Art groups hope to avoid the ax

With the Community Grants program facing extinction as the Downers Grove Village Council attempts to address a $4.5 million budget shortfall, local arts organizations are holding out hope that such drastic action can be avoided.

In an open letter to the council, representatives of more than a dozen arts groups, including the Downers Grove Choral Society, the Grove Players and the West Town Chorus, asked commissioners to reject a total suspension of the $72,000 grants program, which is funded by hotel taxes.

"We realize the village has a large deficit to offset, and we can respect that they're considering every possible option," said Jim Stahulak, president of the Downers Grove Arts Council. "We're asking the council to consider reducing rather than eliminating funding."

Even before the village announced its potential funding cuts, it had been a tough year for the arts. The deep recession has impacted tickets sales, corporate support and budgets at the National Endowment for the Arts and the Illinois Arts Council.

At the same time, costs for advertising, facility rentals, musicians and guest artists remain high.

"Ads are prohibitively expensive," said Mim Eichmann, artistic director and founder of the Midwest Ballet Theatre, which has operated locally for 15 years. Even the school fliers regularly distributed by arts groups to advertise upcoming events have been largely curtailed by the move toward electronic distribution of information via district Web sites.

Further, given that the arts season runs through late spring, many organizations have contracted to bring in guest artists. Cuts in the 2010 Community Grants budget, which has been used by many groups to fund such expenses, will mean they will have to make up the shortfall.

"Most of them operate pretty close to the bone," said Joyce Tumea, who is involved in multiple arts groups. "They don't carry over much from year to year."

Without at least subsistence funding from the village, many local arts organizations will be forced to cut back performance schedules and guest artists, while others may disappear permanently.

In weighing the advisability of cuts, Stahulak encouraged village commissioners to consider the long-term impact of a vital arts scene.

"They may look at it as a $72,000 expense, but that money allows arts groups to bring in audience members from Downers Grove and beyond," he said.

"They stay here and dine here and shop here. For the entire 2009 season, local arts groups will bring in 15,000 people to town," he said.

"The Midwest Ballet Theatre fills the Tivoli with 'The Nutcracker.' The West Town Chorus Christmas show fills the theater. That's 1,000 seats. It adds up very quickly," Stahulak said.

But economic impact is only one benefit provided by the local arts community.

"It's not just for local artists who need a place to be creative or audiences who appreciate the performances, but the arts are also practical on several levels," Tumea said.

"Volunteers learn how to write grants, do publicity, make costumes, build sets and run the box office," she said. "Too often people just think of the performers and the audience and forget about what's going on behind the scenes."

Organizations such as the Grove Players, which will celebrate its 75th anniversary season in 2010-11, also have contributed to the history and fabric of Downers Grove.

"The arts contribute to the vitality and quality of life and bring a certain level of pride to the village," Stahulak said. "All residents should see it as something of value."

While there is no question that tough financial times require sacrifices all round, suspending grants for the arts, among other programs, is an extreme step that could reverberate much longer than the budget impact might suggest.

Led by volunteer boards, our local arts groups are particularly vulnerable because once disbanded, records get lost, bylaws are misplaced and the energy of the organization is dissipated or lost, Tumea said.

"It's more efficient to be able to revitalize something that's ongoing, even at a minimum level, than to restart something almost from scratch."

Elaine Johnson has been a resident of Downers Grove since 1994. Contact her care of Sun Publications, P.O. Box 4830, Naperville, IL 60567, or at dgcolumnist@comcast.net.