Audio By Carbonatix
Area cultural organizations can stop worrying — for now — about whether Colorado’s Ocean Journey will detract from their sales-tax revenues by becoming a part of the Scientific and Cultural Facilities District. Instead, they can focus on changing the way that money from the special taxing district is distributed.
The SCFD board of directors denied Ocean Journey’s application for inclusion in the district two weeks ago, saying it would be irresponsible to use public money to bail out a debt-ridden institution. The board also based its decision on the fact that the aquarium promised several years ago not to ask for SCFD money until 2004. Ocean Journey’s board will discuss whether to challenge the denial in court when it meets on September 12 (“Swimming With the Sharks,” August 9).
That means the other nonprofit arts and cultural groups within the SCFD have plenty of time to work on making the funding distribution more equitable before voters decide whether to extend the tax in three years. The SCFD board plans to hold a retreat in October to talk about how to proceed with those discussions.
“We may set up committees to talk to the public,” says SCFD board president Michael Massey. “We want to make sure everyone is involved in the discussion.”
The SCFD was created in 1988, when voters in the six-county metro area approved a 0.1 percent sales tax to help fund the region’s cultural and scientific organizations. The Big Four — the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, the Denver Zoo, the Denver Art Museum and the Denver Botanic Gardens — make up Tier I, which receives 59 percent of the cash, about $21.8 million last year. Eighteen other organizations, including the Colorado Symphony Orchestra and the Children’s Museum, are part of Tier II, which last year split $10.4 million. A third tier consists of 300 smaller nonprofits that shared just $4.8 million last year. Tier II and III groups claim that the funding distribution is unfair and outdated (“Culture Clash,” April 26).
Local pollster Floyd Ciruli, who worked on campaigns to get the tax passed in previous years and who will likely be involved in the next reauthorization effort, says that although the distribution probably should change, cultural groups need to rely on more than just a bigger share of tax dollars if they are to survive. All mid-sized cultural organizations across the country are struggling, according to a study released late last month by RAND, a nonprofit research organization. Ciruli is working on a synopsis of that study, which illustrates trends in the performing arts over the last thirty years; he plans to share it with SCFD organizations.
“I want to warn them that no matter how we alter the pie, SCFD money alone is still going to be a modest portion of their budgets. Giving an organization another $100,000 isn’t necessarily going to make sure they’re adapting to changes in the marketplace,” he says.
According to the study, called The Performing Arts in a New Era, “Americans are placing an increasing premium on flexibility in their leisure activities. They favor art experiences that allow them to choose what they want to do, and when and where they want to do it.”
Large performing-arts centers that put on blockbuster shows are doing well, the study found, while orchestras, operas and ballets are not. The CSO is a good local example of that; the orchestra recently announced a $500,000 budget deficit.
Ciruli says those mid-sized organizations need to focus on building bigger audiences. “While public money is nice to have, it’s only one issue,” he warns. “These organizations can’t just have one strategy.”
