City Arts Cutbacks Hit Big-Budget Groups

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The total City Arts funding program was cut approximately 20 percent this year, to $821,631 from $1.042 million in 1991, pitifully small change in the city’s massive $3.245-billion operating budget. Weisberg wiped out approximately $100,000 in level-four funding and took the remainder out of grants to smaller organizations.

The department’s operating budget was also hit, dropping to $3.276 million from $3.85 million, which Weisberg says she handled primarily by axing exhibitions and performances at the Cultural Center. She claims she only could afford to drop one staff member because of the huge amount of work in the department, though one might assume that fewer programs would mean a smaller work load.

The clout-heavy Metropolitan Pier and Exposition Authority has begun lobbying in earnest for the construction of a midsize theater at Navy Pier. The authority has already compiled a list of more than 20 arts groups that have indicated interest in using a theater there, including Ballet Chicago, Remains Theatre, the Child’s Play Touring Theatre, the International Theatre Festival of Chicago, and Shakespeare Repertory. Authority executives have also met with the Chicago Community Trust, which has been spearheading the drive for a new midsize theater for dance and music groups. Other sites the Community Trust is considering include the Oriental Theatre, Dearborn Station, and the Fine Arts Building.

The New York-based League of American Theatres and Producers, Inc., has compiled a fascinating booklet full of facts and figures about the impact of legitimate theater and other arts on the economy. Originally prepared for the Congressional Arts Caucus, the booklet includes a series of charts that lay out the economic activity generated by the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical Cats during its many national tours and its long run on Broadway: ticket revenue, employees’ salaries, souvenir sales, even estimates of what audience members paid for dinner before or after the show and transportation to the theater. In a cover letter mailed with the booklet, the League also notes that out of each American’s annual taxes, $1,137.28 goes to the military, $201 goes to education, and just 68 cents goes to the arts.

Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Charles Eshelman.