The Connection

Massive budget cuts to the Alexandria Commission for the Arts has put a damper on some of the group’s hopes for 2016. According to Allison Nance, a member of the Commission for the Arts, last year Alexandria's Arts Commission received $200,000 from the city for public arts projects and other art projects around the city. However, in 2016, Nance says that funding dropped to zero.

Michael Detomo, a member of the Commission for the Arts, said the organization is stressed even further with efforts to implement the 2012 Public Art Implementation Plan. The plan offers the Commission for the Arts a broad direction for the type of public art the city should commission and where. It also outlines tools and processes for identifying, planning, and implementing the public art projects. The document states the public art priorities as “enriching the experience of Alexandria’s past, celebrating the spirit of Alexandria’s present, and shaping the identity of Alexandria’s future.”

But in Alexandria’s present, the lack of grant funding could make shaping the identity of Alexandria’s future a more substantial challenge.

“We’re just going to have to do more with less,” said Nance.

During the meeting, Detomo said that Arlington had heard its local artists complaining about the cost of practice space, and had begun using free practice space instead of money in some of its grants. However, others on the commission noted that the fees from practice spaces are one of the only sources of funding the Commission for the Arts has towards grants. Commission member Amber Gordon suggested increasing their representation on other commissions with more local business representation to help look for avenues for public-private partnerships.

This isn’t to say the Commission for the Arts isn’t without resources. The FY 2016 budget’s only reference to the Commission for the Arts is under estimated revenue funds, where it states that the Virginia Commission for the Arts provides matching funds, up to $5,000, to be allocated to arts organizations and artists who submitted funding requests to the Alexandria Commission to the Arts. Nance also said that there was some funding left over from other projects that has not been used yet. But other sources of funding, Nance said, were taken from projects that had been approved but now had to be stricken from the city plans.

For FY 2016, the organization has awarded $170,000 in grant funding to 25 organizations. The largest recipients was Art League, Inc. which received $13,794.

At its Aug. 18 meeting at the Durant Arts Center, the commission approved its 2014-2015 annual report, which outlined some of the challenges and successes of the past year. The report highlighted the Duke Street Traffic Box Wraps, which had artists from Alexandria and surrounding areas design colorful vinyl wraps for 12 traffic control boxes. It’s the kind of arts project members of the commission worry budget cuts could jeopardize in the future.