Local artists raise alarm about state funding

PROVIDENCE, R.I. (WLNE) — The Rhode Island House of Representatives is set to vote on Governor Dan McKee’s 2025 budget, sending billions of dollars to housing, education, infrastructure and more.

But one group says they’re being left out of the picture at the cost of millions of dollars in state revenue.

No section of the country made it out of the pandemic unscathed, but while other areas were able to refocus and rework, theatres and artistic groups were forced to close their doors.

And as pandemic-era funding runs out, local leaders are ringing alarm bells.

“18 thousand jobs, 34 million dollars a year in city tax revenue, and 2.4 billion in economic impact.” says David Beauchesne, the Executive Director of the RI Philharmonic.

“We came up with our own proposal. The coalition came together, and based on what was done in other states, we proposed the Rhode Island Creative Futures Fund.” Beauchesne continued.

The fund would send around 18 million dollars in Rescue Plan funding to art groups across the ocean state.

It was introduced back in March and held for further discussion in April.

But Beauchesne says they haven’t gotten a clear reason why.

“All along, we felt that there was a shot because it makes sense. I run a business- it’s a nonprofit, but it’s still a business. If one of my employees came to me and said, ‘I need you to spend 18 dollars this year, so you don’t lose 32 dollars this year and every year after.’ I would have spent the 18 dollars.” says Beauchesne.

The proposed budget has around 1.8 million dollars in arts funding set aside for 2025.

For an industry that generates more than two billion dollars in revenue year over year.

“We do get some contributions from the state. It’s $400,000. It’s about ten percent of our budget. The other 90% we need to make up from other sources” says Barnaby Evans, WaterFire’s founder.

Evans says they’ve already cut this year’s lightings in half as they work back to pre-pandemic levels.

And they’re at risk of losing the program altogether.

“Oh, we’re already past that. We’re struggling to even produce this year.” says Evans.

The House is set to vote on the proposed budget, but Beauchesne says there’s still time to include the Creative Futures Fund or allocate other ARPA funding to the programs.

“Right now it is 100% caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Because the arts were chronically underfunded before the pandemic. And we weren’t going to the state with this kind of public plea.” said Beauchesne.