By Michael Swanger

Experts insist, if lawmakers are serious about making good on promises to slow Iowa's brain drain, improve the quality of life, increase tourism, grow the creative economy, produce and attract innovative workers and enhance the education of our children, they need to put their money where their mouth is and start paying more attention and dollars to the arts.

The private sector, arts leaders say, is mostly doing its part. Now it's the state's turn to close the sizable funding gap in the private-public partnership needed to grow the arts in Iowa.

Along with history and other cultural matters, the arts are hallmarks of a progressive, productive society. And to an extent, therein lies the problem, because some see them as icing on the cake of a flourishing economy and not a key ingredient to its long-term success. Even worse, others see them as the exclusive property of the rich and fail to understand that cultural and intellectual refinement is more commonplace than they realize and that the arts - and their benefits - are to be shared by everyone.

As another legislative session comes to a close this week, nary a word has been said about the arts on Capitol Hill, and in the eyes of some arts leaders and artists, another legislative session has been squandered. It isn't that they think the arts are more important than education, gambling, taxes and other important issues, especially when elected officials struggle to balance the state's budget. They're more sensible than that. Besides, they know they don't possess the same political clout as do representatives for organized labor or agriculture, which is why lawmakers often brush them aside as insignificant players in pork barrel politics.

All they're asking for, they say, is to become part of the dialogue. But even that can be difficult, especially when legislators are pressed to wrap up session. Last week, for example, repeated calls by Cityview for brief interviews to talk about state funding for the arts with Gov. Vilsack and Senators Matt McCoy, Jeff Lamberti and Michael Gronstal were not returned.

That kind of apathy by policymakers, arts leaders say, is why Iowa for years has been near the bottom of the list of states that fund the arts. The numbers, quite frankly, are abysmal. During fiscal year 2006, Iowa ranked 44th in per capita spending on the arts despite a 4.2 percent increase in legislative appropriations for state arts agencies.

Fortunately, not all the news is gloom and doom. Legislation to create programs like Imagine Iowa 2010, the Cultural Trust, Great Places and the designation of cultural districts throughout the state that bolster the state's economic tools like Vision Iowa and the Iowa Values Fund - programs that earned Gov. Vilsack the 2006 national Award for State Arts Leadership from Americans for the Arts during the U.S. Conference of Mayors in January - is a step in the right direction. But state leaders could learn a lot from successful, privately funded arts events and need to recognize that Iowa is teeming with talented artists waiting for the opportunity to show their wares and prove their mettle as valuable members of society.

There may be a change of heart slowly taking place among our elected leaders, but increased dialogue between legislators and credible arts leaders is needed to build momentum. Opportunities to build on goals don't present themselves often in Iowa, which is why now is the time to start stumping for increased state funding for the arts for the 2007 legislative session.

Arts, the Iowa way

Everything about singer-songwriter-guitarist Kelly Pardekooper, except his address in Madison, Wis., has a touch of Iowa. From his ball caps, white T-shirts, faded blue jeans and dusty cowboy boots, to his blue-collar anthems of Americana, to his never-say-die work ethic that motivates him to paint houses by day so he can afford to play music by night, the Iowa City native wears his heritage like a badge of honor.

Part of that pride includes acknowledging those who helped him along the way, including the Iowa Arts Council (IAC), which along with the State Historical Society of Iowa, is a division of the state-funded Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs. If you look closely at the liner notes on his albums for Trailer Records, 2000's "Johnson County Snow" and 2002's "House of Mud," you'll find the IAC's logo. It's his way of thanking them for grants of $1,000 and $3,000, respectively, which helped defray about one-quarter of the costs of making the albums.

"The money was invaluable," Pardekooper says. "It allowed me to finish the mixing, tracking and mastering at a professional studio. It also made the process happen quickly."

Pardekooper says if it were up to him, he would find a way to provide more state funding for artists because he has seen firsthand its benefits. But unlike most artists he is aware that funding for the arts often is not a priority for lawmakers.

"I do appreciate the stresses states have on them, especially under this current federal system, because state budgets are tighter than before," he says. "But I also place a high value on culture. For me, you can define a culture by its arts."

