, Sally Jacques, and on and on.

Oh yeah, the economy. It does play a role here, but most of what I'm talking about here has everything to do with the panel system rather than the current economy. Belt tightening is a necessary fact of life for organizations right now. No one blaming the "system" for that reality.

The City's bed-tax fund (hotel taxes used to support arts funding) for the coming year is down. Tourism and stays in downtown hotels are down, so the tax-base slipped significantly. The projections for this year's bed-tax might be more than 30% off target. That's bad for all players in the game.

What I am talking about here, though, is not about a 30% slip in funding from this year to the next, an across the board, equally distributed reduction for all of us. I'm talking about folks like the Austin Museum of Art getting a recommendation for the coming year that was off some 70% from their last contract amount. How long have they been the "official" art museum of the City? And this happens to them? Non-mainstream, smaller organizations who have only been around (and funded) for the last ten or twelve years might get totally wiped out of the allocations. Or, as is our case, receive an allocation that is about 1/10 of our allocation from two seasons past.

How are we to plan for coming seasons with this kind of thing going on, other than assume support from the City just might not be there in any consistent form? That is not a bad posture to take, especially when you are dealing with grant money.

Oooppps! I said grant money. I mean City of Austin Cultural Contracts. But if it's a contract renewal, and the terms of current and past contracts have been and are being met, what is the justification for such inconsistency from the issuer of the contracts.

I'll let you know as soon as someone tells me.

And, in a season with a 30% shortfall in projected funds, does it make sense to -- at the same time -- almost wipe out programming of some "long-established, in good standing" contractors, but award new contracts to first-time applicants with little or no investment to lose if they are not funded this time?

Perhaps the United Way has a good idea here. In the midst of this tight-money financial climate, they froze contracts and amounts for current contractors and decided this year not to accept new applications, hoping for more tangible signs of recovery next fall.

Now that makes sense, huh?