Funding for Arts & Culture
Beyond ticket sales and participation fees, financial support is a major measure of a society’s commitment to arts and culture. Funding for arts and culture organizations, projects, and individual artists comes from local, state, and federal government agencies, private foundations, non-profit institutions, corporations, individual giving, and in-kind support.
• In 2007, 4Culture—the Cultural Development Authority of King County—provided funding for arts and culture averaging $3,405 per 1,000 County residents. Funding from the Washington State Arts Commission averaged $891 per 1,000 County residents. These amounts exclude public art commissions and acquisitions. Seattle-based organizations received the most funding per 1,000 Seattle residents, in addition to receiving $3,720 per 1,000 residents from the Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs. (figure 1) This would be expected in light of the extent to which the Seattle arts and culture scene serves the entire Puget Sound region as well as the state. The East Region received the next largest funding amount, with the South Region receiving the least funding per resident.
• 4Culture provided over $4.2 million of program funding, to arts and cultural organizations, projects, and individual artists in the County (including Seattle) in 2007.This amount excludes public art commissions and acquisitions. In keeping with the broad focus of 4Culture’s charter, heritage and historic preservation organizations received more than one quarter of 4Culture’s program-based funding. (figure 2) Theater and music were the largest singlecategory funding recipients. The multidisciplinary category also received among the highest award levels. Literary organizations, projects and individual artists were the single-category recipients receiving the least amount of funding.
• The Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs provided almost $2.2 million of program-based funding in 2007 to Seattle-based arts and culture organizations, projects, and individual artists. Music organizations were the largest single-category recipient of funding, followed by theater organizations, while literary organizations were the single-category recipients receiving the least amount of funding.
• In addition to funding from the Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, 4Culture, and the Washington State Arts Commission, a variety of arts services organizations and venues in King County funded, and otherwise supported, arts and cultural activities. While the dollar amount of this support is difficult to calculate, the number of and value of these service organizations is substantial. A partial list of organizations by region is to the right: (figure 5)
• 4Culture provided over $2 million in capital funds to arts organizations, projects, and individual artists. (figure 3) Multidisciplinary recipients received the highest percentage of this funding, followed by visual arts and theater.
• Non-profit arts and culture organizations have a common mission to provide wide public access to cultural services such as music and theater performances, exhibits, festivals, and local historic sites. Funding and volunteerism subsidize the real cost of these services, so that admission can be offered at a discount or free.
• Data were collected on arts attendance and payment status (free vs. paid admission) for most arts organizations in King County. (figure 4)Note that many organizations with smaller budgets may not be represented in these data. Those organizations were less likely to report attendance or payment status of attendance.
• For organizations reporting attendance and payment status, paid attendance percentages were highest for organizations with the largest budgets. Virtually all admissions at non-profit arts and culture organizations of any size are discounted due to the sources of subsidy mentioned above.
• Even at the largest professional organizations in King County, over 13% of attendance was free. Among organizations of all sizes, more than 2 million reported free admissions were made available countywide.
• Attendance was highest in Seattle, followed by the South Region.
Data Source, Definitions, and Limitations
The data on funding were provided by the Seattle, King County and Washington State cultural services providers: the City of Seattle Mayor’s Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, 4Culture (The Cultural Development Authority of King County) and the Washington State Arts Commission. 4Culture investments included both program and facilities/fixed assets funds while the Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs funding was for programs only; the Office does not have a facilities funding program, although the city makes additional investments in cultural facilities projects. Substantial assistance for this report was provided by Melissa Hines of the Seattle Office of Arts & Cultural Affairs, and Paige Weinheimer, of 4Culture.
Data on arts service organizations, organization budget size and attendance figures were provided by the Puget Sound Regional Council.
