Following a major loss in state funding last year, arts and culture organizations in Connecticut are back at the legislature asking for support in 2024. Arts advocates attended an Arts, Culture, and Tourism Caucus meeting Tuesday, where they voiced their support for a bill that would generate approximately $50 million for some 800 arts and culture organizations across the state.
Randy Cohen, vice president of research at Americans for the Arts, said at the meeting that the arts and culture sector in Connecticut deserves the attention of legislators.
“It’s a 12.8 billion dollar industry,” he said. “It’s bigger than construction. It’s bigger than education. It’s bigger than transportation. When we hear from our colleagues and legislators that, ‘Well, you know we love the arts, but we have to focus on industry,’… This is industry.”
Cohen also said that as a part of the nearly $13 billion that arts and culture generated in Connecticut in 2022, almost $1 billion came specifically from spending. Organizations spent over $600 million on their events, and audiences spent almost $350 million.
Cohen said all the work that goes into those events creates work.
“That spending supports 16,667 jobs in Connecticut,” he said. “These are necessary local jobs. These are not jobs that are going to be off-shored.”
The bill under consideration is part of Connecticut’s arts advocates’ “funding roadmap,” a collaborative effort between the Connecticut Arts Alliance, Connecticut Humanities, and Connecticut Tourism Coalition.
The proposed $50 million in funding would come from a portion of the state’s 1% meal tax. It is currently before the Finance, Revenue, and Bonding Committee.
