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What a possible travesty! Might the Texas Commission on the Arts -- provider of grants, information, and technical assistance to artists and arts organizations in visual arts, theatre, dance, music, media and literature -- be destroyed? The organization, which has been the primary source of governmental funding of the arts in Texas for over forty years, was under the Sunset review this year, a process all state agencies undergo every 12 years to determine whether they should continue to exist or not.
In a nutshell, this means that funding for groups that are a vital part of the arts in Texas will be either privatized or completely removed. Just a small handful of the many groups funded by TCA grants: Arthouse, Salvage Vanguard Theater, Austin Circle of Theaters (ACoT), Austin Chamber Music, Austin Film Festival, Austin Film Society, Austin Lyric Opera, Austin Museum of Art, Scriptworks, Austin Symphony Orchestra, The Paramount, Dance Umbrella, Austin Visual Arts Association, Ballet Austin, Women and their Works, Cine las Americas, Mexicarte, Austin Writers’ League, Vortex Theater, Blanton Museum, Texas Association of Museums, Texas Book Festival, Rude Mechs, La Pena, Zilker Theater and Zachary Scott Theater.
Thinking about the widespread repurcussions of these groups getting their funding cut sends chills down our spines, as so many of these which depend heavily on the TCA funding will no longer be able to survive. Since investment in the arts and creativity is important in strengthening our local economy and keeping artists in Texas, not to mention making this a great place to live, this possibility could have devastating, far-reaching effects over the long term.
From what we gather, the effort to dissolve the TCA has been spearheaded by a lone voice in the Sunset Advisory Commission, one aptly-named Howard Wolf. According to Ricardo Hernandez, the Executive Director of the TCA:
The Sunset Staff Report recommended the arts commission should be continued for another 12 years and not consolidated with any other agency. However, Howard Wolf, a citizen member of the Sunset Advisory Commission, said he was in favor of abolishing the TCA entirely and would lobby fellow commissioners to adopt his position…The Sunset Staff Report also recommended the dissolution of the 13-year-old Texas Cultural Endowment Fund that was created in 1993 as a potential permanent funding source for TCA.
As far as further discussion goes, the Sunset Commission will meet again on May 2nd and 3rd and the result of this will be “the basis for any legislation introduced in the 80th Regular Session to abolish, continue, or in any way alter the Texas Commission on the Arts.”
Instead of crying in our beers, which was our first reaction to this news, it will be better to take action soon. The Sunset Advisory Commission will continue to accept written information from TCA and the public until April 7, 2006, so if you'd like to provide your input, now’s the time. Address letters to:
The Sunset Advisory Commission Staff
sunset@sunset.state.tx.us
P. O. Box 13066
Austin, TX 78711-3066
More complete information on this is available in Hernandez’s Response to TCA Sunset Hearing on the TCA website.
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hey, there is an option beyond the live-or-die scenario described above, that most often happens with Sunset reviews: the agency continues, but with its scope, powers and function "revamped" by the legislature. The Sunset Commission report mentioned in your article has other recommendations for the Arts Commission that will form a basis of debate in the legislature, even after the Wolfster is marginalized by the great barage of Austinist-inspired save-the-arts mail. You can find the report about the Commission on the Arts from a drop-down menu at http://www.sunset.state.tx.us/. Remember, getting the legislature to continue the Commission is only the first hurdle - the second is whether it will continue with the authority and funding that allows it to feed our starving artists, who in turn feed our collective souls!