South Charlotte Today

The Charlotte City Council's Jobs and Economic Development Committee on Jan. 3 glimpsed draft findings about the current state of arts and culture in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area — the results of several months of research and engagement with members of the local creative economy and the wider community.

The findings are a first look at a full State of Culture Report, which is still being developed and will be released in February as part of the city's ongoing work to stabilize and create a sustainable future for the local creative sector. The report will be a common foundation of information and a resource that defines current conditions for policy makers, artists and creative groups, funders, patrons and residents as they begin to form a vision for the sector, and identify solutions in the future Charlotte Arts and Culture Plan, due this spring.

Under the direction of the Charlotte City Council, planning efforts are led by the city's Arts and Culture Advisory Board, with the support of leaders of the local cultural sector and a team of expert consultants and city staff led by the city's arts and culture officer Priya Sircar.

After hearing from more than 3,200 people across the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area, evaluating local funding practices, mapping cultural amenities and assets across Mecklenburg County, and studying how comparable U.S. communities support arts and culture, the cultural planning team found that eight common themes about the current state of local culture rose to the top:

• Equitable access to arts and culture is needed throughout Charlotte and Mecklenburg County, not just in the city center.

• Leadership in the arts and culture is a public sector responsibility.

• Sustainable funding requires public-private collaboration and commitment.

• Support for local artists is needed, to balance offerings brought into the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area from elsewhere.

• Collaboration throughout the arts and culture sector is growing, but it needs to increase.

• Space (studios, rehearsal space, performance and display spaces, etc.) is challenging — particularly in terms of affordability — for both producers of and consumers of arts and culture.

• Stronger communication and greater cooperation among the arts and culture community is needed to break silos and increase awareness.

• Public art, such as mural art, is successful and can be leveraged if expanded.

Keep reading to learn more details about the city's study of arts and culture conditions in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area, and the outreach and research that led to the eight insights.

Note: As the State of Culture Report continues to be developed ahead of its public release in February, these eight emerging insights will be further refined and may change. These insights are current as of the Jobs and Economic Development Committee meeting on Jan. 3. 

Public Engagement

Throughout their conversations with community members, creatives and local leaders, and in survey responses, the cultural planning team most frequently heard that:

• Equitable and sustainable funding is a major concern for all in the creative ecosystem.

• Center city and Uptown institutions are key strengths to support, with simultaneous and equitable support of arts and culture in other areas.

• Organized and well-resourced leadership is needed for the arts and culture community.

• Maximizing revenue opportunities for local artists is top of mind

• A lack of awareness about and coordination of arts and culture activities — by the general public but also among artists and producers of cultural activities — and a lack of coordination by organizations pose major challenges.

• Affordable and accessible space is needed.

• Charlotte-Mecklenburg's public art success can be leveraged to expand access to arts and culture.

Evaluation of Local Funding

An in-depth evaluation of how the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area funds local culture, especially through public funds, identified several strengths:

• Charlotte-Mecklenburg's history of providing operational support to long-standing cultural institutions, first through the Arts & Science Council (ASC) and now through city support and private donations available through the Infusion Fund.

• Corporate support for the arts and culture sector, especially in sustaining large, legacy organizations.

• Organizations and programs, including the ASC, Charlotte Center City Partners, Charlotte is Creative, the city's Placemaking Hub and the Infusion Fund's Opportunity Fund, support small cultural organizations, individual creatives and those who do not qualify for hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants.

• Higher education institutions prioritize arts and culture as a key Charlotte-Mecklenburg attraction and a facet of a well-rounded education. They provide students with opportunities to enjoy arts and culture, and fund students who have ideas related to the creative sector.

The evaluation also found opportunities to enhance the current ecosystem:

• Arts and culture investors could have a unified system to fund organizations according to shared priorities, such as a common definition of equity and measures to achieving equity, or embedding arts into education at all ages, or creating access to cultural events, to promote collaboration.