Nowhere, Pardekooper says, is that more evident than in Europe where he and a band of fellow Iowa musicians tour each year for a month. Overseas, they are embraced by audiences, venues and commercial radio - a far cry from the treatment they receive in the United States for their roots-rock affair. The Iowa musician says Americans could learn a lot from Europeans when it comes to cultivating a society rich with culture.

"A musician going to work in a club there is treated no different than a plumber coming to take care of a leaky faucet," he says. "They already have a culture of looking at an artist as someone who is working hard and they place a great value on the work it takes. In America, there's a stereotype that artists are slackers who don't want to work a real job, they're viewed as fringe characters of society. Yet, anyone who's spent time with them knows better."

Pardekooper says politicians legislate what they know. If a legislator isn't hip to what's happening in the fields of music, theater and visual arts, then they're bound to ignore it when doling out appropriations.

"If they don't take the time to go to a museum or see music, it may not be something that's important to them," he says. "I can see where the mindset might come from that if they don't patronize it."

Pardekooper is one of many Iowa artists the IAC has helped over the years through funding, educational workshops or referrals. The IAC, with its 2006 fiscal year budget of $1.2 million, is responsible for the development of the state's interest in the arts. It is charged with stimulating the study and presentation of the performing and fine arts as well as creating tourism-related art and history projects as directed by the general assembly and designing and carrying out a comprehensive, statewide plan (Imagine Iowa 2010) to develop the arts in Iowa.

Anita Walker, who was appointed by Gov. Vilsack as executive director of the Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs and the IAC, says the state's support of the arts is a combination of good news and bad news.

"Iowa truly has moved forward in embracing the arts and culture and historic preservation as essential elements to making this a prosperous state," she says. "Elected leaders understand we need to be a state people of all ages choose to live in. That's been a fundamental change in the last five years. In the old mode it was focused on attracting businesses to come to the state and if you can get them everything else will fall into place. People may be looking for a job, but they're also looking for a life and they're looking for a place that is culturally rich."

Evidence that legislators are subscribing to that ideology, Walker says, can be found in the form of some of the programs they have created. None, however, is as comprehensive and long running as Imagine Iowa 2010, a statewide cultural plan to distinguish Iowa as a national leader for the arts, history, sciences and humanities.

Created by legislators six years ago, and updated in 2004 through a mandatory cultural caucus, Imagine Iowa 2010 sets eight lofty goals for advocacy and cultural leadership, including surveying cultural organizations and their economic impact,

authorizing a one-cent increase in the cap for hotel-motel tax with additional revenues used exclusively for cultural initiatives and publishing cultural voting records of elected officials at every level. It also includes bolstering community development through cultural tourism, giving cultural workers tax incentives by 2008 and increasing cultural education in schools, including a 20 percent increase in funding of arts, music and other creative endeavors for at least 20 school districts.

Most importantly, Walker says, Imagine Iowa 2010 is backed by the long-range financial commitment of the legislature, which has dedicated $10 million over the next 10 years. To date, it has contributed about $1.5 million.

It also creates financial incentives (namely tax exemptions and credits) for at least 100 cultural, entertainment and historic districts. Iowa is only the second state in the nation to certify such districts and already 20 such areas have been designated. The legislature also committed $40 million in new historic preservation tax credits last year. Walker calls it a "powerful tool" for developers to restore historic buildings in hopes they will increase a community's cultural and artistic environment.

"It's one of the best things we could have done," she says.

But while the legislature's interest in fostering an arts-friendly environment has made a dramatic turnaround, Walker says there is more work to be done.

"We've had a lot of success at the Capitol in the last few years," she says. "That being said, we still rank near the bottom five states in funding the arts, and we've been consistently among the bottom five for as long as I can remember."

Building a creative economy

Every state strives to spark its economy through innovation and Iowa is no exception, though it is struggling to do so. From the decline in manufacturing and agriculture, to the recent recession, to an increasingly mobile population, Iowa has been challenged to find innovative solutions to cure its economic woes and has yet to fully explore its creative population as a possible solution.

The National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA) last year published a report that outlines reasons why states like Iowa might pursue creative economies, citing everything from traditional economic benefits, to tourism and community revitalization, to cross-sector partnerships and civic engagement. A few of its more compelling arguments include how arts training facilitates creativity and innovation in the workforce, as well as how a creative economy strengthens ties between public and private sectors, not to mention produces direct benefits like increased consumer spending, tax revenues and jobs. It also suggests states can compete on a global basis through the arts and how most states' creative economies are able to use existing cultural assets, including artists, arts organizations and infrastructure to build their own creative economy.

