Local Arts Funding from Commonwealth
Kai -- January 23rd, 2008
The Virginia Commission for the Arts is Virginia’s primary re-granting agent for the arts, and the GA’s support is directly related to funding we receive locally. As seen on page 33 in this PDF, within Delegate Matt Lohr’s District 26 in 2006-07, the following organizations received funding totaling over $53,000: the Arts Council of the Valley, Virginia Quilt Museum, Shenandoah Valley Pure Water Forum, the Shenandoah Valley Choral Society, Eastern Mennonite University, Rockingham Memorial Hospital, Harrisonburg, and Rockingham County.
As I wrote about over at ValleyArts.org, the state’s arts community is focusing on advocating the General Assembly fund the VCA to a dollar per capita. Read more about talking points to support the GA’s funding the VCA here.
Is the Commission for the Arts separate from the Film Office?
Just wondering if there’s any crossover there between film and arts.
The Virginia Commission for the Arts is different from the Virginia Film Office. From what I can tell from the VFO website, they are an off-shoot of the Virginia Tourism Corporation (http://www.vatc.org/), which operates the Commonwealth’s main tourism website, http://www.Virginia.org, and otherwise promotes Virginia as a travel destination.
VTC and VCA are working together, though, realizing the arts can be a main draw to an area. Harrisonburg is currently benefiting from this partnership, as the Arts Council of the Valley partnered with Harrisonburg Tourism to submit a successful grant application to the VCA for a “tourism and the arts” grant. We received $5,000 to promote Harrisonburg’s Arts and Cultural District via First Fridays Art Walks (first Friday each month) and a professional, comprehensive brochure highlighting the venues and events in the district.
I’m learning that the tourism offices have a unique set of quality economic impact arguments for supporting the arts. Finnegan, I know you’ve written about the lack of Virginia’s efforts to attract film makers – seems like there’s a quite an argument for the VTC to promote such incentives: not only would the projects bring in people from outside and create an economic engine for an area, but the films themselves could attract people who see the beautiful settings. The Lord of the Rings trilogy certainly put New Zealand back up my list of “must see” places in the world…
Could we maybe get a little “full di$closure” there, Kai?