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2003 Legislature Preserves Support for Culture and the Arts: Merges Cultural Trust Operations with Arts Commission

The 2003 Oregon Legislature, concluding the longest legislative session in Oregon history last week, allocated funding to preserve the public structures that support culture and the arts across the state. With bipartisan Legislative support and leadership from Governor Ted Kulongoski and his staff, plans to protect both the Oregon Arts Commission and the Oregon Cultural Trust have now been funded and signed into law.

Understanding that the state’s revenue shortfalls would mean deep funding reductions for all agencies, Governor Kulongoski and the co-chairs of the Legislature’s Ways and Means Committee proposed the merger of operations of the Oregon Arts Commission and Oregon Cultural Trust.

SB 931, signed into law on August 29, 2003, provides for the transfer of the Cultural Trust to the Arts Commission offices. Introduced with the strong backing of former State Senator Bev Clarno [R-Bend] and Rep. Betsy Johnson [D-Scappoose], the bill provides for shared operations of the Trust and Arts Commission, with separate governance boards determining funding and grants to Oregon cultural groups. Rep. Johnson, testifying before her colleagues, said, “This Legislature must invest in the arts and culture - and find efficiencies…. It is really an amalgam of two institutions that can hold their arms around the flame of Oregon past, present and future.”

The Legislature’s Joint Ways and Means Committee approved a 2003-05 biennium budget for the Arts Commission of $1.2 million General Funds, enabling the Commission to access federal funds from the National Endowment for the Arts that had already been approved. “Given the demands for limited state funds for core services, the commitment of these funds for the Arts Commission was a great endorsement by the Legislature. We will sustain the arts infrastructure across Oregon while we work with the Cultural Trust and our statewide heritage and humanities partners to rally citizens to build the Trust fund,” said Christine D’Arcy, Executive Director of the Arts Commission.

The “cultural package” approved by the Legislature, which was endorsed by the Arts Commission, the board of the Oregon Cultural Trust and the Cultural Advocacy Coalition, the statewide non-profit advocacy organization working to increase investments in culture – the arts, heritage and the humanities - was developed using several guiding principles:

* Both the Oregon Cultural Trust and Oregon Arts Commission will maintain their separate and distinct governing boards, operating under a single, shared administrative umbrella.
* The unique functions of the Cultural Trust and Arts Commission will be preserved.
* Oregon’s cultural tax credit, critical to the long-term success of the Cultural Trust, remains largely intact, with some reduction to the corporate credit. The Trust, Oregon’s innovative cultural policy designed to leverage citizen participation in culture and build a new fund for the arts, heritage and humanities through private donations, will begin its 2003 campaign in September.
* The state budget retains a critical level of General Fund support to the Oregon Arts Commission to maximize federal funds for the arts in Oregon from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The Oregon Arts Commission provides leadership, funding and arts programs through its grants, special initiatives and services. Nine Commissioners, appointed by the Governor, determine arts needs and establish policies for public support of the arts. The Arts Commission became part of the Oregon Economic and Community Development Department in 1993, in recognition of the expanding role the arts play in the broader social, economic and educational arenas of Oregon communities.

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Dated for freshness! Page last updated May 02, 2008