The Arts in Philadelphia Are Not ‘Restored’
BY KRISTAL SOTOMAYOR ON JUNE 19, 2020
Photo from the Emergency Arts Action to Fund Black Futures March organized by Artist Coalition For A Just Philadelphia on Tuesday, June 16. Photo credit: Melissa Beatriz.
Over the past few weeks, Philadelphians have been protesting police brutality and the end of dire cultural and arts programs. Among the main issues are Mayor Jim Kenney’s proposed 2021 budget cuts that eliminate the Philadelphia Cultural Fund (PCF) and the Office of Arts, Culture and the Creative Economy (OACCE). This same budget allocates an additional $19 million for the Philadelphia Police Department. Groups such as No To Zero for the Arts, Philly Artists for Black Lives, Philly Culture United, and others have been advocating to restore PCF and OACCE and to defund the police.
Yesterday, Philadelphia City Council announced a new 2021 preliminary budget with funding for arts and culture. The updates include $1.35 million in funding for the PCF and African American Museum in Philadelphia (AAMP). The AAMP is slated for a “full restoration of the $350,000 allocation Mayor Jim Kenney had cut in his initial spending plan.”
This new preliminary budget, however, does not “restore” funding for the arts as many local Philadelphia outlets are reporting. Instead, the budget for AAMP stays the same while PCF receives only $1 million in funding.
While the city’s PR team boasts a $33 million cut to the Philadelphia Police Department budget, $14 million is diverted into another city budget line item while Mayor Kenney’s original proposed $19 million increase is eliminated. The preliminary budget funds $727 million for the Police Department while only allocating $1 million for PCF.
The 2020 Art & Culture Grant administered by PCF awarded a total of $2,928,500 in general operating grants to 349 organizations in Philadelphia. With a $1 million budget for PCF, many arts organizations will not receive grants to maintain their programming.
In 2020, the OACCE budget totaled $4.41 million for projects across the city. This means that overall arts funding in the new preliminary City Council budget would decrease by $3.14 million from the previous year. In addition, the $1 million funding for PCF does not support any OACCE programming. If OACCE is gone, what entity will be the city liaison for artists and cultural workers?
The pandemic has proven that arts are vital to life as we know it. On June 25th, City Council will make a final vote on the budget. As artists and cultural workers, our only recourse is to continue to put pressure on City Council and Mayor Kenney to increase funding and save OACCE. Organizing efforts by artists across Philadelphia has helped ensure that arts were not completely erased from the city budget. Yet, this budget is still far from what organizers asked for and what arts need.
In the weeks leading up to the final budget vote, please take some time to call and email City Council and to sign petitions to restore OACCE.