• A coalition or formal organization of corporate stakeholders could fund arts and culture adjacent to or in partnership with local governments, as seen in cities like Austin, Texas; Nashville, Tennessee; Seattle; and Louisville, Kentucky. In these cases, corporations can work according to their own priorities while also collaborating with the local government to make an area more attractive for investment and commerce.

Local arts and culture investment processes also have their challenges, including inefficiencies in grant processes, differing visions for the role of arts and culture, and affordable and available space:

• Actions between grant recipients and funders such as the ASC and the Infusion Fund, are transactional rather than relational, while other support such as technical assistance, marketing and networking are not included at a desired level.

• Funders such as the ASC and the Infusion Fund currently support grant recipients' operations or programs, but their support is not designed to help small or mid-size nonprofits grow, nor does it incentivize innovation in large organizations.

• Grant funding is sometimes used inefficiently — granted to an organization just to be given to another recipient for needs such as fees and rent.

• Local grant applications are inefficient and could be standardized across funding entities to save applicants time in the grant process.

• Corporate leaders prioritize arts and culture as an economic development tool that creates a vibrant and attractive community, with the large, legacy institutions bringing in top talent and visitors. Others see the tide turning toward more grassroots, diverse organizations that build authenticity and community.

• There is no consensus among political, corporate, and arts and culture leaders over the role of the ASC moving forward.

• Small and mid-size organizations lack support in finding and holding affordable space for their work, as opposed to larger institutions that have city- or county-gifted or subsidized facilities.

Mapping Cultural Amenities and Facilities

With the help of community meeting attendees, and through additional conversations and online research, the city's consultants are mapping nearly 400 cultural facilities, amenities and other assets across Mecklenburg County. The "cultural asset map" is being finalized and will be released with the State of Culture Report in February. Drafts of the forthcoming map show:

• Performing arts, including theater, dance and opera, make up the most common amenities in the county (67 assets identified), followed by visual arts (48 assets identified). At the other end of that list are architecture (two assets identified) and fashion (one asset identified).

• Most assets are in areas with incomes higher than the county's median household income of $69,240, in areas with home values above the county's median home value of $253,500, and in majority-white census tracts.

• Charlotte's Corridors of Opportunity have few arts and culture amenities, presenting an opportunity for more cultural amenities in these areas of high unemployment and low incomes, where the city has already committed to improving the quality of life and helping people stay in their long-time communities. The city already plans to incorporate more placemaking and cultural programming in the corridors.

• Uptown and the city's center, as the economic nucleus of the Charlotte-Mecklenburg area, boast a large concentration of cultural amenities. There are fewer cultural amenities in other areas, pointing to a need for more distribution of arts and culture in neighborhoods.

• Cultural amenities and assets are emerging around Mecklenburg County alongside new investments and activities in areas outside of the city center.

Comparable Communities

Six communities comparable to Charlotte and Mecklenburg County in size, growth rates, employment, affordability, and arts and culture employment were also examined as case studies. A few takeaways emerged studying Austin and Travis County in Texas; Houston and Harris County in Texas; Denver and Denver County in Colorado; Minneapolis and Hennepin County in Minnesota; Nashville and Davidson County in Tennessee; and Portland and Multnomah County in Oregon.

• Public funding and support:
  • Most of these communities use municipal general funds to support arts and culture. The Austin, Houston, Denver and Portland communities also have a recurring public funding source.

  • In some places, a municipal office connects arts and culture groups to city and county services, technical assistance and other nonmonetary resources.

  • Municipal entities also have clear, public mandates to measure and encourage equity.

• Private support:
  • Few of the communities profiled have a private funding stream of dedicated, direct grant support for arts and culture organizations. Instead, most see substantial philanthropic support through gifts and commissions from private and corporate foundations.

  • Several of the communities employ a public-private partnership model to provide access to affordable and appropriate space for arts and culture activities.

• Independent nonprofit support:
  • A few of the communities profiled have a private 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to "ecosystem support."

• Promoting arts and culture:
  • Tourism agencies, convention and visitor bureaus, and business alliances generally market arts and culture to external audiences to attract tourism, talent and businesses.

  • Local and grassroots publications market arts and culture to the local community.

Original source can be found here.