Hamilton County Commissioners said they would vote to approve funding of approximately $600,000 for the long-delayed Regional Cultural Alliance (RCA) at a meeting early Monday morning. The amount, based on a per capita contribution of $0.71 per county resident, will make up close to half of RCA’s intended first-year budget of $1.2 to $1.3 million. After a presentation and appeal by arts supporter and philanthropist Otto M. Budig Jr. and Laura Long, executive director of the Cincinnati Business Committee, all three commissioners indicated they would give formal approval to the allocation at a meeting later in the week.
The new agency is intended to serve as an advocate, coordinator and convener for the arts and cultural community. According to Amy Cross with the Ohio-Kentucky-Indiana Regional Council of Governments, which is serving as RCA’s fiscal agent, the planned three-year budget for RCA is $3.9 million. Additional funding for the agency — at the same $0.71 per county resident — will be sought from other governmental units in the Greater Cincinnati area. Budig indicated that meaningful conversations have already happened with Campbell and Kenton counties in Kentucky. In addition, discussions are planned with Kentucky’s Boone County as well as Clermont, Warren and Butler in Ohio and Dearborn County in Indiana.
While other communities in Ohio and elsewhere have arts councils to leverage funding from local, state and federal governments, the Cincinnati area has been without such a council for nearly two decades. Establishing RCA is seen as a step toward rectifying this situation.
The creation of a regional authority was the principal recommendation in March 1999 of a grass-roots advocacy process, the Regional Cultural Planning Committee (RCPC), chaired by Budig (see “Don’t Mention It,” April 22-26, 1999). When RCPC’s report was issued at that time, it was projected that within three months an executive director would be hired and activities would be launched.
Instead, a transition committee has taken nearly 15 months to thrash out budget and governance plans. In addition to mapping out a 3-year budget, the transition committee wrote organizational by-laws and identified a potential board of trustees. Hamilton County Commissioner Tom Neyer chaired the transition committee.
At the commissioners meeting on Monday, Neyer said RCPC’s March 1999 report, written with the aid of a consultant, recommended “60-odd things that ought to happen. Our transition team focused on three priorities for the Regional Cultural Alliance.” He identified them as (1) fostering opportunities for arts education, (2) supporting cultural tourism, and (3) promoting the arts throughout the region with collaborative marketing.
For the commissioners’ benefit, Long outlined how the Tristate benefits economically from the arts, citing a study conducted two years ago by the University of Cincinnati’s Economic Research Group, led by Dr. George Vredeveld.
Budig made a more emotional appeal. “Many children,” he said, “do not have opportunities for ‘defining moments,’ ” those chances to experience the arts first-hand. In his personal philanthropy, Budig has focused on the ability of the arts to affect future generations. He urged the commissioners to support the RCA request because it would have an impact on the future.
Commissioner John Dowlin took the arts advocates to task for offering neither firm budget numbers to document their request nor any suggested measures of success for their efforts. While supporting the allocation, Dowlin strongly urged that criteria be developed and applied in time for a report back after RCA’s first year. He also said Hamilton County should seek means to compare and evaluate the many similar requests they receive to fund activities as diverse as charitable sporting events, the arts, and the convention center.
Supporting the RCA request, Commission-er Bob Bedinghaus recalled attending a symphony concert when he was in elementary school, during which he fell asleep. “My defining moment, I suppose, was waking up.”
Seemingly ide awake at this meeting, Bedinghaus added his support, pointing out that the arts and culture are something that sets our area apart from others in the region.
Neyer added that the County has been faulted in the past for waiting until the end of a process before then coming on board. He thought it significant that, in this case, Hamilton County is stepping up to take the leadership position. ©
This article appears in Jun 21-27, 2000.
