The distribution and policy implications of US state government general operating support to the arts and culture: Lessons from the great recession

Abstract

The prolonged economic downturn has meant tough times for some nonprofit arts and culture organizations in the USA. This state of affairs has brought renewed attention to the importance of general operating support (GOS) to sustaining nonprofit arts and culture organizations. After the Culture Wars of the late 1980s and 1990s, federal GOS programs disappeared and philanthropy turned away from providing such unrestricted funds, which are typically used for salaries and overhead rather than projects. What GOS support remained was provided primarily by state and local governments. Currently, the Great Recession has prompted cuts – sometimes drastic cuts – to state arts agencies. This article uses data from the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA) supplemented with new data on line items culled from the budgets of every US state to map state-level GOS support. Enhancing NASAA data with data on line items provides a truer picture of the levels of support state governments are providing to the sector. The new data enable us to see whether states have shifted dollars from agency budgets into line items during the period from 2009 to 2011. Such shifts can bring into focus the organizations that are best politically positioned to maintain support even when agency budgets are being cut. An assessment of the ways in which new competition for GOS resources may create or magnify inequity in the sector is provided.