Advocacy has delivered some optimism at the end of 2023 for the individual artists of this region. In an art world brimming with plenty of bad news, Cuyahoga Arts and Culture, the public agency responsible for supporting arts and culture through cigarette tax revenues, has had its share of issues that have been course-corrected because of the many people who actively showed up and got involved in arts activism and advocacy.
Promise and positive change occurred in the 11th hour in the fourth quarter on December 15th at the Cuyahoga Arts and Culture Board Meeting because of the hundreds of artist voices contributing to this sea change. Artists may not call these big wins, but some of these changes are steps forward in a better direction.
Here are those changes:
Arts and culture became a big part of the Cuyahoga County media coverage, increasing more awareness and accountability of our cultural institutions and policies made by well-paid administrators who are not actual artists. Thank you CoolCleveland, Cleveland.com, Collective Arts Network, Crain’s Cleveland Business, The LAND, Signal, ideastream, and many others who reported on this past year’s stories.
We fought hard for the shifting of the Individual Artist Support from the CAC’s grips to the Assembly for the Arts to distribute individual artists grants.
CAC, with additional funding from the George Gund Foundation, paid Assembly for the Arts to conduct artists listening sessions conducted by ISO Consulting and create a report. That report said that “deep distrust overrides interpretations of CAC programmatic and funding choices.” It was crystal clear the continued harm CAC has had on individual artists.
A public apology was made by CAC Board President Nancy Mendez, speaking for herself and CAC Executive Director Jill Paulsen. This was the main recommendation of the scathing ISO report in how reparations and healing can occur moving forward between artists and the CAC.
Approving $400,000 to Assembly for the Arts to manage the support for artist grants in 2024 and an additional $100,000 added, totaling $500,000!
Artists’ voices and the lack of representation illuminated other concerns at the CAC, including mission drift and overstepping revenues outside of the grant-making work like the hiring of consultants, PR firms, attending conferences and other expensive spending line items in a climate of declining revenues from less people smoking. The Assembly for Action, the 501c4 working to get the next levy on the ballot, in turn, halted raising $1.5 million for the next levy’s campaign with concern over CAC operations/mission drift (mentioned above) with the current leadership at the helm.
Demanding change for the way CAC does business/public meetings including scheduling times and locations of meetings after work hours, meetings at sites with free parking and access to public transportation, archiving recorded board meetings for public access, improved live streaming and technology so people can actually hear the meeting.
To do List… Wish list of change for 2024
Two CAC board member terms come to an end on March 31, and Cuyahoga County Executive Chris Ronayne is taking applications to fill those seats. The CAC board is currently NOT in compliance with the Ohio Revised Code where two board members are supposed to be individuals who devote a major portion of their time to practicing, performing or teaching any of the arts, or who are professional administrators in any field of the arts or cultural heritage. Artists should apply here for representing artists on CAC Board.
Artists demand representation with the other stakeholders at the allocation table at the onset of talks regarding the next levy, which was originally slated for November of 2024.
A paid Artist Advisory Board of diverse, multidisciplinary and geographically represented artists from Cuyahoga County, developed to work with Assembly for the Arts and other cultural agencies in Cuyahoga County.
A re-examination and redrafting of the language of the Ohio Revised Code/bylaws prior to the next levy renewal with representation of all the various stakeholders (large institutions, small institutions, creative businesses and individual artists). Revising the specific operational, policy and procedural parameters of the CAC’s work will eliminate prescriptive add-on programming and off-mission work taken on by the top-heavy salaried administration so this sprawl can’t happen again in the future.
Artists demand new leadership at the CAC. Cuyahoga County’s arts and culture community deserves a new leader whose default isn’t defensiveness, division, scarcity and lack, but a leader who inspires and energizes our creative community with a willingness to work together in challenging times. We need new leadership that appreciates artists, period. We need a leader whom artists trust, whom artists celebrate, whom artists can be proud of the efforts and contributions that our community made together. Most importantly, we aspire to a leader who is a trusted and adored public servant who genuinely has an open heart and an extravagant welcome to the entire cultural workforce of Cuyahoga County.
Liz Maugans is a Cleveland-based artist, mom of three great kids, a social justice advocate, an educator, a gallerist, and curator. Maugans co-founded Zygote Press, the Collective Arts Network, the Cleveland Artist Registry and the Artist Bridge Coalition. Currently, Maugans is the Chief Curator of the Dalad Collection and Director of Yards Projects at Worthington Yards. Maugans teaches Artist-in-Communities and Museums and Collections at Cleveland State University and is Chief of Community Engagement at Art Everyspace. Maugans sits on the Board of the Collective Arts Network and Refresh Collective. Her work is represented by Hedge Gallery at 78th Street Studios. www.lizmaugansart.com