Missouri arts advocates and leaders are calling on state lawmakers not to cut funds that go toward arts and humanities grants and organizations across the state.
Arts leaders discussed the potential cuts during a Missouri House of Representatives budget meeting Thursday. Gov. Mike Kehoe’s proposed budget reduces almost $4 million in funding to the Missouri Arts Council to about $6.3 million. It’s part of a 4% reduction in general revenue spending in Kehoe’s budget.
The cuts could be detrimental to arts events and programming that drive tourism across the state, Missouri Arts Council Executive Director Michael Donovan said during the hearing.
“The state has a $1.7 billion economic impact from the arts,” Donovan said. “The people that come to Missouri for the arts spend more as a [tourist] and stay longer.”
The arts council funds community arts and educational programming. Donovan said a recent study found that educational art programs in schools have a big impact on student test scores, higher graduation rates and higher attendance.
Recent investment in the arts council has allowed it, for the first year ever, to help fund arts programming in each house district, he added.
Donovan said 90% of the arts council’s funding goes toward grants to fund events across the state, including the fall festival in Pineville, the Sugar Creek Slavic Festival, the Stone’s Throw Dinner Theatre in Carthage as well as festivals and performances in St. Louis and Kansas City, and arts councils.
“These are the kinds of things that we make happen,” Donovan said. “There's a return on tax dollars, education, workforce readiness. This is something that we think that is important to develop the state, the state's economy.”
Donovan said the council wants to continue funding programs in every district, and if the cuts are finalized, the council would cut its funding distribution proportionately across the state.
The drop could be detrimental to arts organizations, artists and regions, Missouri Citizens for the Arts government affairs consultant Kyna Iman said following the meeting.
“That money is going to come directly off those grants that are given to the communities across the state,” Iman said. “There's just no other way around it.”
Iman said federal COVID relief and other funds helped keep the state’s funding of the arts to around $10 million for the past few years.
If approved, the proposed cuts would take effect during fiscal 2027, which begins July 1.
A spokesperson for Kehoe said in a statement that his budget recommendation is essential to address the state’s future imbalance that’s expected to exceed $2 billion but that the office will continue to work with stakeholders.
”Governor Kehoe has long supported the arts and humanities in Missouri, however, given the seriousness of Missouri’s budget imbalance, tough decisions are being made to restore responsible spending across the entirety of state government,” the spokesperson for Kehoe wrote.
Democrat and Republican representatives across the state voiced their support for the council and the programs it supports, including Rep. Kimberly-Ann Collins, D-St. Louis.
“This saved Sumner High School because they created this innovative arts program, which includes about 100 students who currently attend Sumner High School," Collins said. “This program actually saved this school from being closed because it did help boost the enrollment.”
Cuts toward Missouri Humanities, a statewide nonprofit that funds cultural and history programming has also been proposed. About $3.5 million was requested to go toward the Humanities Trust. The proposed budget would cut that funding to about $1.7 million. The trust provides grants to institutions such as the Griot Museum of Black History in St. Louis, the Negro Leagues Baseball Museum in Kansas City and other programs across the state.
“As we kind of think through what a 50% reduction in our transfer would mean for our organization,” Missouri Humanities Executive Director Ashley Beard-Fosnow said during her testimony. “It would be cuts to staffing, cuts to programs, and then significant cuts to our regrants, which would have a negative impact on the state, especially ahead of this semi quincentennial year when we're getting ready to showcase to the world Missouri's culture and history and heritage and how we've had such a pivotal place in shaping the story of America.”