Of course, building a framework for a creative economy costs money, something Iowa has very little of since legislative funding historically follows the health of the overall economy. And though the NASAA reports that state arts agencies showed modest gains for the first time in three years during fiscal year 2006, hard times loom on the horizon as President Bush's proposed 2007 budget to Congress includes plans to eliminate a $35 million U.S. Department of Education's Arts in Education program.

"Money is always hard to come by, and NASAA realizes the arts are never going to be number one when you have to compete with education, health and human services," Walker says. "There are other things more pressing, especially in tight budget times than funding the arts. But that doesn't mean they don't see a public role for funding of the arts."

Before talks of using public funds to help pay for the foundation for a creative economy can begin, Walker says legislators need to do a better job funding existing cultural attractions like museums, symphonies, arts centers, arts education programs and artists themselves. Iowa legislators increased spending on the arts from fiscal years 2005 to 2006 from $1.1 million to $1.2 million respectively, but the 2006 figure pales in comparison to most neighboring states, including Illinois ($19.4 million), Minnesota ($8.5 million), Indiana ($3.6 million), Kansas ($1.5 million) and Nebraska ($1.3 million). Only Missouri ($485,000) and South Dakota ($602,000) spent less on the arts than did Iowa.

"I think that's a place we need to continually work hard to make the case for direct funding for or through the IAC," she says.

Walker also says that because Iowa spends less on the arts than most states, the IAC has become one of the most efficient state arts agencies in the country.

"I'll stack us up against any arts council in America in terms of getting more bang for the buck," she says. "The entrepreneurial spirit, creativity and product coming out of this arts council eclipse some from bigger states with bigger budgets."

Still, for the IAC to contest arts councils from other states more money is needed to attract artists and tourists to Iowa. A study conducted by Dave Swenson and Liesl Eathington of Iowa State University, shows that Iowa's "super-creative class," defined by author Richard Florida ("The Rise of the Creative Class") as computer professionals, engineers, scientists, artists, entertainers, athletes and media types, makes up 10.8 percent of the workforce compared with 12 percent for the nation.

"We compete to attract people and artists who make our communities great places to live and visit," Walker says. "Research also suggests that artists are more involved in their communities, that they're an asset beyond what they deliver in terms of entertainment or artistic products. Their mere presence in a community is an asset because of the way they become involved in the community."

One way Iowa is trying to attract artists is through the Great Places program, which defines sections of cities that see themselves as cultural magnets, like the Court Avenue Historic District or the East Village. An advisory board of citizens visited 74 Iowa locations last year and selected Clinton, Coon Rapids and Sioux City as pilot places.

Walker has also seen what other states are doing to attract artists and cultural tourism through her work on a panel for the National Endowment for the Arts. The panel is reviewing how one-third of the country's state arts agencies plan to serve their constituents during the next three years.

One idea she would like to implement, if the IAC could get the financial backing of the legislature, is to adopt an artist relocation program similar to the one in Paducah, Ken. It recruits artists like most states recruit companies.

"This is the next conversation we'll be having in Iowa," Walker says. "Funding community initiatives is good, but now it's time to go to the next step and invest more seriously in the artists."

Another issue on the radar of the IAC and legislators is how essential an arts education is to training an innovative workforce. Walker says the global business climate dictates that states produce, retain and attract a highly knowledgeable workforce with advanced intellectual and creative skills. She says development of those skills must begin in childhood through arts and music.

"We're turning out good mathematicians and engineers, but we have no creativity or innovation," she says. "I read where states and nations are going to be competing to get arts back into school because innovation is going to be the product of the future. You are either going to be producing your own innovators or buying them from some place else and it's the arts that train the mind to think creatively and abstractly. When we're mostly being trained to get answers right on bubble tests then we're not doing much in that direction."

Cash for art

All this talk about increasing funding for the arts doesn't mean much if the money doesn't make it into to the hands of the agencies that promote the arts and the artists themselves.

There are a number of not-for-profit arts councils in Iowa that serve artists in a variety of capacities. They pay artists to conduct workshops, organize events for them to sell or perform their wares and refer them to paying customers.

