In 2021, the City of Cleveland received the eighth largest amount of American Rescue Plan and Recovery (ARPA) money of any U.S. city, totaling $512 million. It represented a once-in-a-generation opportunity to allow the city to address some of its most pressing challenges.
Local artists mobilized in the spring of 2022, along with the Assembly for the Arts, to request $10 million for the arts and artists by sending postcards, holding community meetings, and calling their city representatives. Instead, $3 million was awarded for the arts. Disappointed that the final amount was less, they vowed to support the city program despite the shortfall. But as usual when it comes to the arts in NE Ohio, there are questions swirling around the program, how it will be executed and how and for what the money will be distributed.
In September 2022, the Transformative Public Art Projects Fund Program (TAF) legislation, drafted by Council President Blaine Griffin and Mayor Bibb, was passed by the City Council.
In the emergency ordinance, the Director of City Planning asked to use a portion of the ARPA money to create the TAF program to provide grants to community development corporations, nonprofit organizations, and other public and private entities for publicly accessible art programs. The amount requested was $3 million.
An executive summary of the TAF legislation identified using the funds to “encourage capital investments into neighborhoods that have arts deserts through large-scale public art installations and landmark arts facilities in neighborhoods” and “focus in areas of high BIPOC populations that have either lacked arts investment or are at risk of cultural displacement.”
TAF legislation called for a Program Arts Committee to be established within sixty days of the effective date of the ordinance, consisting of seven members, which included Gina Washington, Susie Underwood and William Washington, chosen by Mayor Bibb; Vince Robinson, Letitia Lopez and Gwen Garth, selected by Council President Blaine Griffin; and Deidre McPherson from the Assembly for the Arts.
In an exclusive interview with CoolCleveland last week, Susie Underwood, a consultant, curator and programmer for many arts and neighborhood organizations in Cleveland, said that she was honored to be nominated for the committee but had to request a copy of the TAF legislation after discovering a plan by the city was already in place. She eventually left the committee after feeling lied to about her role in deciding how to distribute the funds.
Joyce Pan Huang, Director of City Planning, told the program arts committee they would help determine how the money got spent. The committee met informally in early 2023 and again later that year after Rhonda Brown was hired as the city’s first senior strategist for arts, culture and the creative economy. Brown met with the TAF program arts committee in September 2023, several weeks after her starting date.
“Nobody told me that actual legislation was already written until after I started asking questions,” said Underwood. “The program was already in place. I was interested in getting artists unrestricted grants, but that was not going to happen. These were all project-based grants,” she said, adding, “They also promised to pay us a stipend for our work, but never did.”
Underwood said her work on the committee felt like contracted administrative labor done for free, which “did not feel good.”
Brown, asked by CoolCleveland whether she had been presented with the TAF legislation any time leading up to her hire by the city or presented to her during the interview, said, “No.”
“I first saw the legislation during my second or third meeting with Joyce, after I had been hired,” said Brown.
A few months later, in fall 2023, a vision statement framed the program through the award of artist-led grants in the range of $250,000–$500,000 in collaboration with a confirmed institutional partner located within the City of Cleveland to “create, develop, and produce groundbreaking public art initiatives that challenge norms and provoke thoughtful reflection.” The program would facilitate meaningful dialogue and interaction with Cleveland-centric issues, including consideration for projects that amplify and address public health issues seriously impacting the lives of Clevelanders.
“Cleveland Department of Public Health (CDPH) has identified six health issues seriously impacting the lives of Clevelanders: cigarette smoking, opioid overdoses, lead poisoning, gun violence, traffic crashes, and Black maternal and infant mortality. To improve the well-being and education in our neighborhoods, we encourage the application of public art initiatives that have the potential to address, educate, and improve health outcomes in our communities,” the report said.
Brown said the plan changed over time and will include Cleveland-centric issues but may be limited to Black maternal and infant mortality and smoking cessation.
“We spent so much time talking and dreaming about what this could be. There were so many recommendations that came to the floor,” she said. “We decided against a plan to amplify the CDPH issues as a main component.”
Artist Gwendolyn Garth, founding director of Kings & Queens of Art and member of the TAF program arts committee, said the decision to use the artist grants for health and human service issues came from the city.
“Racism is a health issue,” said Garth, referring to Cleveland’s Racism as a Public Health Crisis Coalition (RAPHC-C), the group tasked with advising city officials on addressing racial disparities in health, housing, education and other areas. “I think this is one way of doing something about the problem. I believe in the artists and the therapeutic value of art.”
Garth worries that after the ARPA money is gone, then what? “Transformation takes a lot of work and money. We do not want to limit what the artists can do because that would limit creativity.”
The Assembly of the Arts will be paid $90,000 for administering the TAF program, with the remainder of the $2.9 million going towards six to 12 public art projects.
