What can artists count on now that COVID funds are gone?

“We are so grateful because it has helped the growth of the organization,” Robles said.

Of the $750,000 grant, $600,000 came from federal COVID-19 relief funds approved by the American Rescue Plan Actor ARPA.

Since After the federal stimulus bill became law in 2021, Boston’s arts and culture agency allocated $25 million in ARPA funds to hundreds of grantees, most of which are organizations led by people of color, members of the LGBTQ community and women. These ARPA funds are $9 million more than the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture combined budget from financial years 2022 to 2025.

In interviews with the Globe, five other leaders of local arts organizations that received COVID payments said – Beat the odds, Community Music Center of Boston, Company One Theater, Social intervention design studioAnd Pao Art Center – said this level of public investment in the arts was critical to countering inequities in Boston’s traditional cultural fundraising landscape. It has created more paid opportunities for creative workers public access to the arts, and ensured the long-term sustainability of smaller arts organizations in the city, they said.

But all six leaders also expressed concern about what comes next now that ARPA funding for the arts has run out. (The law requires that all money must be linked to specific projects or initiatives by the end of 2024, and spent by 2026.) They fear that a cliff will come in the near future as public funding for the creative sector will come closer to previous levels. – pandemic levels, which means organizations with fewer resources have fewer opportunities for significant investments.

“ARPA funding was a once-in-a-lifetime windfall that occurred in the wake of this terrible crisis,” said Karthik Subramanian, managing and co-executive director of Company One Theatre, which received approximately $515,000 in ARPA funding through three separate grants. “That has clearly helped resolve a lot of equity issues. I wonder: can we continue with that?”

In total, the city of Boston received $558.7 million worth of ARPA funds intended to boost public health and economic recovery from the pandemic. At the time of writing, from approx $25 million set aside for the arts$7.92 million helped stabilize and expand 11 arts organizations serving communities hardest hit by COVID; $7.84 million produced public art events throughout Boston; $2.77 million helped arts organizations make up for some pandemic business losses; $2.45 million went to the redevelopment of affordable music rehearsal space in Brighton; $1.19 million provided professional development workshops for creative workers; $1 million funded arts programming in community centers; $594,000 subsidized the BPS Sunday pilot; $525,000 funded murals in public schools and parks; $458,000 went directly to creative workers; and $350,000 was set aside for research and communications consultants.

Kara Elliot-Ortega, the city’s chief of arts and culture, said ARPA funds gave her office the flexibility to implement a non-traditional public art funding campaign.

For example, the agency could target spending on populations hardest hit by the pandemic, Elliot-Ortega said, such as communities of color, immigrants and people living in low-income neighborhoods. Federal legislation also allowed her agency to support organizations without nonprofit status and allocate multi-year funding for projects, both of which are difficult to achieve on the annual budget.

Elliot-Ortega added that “innovation and risk-taking” in arts funding is more likely to happen with public dollars than with private philanthropy.

Per capita, Boston invests the smallest amount of public money in the arts, compared to cities such as San Francisco, Philadelphia and Minneapolis, according to a study. Boston Foundation 2016 report. Cultural funding in Boston comes largely from wealthy private donors, the same report shows.

Dennie Palmer Wolf, director at arts research and planning consultancy WolfBrownsaid that maintaining the impact that ARPA funding had on equality in the arts would require people with wealth to “think civilly, and not just ‘Where did I go to school?’ Or, ‘What’s my favorite charity?'” Otherwise, she said, the small organizations that have grown thanks to ARPA funding could be forced to lay off newer staff members and cut back on contract work with individual artists in the future.

Elliot-Ortega said her office was thinking strategically about funding initiatives that would “benefit the Boston community and the arts sector for many, many years beyond the actual time of the investment.”

One of the goals in distributing ARPA funds was to “set an example” for the creative industries by investing in traditionally overlooked and under-resourced communities, said Samantha Rose Hale, director of grants and programs at the the city’s art and arts agency. culture.

“Our communities are rich with ideas and innovation, and if they have the resources, they can make those things happen,” Hale said. “But if they’re in a place where they’re trying to find funding every year, then they’re limited.”

At Beat the Odds — a creative youth development organization that primarily serves Boston’s Black and Latino populations — securing grants has been a daunting task, says Camila Rojas Pagan, the organization’s co-founder and CEO. Private funders were hesitant to support a three-year-old, volunteer-run organization, she said, until it received a $600,000 ARPA grant from the city.

“As a result, we received more subsidies,” Rojas Pagan said. “Now we have a validation stamp.”

Like other arts organizations, Beat the Odds uses its ARPA funds with longevity in mind. The group recently hired a Head of Development, whose job is to raise funds.

“Development is the key to our growth, and we really had to make sure that we do not receive this money in vain,” said Rojas Pagan.

So how does Boston’s cultural scene continue to be adequately resourced at the level that ARPA makes possible?

“There needs to be that whole ecosystem conversation. Everyone needs to have some responsibility,” said Cynthia Woo, director of the Pao Arts Center in Chinatown, which used its $600,000 in COVID relief money to start an artist residency program, hire a Chinese-speaking staff member and launch new programming develop the intersection. of art and mental health care.

Elliot-Ortega said her office has begun conversations with the business community and private donors about their role in bridging the gap. Meanwhile, Hale suggested that organizations be creative in applying for funding sources, such as community development initiatives, that are not exclusive to the arts. Lori Lobenstine, co-founder of Design Studio for Social Intervention (which received $700,000 in ARPA funding), said she believes grassroots fundraising should also be considered.

“We have been on this great path year after year, with the budget of the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture increasing,” Elliot-Ortega said, so it “doesn’t make sense” for her department to return to business as usual. pandemic standards. She urged community members and arts advocates to “be aware the budgeting process and be involved. And if there are things from ARPA that really appealed to them or had an impact, make that known and share that story.”

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Julian EJ Sorapuru is an arts reporter at the Globe and can be reached at [email protected]. Follow him on X @JulianSorapuru.