The Des Moines Metro Arts Alliance, founded in 1969, is one such group and is an inclusive one at that since it connects more than 67,000 residents of Greater Des Moines each year to many forms of the arts through a variety of programming. The group touches the lives of nearly 8,000 children each year through its arts education programs. It also brings about 7,500 people to downtown Des Moines each fall for the Two Rivers Art Expo and draws more than 15,000 fans to 31 free concerts each summer for its annual Jazz in July series. In addition to that, it employs more than 500 artists, provides 200 artist referrals per year and offers free marketing and grant-writing services to its members.

The non-profit group's budget for the fiscal year 2006 increased $20,000 from a year ago to $290,000. The group and its staff of three full-time employees is funded through state dollars, hotel-motel taxes, corporate and individual donations and monies earned by its programming. About 9 percent of the Metro Arts Alliance's budget is state funded.

Tracy Levine, executive director, says the Metro Arts Alliance has relied primarily on private donations from corporations like Principal Financial and Wells Fargo, as well as Prairie Meadows Racetrack and Casino because state funding is at a premium. But now that private financial support is dwindling as corporations change their charitable by-laws preventing them from reimbursing arts groups for their operational costs (salaries and utilities), state funding becomes vital.

"There are tangible things that need to be paid for," she says. "When we get money for a program, some goes for staffing and operations because we have to pay our bills. It's a catch 22 because we're asked to do more and more things, but at the same point we struggle to pay the bills."

Stephen King, the executive director for the Downtown Events Group that organizes the Des Moines Art Festival, says his group doesn't solicit state funding but admits it would make his job easier. This year's budget for the event is about $850,000, most of which comes from donations.

"Sponsorships are a full-time job," he says. "If we had an endless supply of cash we could do more, grow faster and bring in more entertainment. It costs a lot of money to put on the festival, and having any kind of funding, state or otherwise, is critical to keeping it free and successful."

Levine says an increase in funding not only would help pay for operational costs, but would also improve her group's programming. Recently, she contemplated pitching the idea for the Metro Arts Alliance to host a street painting festival along the new Meredith Trail - an idea she borrowed from Kansas City - but realized the group didn't have the funding to hire professional artists to participate.

"It's something I would have liked to do, but didn't have $4,000 in my budget to carry out," she says. "So I held back the idea."

Levine says more funding would also allow the group to bring back the studio crawl it initiated two years ago where the public toured the workspaces of local visual artists and was given a behind-the-scenes glimpse at how works of art are made and the opportunity to purchase them directly from the artists. The idea, Levine says, was a success, but they couldn't afford to fund it the following year.

"A lot of times artists fall through the cracks, and all we want to do is give them an opportunity to make a living," she says. "It's part of fostering a creative economy."

Artists and arts councils aren't the only ones who want to live in a culturally rich community. Levine says a recent national study by a business committee for the arts found that 93 percent of employees would rather work for a company that supports the arts than one that does not; that 88 percent of customers purchase products from companies that support the arts; and that 76 percent of tourists determine their vacation based on accessibility to the arts.

Levine says Iowa could be one of those vacation destinations for arts lovers if legislators supported the arts with additional funding.

"We've come so far but we've got a long ways to go," she says. "But there's so much willingness to work together, and that's why I'm optimistic sooner or later legislators have to see that."

Robert Schulte Jr., a 39-year-old Des Moines painter and printmaker who teaches art appreciation at the Des Moines Art Center and Des Moines Area Community College, isn't as optimistic. He says state funding for the arts is loosely defined and that more money goes to architects and landscape architects than to traditional visual artists. He says he's also frustrated by the amount of grant monies available to artists. If the IAC wants to make a significant contribution to working artists, he says, they should concentrate their grant money into a handful of larger grants instead of several smaller ones so that an artist could afford to quit his day job and focus on creating art full time.

"If you want to support the arts, start giving the money to the artists," he says. "And make it a meaningful amount, like $20,000. It isn't worth the time to fill out a lengthy application for a $500 mini-grant."

Schulte says Iowa is teeming with talented artists and that if properly supported by the state they could make Iowa a better place.

"There's no such thing as great artists, only great patrons," he says. "Communities funded Michelangelo and look what happened." CV

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