As Minnesota arts groups struggle during COVID, controversy brews over Legacy money

The Minnesota State Arts Board has revamped its grants, announcing more flexible funding for artists and arts nonprofits during a time of crisis.

But a growing number of artists and arts leaders are calling for broader changes, saying the board has focused too much of its funding on big institutions, rather than those that are small, rural or led by artists of color.

After suspending nine of its 10 grant programs in April, the State Arts Board is offering new "creative support" grants in their place.

They're more flexible than the typical project grants. And there are more of them. The State Arts Board expects to award twice as many grants as it normally does, said Sue Gens, director of the state agency in charge of millions of dollars in Legacy Amendment funds for the arts.

But the grants are smaller, too — $2,000 to $6,000 for an individual artist.

"We did that intentionally," Gens said. "The grants are a little smaller so we can get dollars into the hands of more artists."

Some artists point out these new Creative Support grant programs pale in comparison to the one the State Arts Board kept in place — Operating Support. In August, the board approved $11.8 million to 171 organizations for those operating grants, which vary based on budget size and which their leaders have described as critical.

Nearly $5.4 million of that funding, or 45%, went to the largest 12 organizations, including the Hennepin Theatre Trust, which got $715,650.

"They're continuing to support the large organizations at much more substantive levels than smaller and [Black, Indigenous and people of color]-led organizations," said Deneane Richburg, founder of Brownbody, a company that combines skating, dance and theater on the ice.

To apply for an Operating Support grant, an arts nonprofit must have an operating budget of at least $174,000 averaged over two years. It's so expensive to put on performances that Brownbody often spends one year focusing on performing, then another on grant-writing and fundraising. So its two-year operating average lands lower.

Brownbody has been "blessed" with grants and opportunities. But "when I think about that Operating Support program," Richburg said, "I think of that shiny object that sits two shelves too high for you to reach."

She is part of a group of artists calling for "urgent analy­sis and repair" of the State Arts Board's granting process.

"As a taxpayer-funded entity charged with distributing these funds equitably, the default for MSAB should be transparency and accountability — both of which we find lacking," more than 50 artists said in a letter to Gens.

Sustaining such operating support this year, when COVID-19 has upended the arts, was "crucial," Gens said.

Big and midsize arts organizations are hurting, too, she said. "I don't know of an organization or an individual in the arts this year who is not struggling. The need is tremendous."

Although the State Arts Board requires a minimum budget size for its operating grants, smaller arts groups across the state get flexible dollars via the regional arts councils. The state board and the regional councils play different roles in distributing arts Legacy Amendment dollars, Gens said. "Many people ... forget that we are part of a bigger system."

Springboard for the Arts — along with Mixed Blood Theatre, Trademark Theater and Forecast Public Art — is publicly pledging not to apply for the new Creative Support grants.

Because Springboard gets Operating Support funds, "it does not feel right to 'double dip' from the very limited MSAB grant funds," the nonprofit wrote, especially as a "historically white-led, predominantly urban based organization" that has "benefited from systems that have excluded others."

"My hope is that other organizations, especially white-led, metro-based organizations — will seriously consider this and will make a similar decision," said Laura Zabel, Springboard's executive director. Doing so frees up dollars for those who need them most, she said.

Springboard, like so many arts organizations right now, is grappling with a deficit. So it would have been easy to make the decision to apply for the grant on "autopilot," she said. But organizations don't have to wait around for funders to make the right rules, Zabel said. They can fight disparities themselves.

Running a public system, especially in the midst of crises, is hard, complex work, she continued. "But I also think we've hit a point where we all have to ask these questions."

Of the 171 grants awarded via Operating Support, just nine went to organizations led by Indigenous people or people of color, or about 5%, according to data presented to the State Arts Board.

The new grant programs, with applications due in August and September, prioritize historically marginalized groups — "a first step," Gens said. In addition to the Creative Support grants, the State Arts Board is also awarding grants using CARES Act funding.

The Hmong Cultural Center had applied, as it does most years, for one of the grants that the State Arts Board suspended in April — folk and traditional arts. So Mark Pfeifer, director of programs at the Hmong Cultural Center in St. Paul, waited "all summer long" for the agency to announce its new grants.

When it did, he was "shocked and disappointed."

To be eligible, a nonprofit must dedicate at least 60% of its annual operating budget to the arts. The Hmong Cultural Center offers cultural arts classes, including in the art of the qeej, a traditional instrument.

But it also offers citizenship courses and other services.

If the center had focused only on the arts, "we would have gone under," he said.

"Everything they've done has prioritized the mainstream organizations," Pfeifer said. "I think that's a very bad signal."

Gens called the decision to prioritize arts-focused organizations "difficult" and "heartbreaking." In a typical year, community centers, libraries and other groups might qualify for arts funding. But this isn't a typical year, she said.

"We know we are not going to be able to fund everyone," Gens said. "First and foremost, our job is to support artists and arts organizations making work."

Pfeifer worries, though, that these rules set amid a pandemic will become the norm in future years. Without that public support, it would be tough to keep offering courses steeped in the songs, instruments and ceremonies of the Hmong people, he said. And nobody else is teaching these art forms.

"If they do this for another year," he said, "these kinds of restrictions … would raise a lot of questions about our ability to keep our arts programs going."

Jenna Ross • 612-673-7168