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Dear Mayor Hahn and City Council Members,

Los Angeles is the international Mecca for all art forms the capital of film and television, home to the largest amount of theaters second only to New York, haven for visual arts schools and artists, and music recording studios and professional dance studios that create what we see on TV, film and stage.


Proud to be from Los Angeles?
Maybe not for long.


FACT:


Did you know that California now spends less on the arts than any state in the nation? The national average of state arts spending is $1.15 per capita California will now spend 3 cents per capita.


While other state agencies had to undergo serious budget cuts of 5\%, 10\% and even 20\%, California cut the California Arts Councils arts budget 96\%.


NOW, the major source of public funding for the arts in Los Angeles is facing annihilation. The Mayors Budget Team is recommending the elimination of the Cultural Affairs Department. Since 1980, Department of Cultural Affairs has brought joy, creative inspiration and cultural understanding to millions of Los Angeles residents and out of town visitors through hundreds of festivals, theatre and dance productions, music concerts, poetry readings and art exhibits.


The goal of the Cultural Affairs Department is to enhance the quality of life for Los Angeles 3.9 million residents and 25.1 million annual visitors. They accomplish this goal by ensuring access to the arts by the following means:

Operates 22 Neighborhood Arts and Cultural Centers across the City, offering classes and workshops in these centers to children, adults and seniors.
Distributes approximately $3.5 million through 250 grants to arts organizations, community partners and individual artists.
Advertises over 346 festivals in the City that attract and serve over 10 million residents and visitors.
Processes hundreds of requests for Mills Act applications and contracts with over 185 individual and community property owners.
Commissions over 170 public art projects through the Public Works Improvement Arts Program (PWIAP), at a value to the community of over $7.0 million dollars, and assists developers with implementing over 362 public art projects citywide.


We work hard for our money and want our tax dollars used wisely. We want the City to provide services that are good for ourselves, our kids and our community.



WHY ARE THE ARTS IMPORTANT?



The Arts Mean Business American for the Arts


Local Economy
The arts are not a luxury, but an economic engine to revitalize our neighborhoods. The arts:



Beautify and animate cities


Provide employment


Attract residents and tourists to the city


Complement adjacent businesses


Enhance property values


Expand the tax base


Attract well-educated employees


Contribute to a creative, innovative environment (Americans for the Arts)


According to the California Arts Council, investment in the arts is good public policy and makes good business sense. Arts and Culture in California, as an industry, generates the following:



$16.75 billion in annual economic activity (excluding artists and the entertainment industry)


$6.65 billion in spending by arts organizations (as employers and consumers)


$10.1 billion in event related spending by arts audiences


This industry supports 400,000 full time equivalent jobs - (by comparison, more than legal and accounting, police and sheriffs officers, and construction workers)


This economic engine generates $830 million in state income (in the form of fees, and income and sales taxes).


The arts create a multiplier effect, attracting local residents and tourists who support not only the artists themselves, but local businesses such as restaurants, hotels, retail stores and parking. Every dollar granted to a theatre reaps $11 within a 5 mile radius. (National Endowment for the Arts) For example, when you go to the theatre, you will come early to catch an art exhibit, have dinner, see a show and end your evening at the local nightclub.


Also, there is a tremendous crossover between for-profit and public benefit arts employment. Musicians may record a film score during the day and play chamber music with a local orchestra at night; actors who shoot a commercial in the morning might perform in a non-profit theater that evening. The connection is the individual artist. Commercial television, film, recording and high-tech industries benefit from the way in which public benefit arts organizations develop and allow creative employment for artists from set designers to graphic artists, from theater managers to lighting technicians to software programmers-the arts fill the job pool. The arts are a training ground for future for-profit leaders. Artists and technicians move regularly back and forth from one sphere to the other. Artists play a role in the content development of the computer-based technologies of software and entertainment. The arts provide Los Angeles with an edge in hosting future enterprises. (California Arts Council)


Tourism
Tourism is Californias number one industry. Studies show that the arts are a significant draw for visitors. Cultural visitors spend money in connection with their attendance at arts events in restaurants, at shops, for gas and travel and for parking. These expenditures are key to regional economic development, drawing income to the local economy. The Arts & Culture sector of the tourism industry tops $17 billion. One out of every four dollars spent on tourism is spent on a cultural event. It was recently reported by the Americans for the Arts in their study, Arts & Economic Prosperity: The Economic Organizations and Their Audiences, that non-local visitors (arts audiences) spend an average of $38 per night in addition to their accommodations in contrast to $22 spent by local arts audiences. (California Arts Council)





CALL TO ACTION





Yes, we are experiencing budget difficulties, but there is funding available for libraries, parks and pay raises why not the arts? Where are our priorities? What will happen to the Cultural Affairs programs that benefit all of Los Angeles? We need answers.


The Cultural Affairs Department must stay in existence to continue its quality arts programming for all Los Angelenos and our world guests. It is a good investment for the Los Angeles economy which means it is good for all of us tax-paying, voting citizens.

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