Barry Hessenius Reports on Monday Conference Events

My overall impression of this first (long day) was that despite the bad news of the last year—all the cuts to state arts agencies, all the organizations struggling to stay alive, all the money that is no longer available, the drop in audience attendance, the competition for ever scarce individual donations—there is ample evidence of just how resilient the arts sector is, and there are a lot of success stories too.

.. Jonathan Katz relayed that while several state agencies were threatened with elimination, and while the overall funding to state arts agencies has dropped over the decade precipitously from $460 million to $268 million—nonetheless 14 state agencies saw increases in their budgets for next year. There was a certain positive energy in the room today, and one comes away cautiously optimistic that there is earnest work going on to try to make things better. New ideas are being sought, risks are being taken, and collaboration at a new level is the new norm.