Update: The D.C. Council passed a budget support act Tuesday that for weeks had been the source of tension between Chairman Phil Mendelson and members of the D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities (CAH) due to its possible impact on the local arts community. Mendelson and Ward 5 Councilmember Zachary Parker reached a compromise of sorts.

Mendelson had also proposed that arts organizations should limit the amount of funding they receive from the D.C. Commission to 50% of their budgets. Some criticized this as a measure that would negatively affect smaller, BIPOC-led organizations that need public funding to survive. The council voted unanimously to remove the cap for arts organizations with operating budgets of less than $115,000.

In the debate leading up to the vote, Ward 8 Councilmember Trayon White commended Parker for introducing the amendment.

“Historically, we know that there has been money spent over the years for a lot of the larger, predominately white, wealthy organizations who can use that money as leverage to then raise more money,” White said. “I remember during the Jack Evans era all the money that was funded to the Lincoln Theatre, Ford’s Theatre, the Kennedy Center, and we never had a problem. But now it seems like when we’re giving money to smaller organizations, we’re talking about a cap.”

Parker’s office, in a statement to DCist/WAMU, said he was proud the amendment removed the cap for smaller organizations, often led by people of color, and that this would allow funds to “go further and do more across many artists and organizations rather than centralized on a few bigger organizations.”

Meanwhile, a proposed Large Capital Grant Program supported by Mendelson remained in the budget, despite concerns from some commissioners that it would only benefit less than 20 arts organizations across the District. The program would be reserved for large organizations that have capital projects exceeding $900,000 — funded by 9% of the overall CAH budget.

Commissioner Natalie Hopkinson, who has been vocal in her opposition to any of these changes, tweeted her disappointment: “You can have all the good intentions in the world. If
[Mendelson] sits here picking winners and losers before anyone sings a note or paints a picture, the whole city loses,” she tweeted. “They supposedly set up a whole office
[Council Office of Racial Equity] to prevent this nonsense. More lip service.”

Original:

The D.C. Commission on the Arts and Humanities (CAH) is once again butting heads with D.C. Council Chairman Phil Mendelson over arts funding. With the council’s final vote on amendments to the 2024 D.C. budget taking place on Tuesday, the commission’s leaders are concerned that proposed changes to the arts budget would disproportionally affect small arts organizations, several of which are led by people of color.

In legislation introduced by Mendelson, the CAH budget would include a new grants program that would support large capital projects costing more than $900,000 and is reserved for large arts organizations — specifically, those with long-term leases of more than 30 years, or that own property worth at least $1 million. The commission is concerned that a significant portion of the total arts budget — at least 9% — would be reserved for roughly 20 organizations citywide and that the reduction in funding for other grants would become “a significant equity issue.”

This was all outlined by commission chair Reggie Van Lee and the recently appointed executive director, Aaron Myers, in a letter they sent to Mendelson on May 24, obtained by DCist/WAMU. The CAH is also concerned that the council will reject some commissioner nominations, reducing the commission to five members, less than half of the standard 12 members.

The letter underscores longstanding tensions between Mendelson, Mayor Muriel Bowser, and the commission on how to oversee the District’s arts budget, which could reach a record $51 million for fiscal year 2024. In past years, commissioners and the public have gone back and forth with the chairman over control of the budget, nominations of vocal commissioners, and a history of what some call inequitable arts funding, particularly in wards 7 and 8. (In 2021, the commission restructured the funding model to begin spreading the grants more equitably.)

Commissioner Natalie Hopkinson, a writer and activist known for her work with the #DontMuteDC movement, has been particularly outspoken about the proposed budget changes, which she called “white corruption” on social media. She says Mendelson’s oversight of the commission is a product of white privilege and argues that the chairman is simply trying to re-create a 21-member cohort of mostly white-led D.C. arts organizations that was ended after the 2021 fiscal year due to equity concerns. This cohort, which was formed by legislation Mendelson introduced, was called the National Capital Arts Cohort (NCAC). At one point it received 28% of the grant funding without applying through a competitive process. A new process was introduced by the council and CAH the following fiscal year in the hopes of giving smaller and more diverse arts initiatives a better shot at receiving funding, an effort Hopkinson now worries is being undone.

“Fighting white privilege is like a game of whackamole,” Hopkinson tweeted, tagging all members of the D.C. Council. “Please do not try to tell me that racial equity and inclusion in the arts is going out of style … The idea that richer, older, whiter arts orgs and art forms are more worthy than everyone else will never be normal to me.”

Answering questions from Washington City Paper’s Alex Koma about the CAH letter last week, Mendelson told members of the press that the proposed changes reflect his concern that some organizations rely too heavily on public funds.

“An organization, in my view, should not be so dependent on the government that over 50% of its budget is coming from the government,” Mendelson said. “The arts commission is meant to nurture organizations large and small. So, organizations need the capacity, and they need to demonstrate that.”

In their letter to Mendelson, CAH leaders Myers and Van Lee requested that the 50% cap be reserved for organizations with annual budgets of more than $250,000.

“Last year, when we granted funding to some organizations far in excess of 50% of their organizational budgets, a number of those organizations strongly expressed how that level of funding significantly enhanced their operations and their future prospects in a transformational way,” the commission’s leaders wrote in the letter. Myers and Van Lee cited research showing that “many smaller-budget organizations, a number of which are BIPOC-lead, often have a larger median overhead rate than larger-budget organizations, making the need for funding in excess of 50% of the organization’s budget even more critical.”

On Monday evening, after this story was published, Ward 5 Councilmember Zachary Parker and Ward 3 Councilmember Matthew Frumin introduced a budget amendment that would get rid of the grant funding limit for organizations with budgets less than $115,000. Myers and Van Lee offered their support for the amendment. Myers tweeted: “I will always advocate for the creative community.”

Mendelson, in his comments to the press last week, said some organizations have repeatedly asked the D.C. Council to support renovation projects, but the restructuring of CAH grant distribution has been a roadblock. In the past, NCAC members would receive nearly $400,000 in general operating support grants for their annual budgets, and some arts leaders — namely, the director of Ford’s Theatre — have not been pleased about the shift away from the old model. Years ago, Studio Theatre received as much as $7.5 million in public funds for a large project, Mendelson said.

Mendelson added that the new grant program can even be a way for the CAH to enforce equity requirements on their boards and in their programming, for example. “Equity is important,” Mendelson added.

In a phone interview, Hopkinson said Mendelson’s comments undermine the work she and others on the commission, such as Cora Masters Barry, have done to advance equity in arts funding in the wake of George Floyd’s death.

“It’s very insulting, this idea that Phil needs to tell us how to do equity,” Hopkinson tells DCist/WAMU. “Phil obviously doesn’t know what equity is, because he created NCAC in the first place. That’s not somebody who understands the way equity works … When you weigh these formulas, they have to be weighed in the interest of people who do not have access, who are not currently being served.”

The budget support act is on the docket for Tuesday’s legislative meeting, which begins at 11 a.m.

This story has been updated with additional information about legislation introduced and passed by the D.C. Council, and comments made by CAH Executive Director Aaron Myers and councilmembers.