Gov. Tony Evers’ most recent Biennial Budget Address proposed several arts-related items, including increased funding for the Wisconsin Arts Board, one-time funding for a new Rural Wisconsin Creative Economy Grant Program and items related to film production and tax incentives.
According to the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, Wisconsin ranks 49th in the country for arts spending — an estimated $0.18 per capita. Evers hopes to raise that number to $0.68 per capita, which would bring Wisconsin's position to 38th in the country, according to the Wisconsin Arts Board.
However, there is some ground to cover between proposals and concrete, approved funding. Last month, arts advocates, community members and legislators from across the state came together for Create Wisconsin Day at the State Capital — including Imagine MKE executive director Christine Hojnacki and Randy Cohen, vice president of research at Americans for the Arts and keynote speaker for Create Wisconsin Day.
Hojnacki and Cohen joined Lake Effect’s Audrey Nowakowski to share what conversations they had with our legislators to improve the Wisconsin arts sector.
"Everybody loves the arts, right?" Cohen says. "They inspire us and they beautify our communities and they bring us joy, but the fact is they do a lot more than that."
Cohen and Hojnacki believe in the power of the arts to enrich communities' education systems, cultural life, and mental health. But in making their case to legislators to increase arts funding, they want to emphasize the economic benefits of the arts as well.
"People appreciate the arts as wonderful community amenities — and they are," Cohen says. "But the fact is they're also businesses, and that's a story that we wanted to tell as well."
In 2022, the arts nonprofit sector generated $57.8 million in tax revenue for local, state and federal governments, according to Americans for the Arts and Imagine MKE's Arts and Economic Prosperity Study.
Hojnacki says it's important establish an Office of Film and Creative Industries to bring film and television productions to the area — such as 2023's Top Chef: Wisconsin.
"Right now we are just one of four states that don't have a film office, and one of 13 that don't have film incentives," she says. "We're missing out on a huge economic impact with that opportunity, and also providing work for creatives in the Community."
With events like Create Wisconsin Day, Hojnacki and Cohen want to bring people along with them to push for arts investment in communities both big and small, urban and rural.
"It's so easy to take arts and culture for granted to assume our artists and our arts organizations are always going to be here in our community, and we can't make that assumption," Cohen says. "So we've all got a job to do — creating those relationships with your legislators."
For more information on arts funding challenges in Milwaukee, you can check out "Curtain Time," a study from the Wisconsin Policy Forum.
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