The state of the arts in Allegheny County is stable, but that’s not necessarily a good thing. It mirrors that in other parts of the country as detailed in a commissioned study shared with a cross section of arts practitioners during a six hour presentation. The Unsung Majority, an exploratory study of area small and mid-sized arts organizations, was presented at the Kaufmann Auditorium last month to an audience of about 150.
A Consortium of Small Arts Funders (CSAF, or the Consortium)—including staff from The Heinz Endowments, The Pittsburgh Foundation, The McCune Foundation, The Allegheny Regional Asset District, and the Greater Pittsburgh Arts Council—have worked together since 2007 in an effort to think more strategically about their approach to funding arts and culture organizations with budgets under $1.5 million.
In the performing arts, resources tend to be concentrated among a few large organizations, a distribution seen across many areas of the broader nonprofit and commercial sectors. In the Pittsburgh region in 2010, the eight performing arts organizations with budgets over $1.5 million collectively spent $130 million to bring their work to the stage. In the performing arts, resources tend to be concentrated among a few large organizations, a distribution seen across many areas of the broader nonprofit and commercial sectors.
The organizations that participated in the study included the Balafon West African Dance Ensemble, Jazz Workshop, Kente Arts Alliance, Nego Gato Inc., New Horizon Theatre, PearlArts Studios and Pittsburgh Playwright Theatre Company. Among those interviewed were representatives of the African American Jazz Preservation Society of Pittsburgh, Jasiri X, Jazz Workshop Inc., Balafon West African Dance Ensemble, Hill Dance Academy Theatre and the Staycee Pearl Dance Project.
Although there were no groundbreaking reveals in The Unsung Majority, many found the presentation to be of value.
“The biggest takeaway for me is that it is absolutely essential to our survival that small/mid-size arts groups collaborate,” said Gail Austin of the Kente Arts Alliance. “It is to our mutual benefit that we share marketing tools, business and financial services, health insurance group plans and other tools that could only strengthen our organizations. Also, small/mid-sized arts organizations are vital to the arts climate in Pittsburgh and we should be proud of the work we do.”
Cavanaugh Quick, Program Manager of Dreams of Hope (Pittsburgh’s only arts-focused organization for queer and allied youth) agreed “We—the small and mid-sized arts groups of our region—have caught ourselves in a feedback loop of our own making. It’s clear that our individual organizations aren’t the only ones who are stressed about finding funding or widening our constituent bases, etc, but we are stuck in the mindset that because we’re all struggling none of us are interested in trying to help each other, instead of leaning toward collective struggle yielding collective result.”
A member of the advisory committee, Justin Laing of Heinz Endowments said, “One of our takeaways is the exciting opportunity we have to better support arts organizations under $1.5 mil, especially sub cohorts within that group, sub cohorts such as Black arts orgs and organizations between $500,000-$1.5 Million.”
Celeste Smith of the Hip Hop Collective and 1Hood, a foundation grant recipient and part of the panel, said with optimism, “What We Have Learned From Cohort Work—Good, Bad and Ugly.” She also said, “I am encouraged by the desire of the Heinz Endowments to be a better, more inclusive foundation. I am watching the moves they are making and not only do the program managers have an open door policy, they are also quite vested in the community.”
It is absolutely phenomenal that they make the information available to the public, then they take the additional step to parse the information with the public. At the end of the day none of that has to be done and generally isn’t.”
Some attendees shared different takeaways. One, who insisted on remaining anonymous, said, “Major funders don’t plan on changing anything to better financially support arts organizations besides the few big ones getting 75 percent of the grant moneys. With no explanation of why that is justified, it sounds like they really just don’t care about the 150 plus arts groups struggling for resources in our region.”
There was more than one cynic at the presentation. Another one, also insisting anonymity stated, “I was disappointed with the lack of focus on African-American/Black arts organizations. With the demise of Kuntu, there seems to be a disconnect on the importance of these organization to the region as a whole. Without these organizations, Black artists (and other artists of color) are relegated to bit players.
“There is a tremendous pool of talent that either leaves Pittsburgh, those left struggle with limited support or just wither on the vine. It’s more difficult for theatrical organizations to due to production costs – do you spend money on marketing or on presenting a quality production? It’s very much like the poor deciding whether to eat or have medical care or working utilities or shelter. Funders and other art supporters should stop ignoring these issues of survival!”
