STRATEGIC PRIORITY: Quality of Life, Arts & Culture
AGENDA DATE: March 8, 2023
COUNCIL DISTRICT(S): All
DEPARTMENT: Office of Arts and Culture
EXECUTIVE: M. Elizabeth Cedillo-Pereira
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SUBJECT
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A resolution authorizing and establishing the Cultural Organizations Program and approving the program guidelines within the Office of Arts and Culture to support cultural services in the City of Dallas for FY 2023-24 - Financing: This action has no cost consideration to the City (see Fiscal Information)
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BACKGROUND
The updated Cultural Policy of the City of Dallas, adopted on November 28, 2018, provides that guidelines for the various Cultural Funding Programs will be submitted annually for review and approval of the City Council. This serves to affirm the artistic nature of services to be provided through these various cultural programs and to specify the review and selection process for cultural services.
The Cultural Organizations Program (COP) is the support program through which the Office of Arts and Culture contracts for a full season of cultural services with established non-profit organizations for a variety of cultural programs that include concerts, plays, exhibitions, performances, workshops and other cultural programming for the benefit of Dallas residents and visitors.
The FY 2023-24 COP guidelines are consistent with COP guidelines from previous fiscal years; the last major updates to these guidelines were made in FY 2019-20 to align with Dallas Cultural Plan 2018 priorities, including alignment to staff and board diversity goals, and resident panel evaluation of cultural programming in underserved neighborhoods around Dallas.
Major updates in the current proposed guidelines were considered and recommended by the Allocations Committee and the Arts and Culture Advisory Commission, with equity, one of the City’s core values, as the lens:
• Maximum funding level adjustments to a marginal rate based on reported unrestricted revenue of applicant organization, with a maximum 30 percent of revenue as support to the smallest organizations and a tiered, declining percentage of support organizations with larger reported unrestricted revenue.
• Revision of funding maximum baseline to the higher of the previous year’s revenue or the average of the previous three years, to allow for pandemic and other exceptional variations
• Updates to administrative scoring (30 points) for organizational program management submission requirements
• Minor wording and document flow updates to improve readability for new applicants, clarify requirements, and update submission deadlines and dates.
COP cultural service contracts are awarded annually using a volunteer review panel approach to evaluate applications. In accordance with the Cultural Policy, the panelists are approved by the Arts and Culture Advisory Commission, and the panels are composed to reflect the diversity of the people of Dallas. Following panel review and scoring, the Allocations Committee of the Arts and Culture Advisory Commission will make recommendations to the full Arts and Culture Advisory Commission. The Commission’s funding recommendations will be brought to City Council in the Fall of 2023 for authorization of the associated cultural service contracts.
PRIOR ACTION/REVIEW (COUNCIL, BOARDS, COMMISSIONS)
On February 9, 2023, the Allocations Committee of the Arts and Culture Advisory Commission voted to recommend these guidelines.
On February 16, 2023, the Arts and Culture Advisory Commission voted to recommend these guidelines.
FISCAL INFORMATION
This action has no cost consideration to the City. Appropriations for the Cultural Support Programs are established in the General Fund through the annual budget development process. Each award to a cultural organization through Cultural Organizations Program will be authorized by resolution of the City Council.