Correspondence - Item 30 - Laserfiche WebLink

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Ibarra, Evelyn From:Alicia Rojas <aliciarojasart@gmail.com> Sent:Tuesday, May To:eComment; Amezcua, Valerie; Bacerra, Phil; Penaloza, David; Phan, Thai; Lopez, Jessie; Hernandez, Johnathan; Vazquez, Benjamin Cc:Debra Russell; Indigo Vu; MacNair, Robyn; Joese Gloria; drsusielopezguerra@gmail.com Subject:Arts Funding - Item 30 Fiscal Year 2024-25 Budget Work Study Session Attachments:BOWERS MUSEUM - 2001 AMENDED _ OPERATING AGMT.pdf Attention: This email originated from outside of City of Santa Ana. Use caution when opening attachments or links. Mayor, City council and arts commission, My name is Alicia Rojas, I am a local community artist residing in ward 6 with a small business and studio in ward 5. I am writing to you today to make a public comment in support of robust arts funding in our city. Arts funding in our city is in jeopardy. Federal funding that has sustained grants that go directly to artists and organizations has come to an end. The city has not funded our Arts and Culture Master Plan for over 6 years. The arts funding that goes directly to local artists and local organizations has made a great and positive impact on our city and our economic development in the last years. For the last 3 years, the arts and culture department has been able to award event sponsorships through Covid federal money (Revive Santa Ana) in the amount of 300k a year and that funding has now run out. How can we make sure that the city now adopts these small event sponsorships in our permanent city budget? For the last 9 years, the arts and culture department has been able to award individual artist grants in the amount of 100k a year. Compared to other cities in Orange County that lack vibrant and organic arts and culture, Santa Ana has one of the smallest budgets in the county. In comparison the City of Irvine arts budget is around 2.5 million dollars a year. The total funding for the arts that goes directly to artists and grassroots organizations is 400K a year. Compared to a staggering subsidy of over one million dollars that the Bowers Museum receives yearly since 1987. For 2023/2024 The Bowers Museum received a subsidy of $1,674,210 Why does our city prioritize funding and subsidizing the Bowers Museum for 37 years and not equally fund our arts infrastructure, artists' grants, or master plan? The Bowers Museum has been subsidized by taxpayers since 1987 (see attached LA Times article and Contract amendment of 2001) amounting to over 34 million dollars over the years. Even with this subsidy, the Bowers Museum has also applied to get a piece of the art grants for their projects and events receiving an extra 5K from our events sponsorships for their Lunar Festival. The Bowers also occupies various city-owned buildings without paying a lease, as we also give them yearly funding to subsidize their operation budgets and we have also allotted them extra funding for building maintenance. Isn't 37 years of subsidies enough? Can we please end these inequities and focus on our master plan that included vast community engagement about what the arts and culture in our city should look like? Does the Bowers Museum hold more power than over 400 residents and arts leaders that participated in the creation of the master plan? 1