Artists must work with an institutional partner who will act as a sponsor. The range of partners includes nonprofits, private businesses, public organizations or community development corporations They could include a professional sports team, a local hospital, urban planning and design firms, schools or libraries. Institutional partners will receive the grant.
Applications must be submitted by the lead artist and include work samples plus a breakdown of budget, supplies, engineering and other costs. Financial information from the partner organization must also be submitted. Special consideration will be given to projects that address vacant land reuse, environment, food insecurity, violence prevention, matters of diversity, equity and inclusion, safe spaces, and social determinants of health, such as Black maternal health, smoking cessation, or physical and mental health.
Projects must be within the city, with proposals submitted by artists with a Cleveland address. Partnering institutions are not required to match the grant, but some institutions may use the funds to amplify existing projects.
“[Partnering institutions] can incorporate that amplification of dollars into the project and articulate how the money will support the artists’ work,” said Brown, adding that artists and partnering institutions will provide quarterly updates, with any expense over 20% reported to the city.
“We will have a clear determination as we move forward based on the ranking and scoring of the projects and interview the artists and institutional partners,” she said. “We will be working with colleagues in the city to make sure that projects are executed as planned.”
Bruce Checefsky is a filmmaker and photographer, and published writer. He is the recipient of three Ohio Arts Council Individual Excellence Awards, a Creative Workforce Fellowship, and four CEC ArtsLink Fellowships.
4 Responses to “Artists Disappointed With Plans for ARPA Money for the Arts”
Liz Maugans
$3million in American Rescue Plan Act advocated by artists for artists in an advocacy campaign called Artists for ARPA through the Assembly for the Arts back in 2022. Remember the postcard project flooding city hall trying to get the Cleveland City Council to understand how much artists struggled during this time? They all needed rescue money to get back on their feet.
Artists were represented on every postcard from each of the wards? Sounds like the recovery money got hi jacked by City Planning via city council for project support grants while no one was looking! What do you all think? Heath and social services are so important to support and arts are a great way to improve but this was not how this was developed and advertised at the onset.
So disappointing it went in this direction. Ugh! If it wasn’t for the incredible artists in this picture I’d be drinking a whiskey right now. Good luck with everything my artists teachers and friends pictures here. True champions! It’s just ick how these things get so force fed and managed by those in the vacuum!l once again!
Susie Underwood
I’d like to clarify my quotes, which are not quite correct:
1. I did not say that we were “promised” a stipend, but I was told that there would “most likely be a stipend” or something to that effect. I didn’t care too much until I started helping to develop the application and then I felt like I was doing actual administrative work, not advisory work, so I asked about the stipend and was told that it was not allowed in the legislation. I still think they should find a way to pay them through a fiscal sponsor, but I don’t want to speak for the committee members.
2. I did not say that I felt “lied to” but I did say that I felt misled. I joined the committee with one goal: to get unrestricted artist grants into the hands of artists. If I’d seen the actual legislation, I would have probably declined to join the committee.
For the record, the committee members are all amazing people and arts leaders. It was a HUGE honor to be included in this group and real disappointment to quit the committee. Not only does it make me look bad but I don’t get to work with these awesome humans. That being said, I didn’t want my name associated with a project I don’t truly support. I agree with Liz’s comment – this feels like legislation written by city planning, not by artists or arts leaders. I think that giving 3 million dollars to independent artists would have been very transformative and I do not feel that this is an appropriate way to spend ARPA funds.
All that being said, I really do hope that I’m wrong and that this money does end up creating transformative arts projects. People in the arts are used to taking project-based funds and making them work, so my advice to applicants would be to apply for this fund, find good collaborators, and to the lead artists: don’t forget to pay yourself!
Much love to the TAF committee, Rhonda Brown, Dr. Huang, and all of the people who designed this project with good intentions. I know that there is no malice at play here, I just want funders to remember: Artists are community members, too. We aren’t here to serve the development goals of the city. Ask not what artists can do for Cleveland, but what Cleveland can do for artists!
Will Sanchez
In one pocket it’s the county, now in the other it’s the city! Common denominator, hand holding like artists are their children, because they know better.
Obviously, they do, because we keep falling for the same play!
Liz Maugans
Appreciate your follow up Susie and Will Sanchez I can’t agree more. In Bianca Booker’s new book “Get the Picture” she writes about the contemporary art world and the imbalance with cultural capital. She writes, “the art world is the way it is because not everyone has access to it. And not everyone understands it. And that’s sort of what creates interest and intrigue”.
I’m totally fatigued with this game too Will! What’s most disappointing is these gatekeepers are just as clueless in their understanding of it too. They are uninformed of the needs of us folks on the ground doing the work!