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		Points of View Posted October 24, 2003 Guest Column © 2003 Ray Sharp Published with Permission

Money Matters: The Economics of Bringing Art and People Together

By CCCAC President Ray Sharp

We can tell our values by looking at our checkbook stubs.

            -- Gloria Steinem

The Copper Country Community Arts Council is a non-profit organization. You can say that again!

In fact, in today's economy, community arts organizations in Michigan and throughout the nation are facing tough challenges -- perhaps like never before -- as they try to accomplish their missions, make ends meet and keep the doors open.

Public grant dollars, a mainstay of community arts funding in the 1990s, have dwindled dramatically over the past two years as tax revenues have failed to keep pace with the rates of increase of national security spending at the federal level and health care costs at the state level. In fact, Michigan public arts funding has been slashed by 50 percent in the current 2003-2004 budget year.

What to do? For starters, we must apply the famous dictum of architect Ludwig Mies Van der Rohe, namely "less is more," and rise to the challenge of doing more with less. The CCCAC board and the Community Arts Center director, employees and volunteers have been scrupulously thrifty and coldly analytical when it comes to controlling expenditures; and recent outreach events like Art in the Garden have generated more income for less cost than ever before.

But just as the arboriculturalist can only prune a modicum of live branches without diminishing the yield and quality of the fruit, so, too, is it extremely difficult for a community arts organization to grow, prosper and meet increasing community needs and desires in an era of decreased funding.

Consider this: In 1993, the first full year of operation of the Community Arts Center, grants totaling $30,978 accounted for 49 percent of the CCCAC's $63,337 in revenues. Ten years later, in fiscal 2002, grants of $35,350 comprised just 30 percent of $117,075 in revenues. And we have been very successful in grantsmanship over the years. To put a positive spin on the same data, local revenues from donations, fees and other income have risen from $32,000 to $82,000, thanks to people like you who attend events, take classes and buy art.

Now for the other side of the ledger: Annual expenditures have more than quadrupled over the decade, from roughly $30,000 to about $130,000. Why? Because the operations of the Community Arts Center and Council have multiplied many-fold as we fulfill the mission of bringing the arts and people together. The Arts Center has a staff of six, plus a growing cadre of volunteers. The Center hosts more than 20 exhibits per year and markets the work of nearly 200 local and regional artists. The Council re-grants tens of thousands of dollars per year to local artists and programs and sponsors a panoply of classes, special events, juried shows and regional conferences. And with the ongoing state funding crunch in preschool, K-12 and higher education, the programs and services of the CCCAC are needed now more than ever in the Copper Country.

But there is much hope for community arts. That hope lies in our collective savvy, talent and perseverance. It lies in creative and fruitful partnerships with individuals, schools and businesses. It lies in our community, in our values and in our hearts. So, please, if you value the activities, exhibits and events of the CCCAC, and if you value living in a community enriched by the arts, open up your heart and give freely of your time -- and your money -- through your membership and generous and active support of the Copper Country Community Arts Council.

For more information on Arts Council activities or membership, call the Community Arts Center at 482-2333.

Guest author Ray Sharp is President of the Board of Directors of the CCCAC and a health analyst for Western U.P. District Health Department. His charcoal drawing of pop singer Bjork is on display at the Motherlode Coffee House in Houghton.

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