In an open, public, regularly scheduled board meeting on Wednesday, April 23rd, Arts Council for Long Beach board treasurer Kathy Fishkin announced that the organization projected a cash balance of $36,000 at the end of this fiscal year. Based on the possibility that funding from the City may be reduced, Fishkin said projections indicated that, “we would be $67,000 in the hole from October ’08 through March of ’09.”
Joan Van Hooten, the Executive Director of ACLB, in a prepared comment, stated “The Executive Committee and Executive Director determined that, to avoid another year of serious deficits, we would have to reduce our largest expense, staff. We are making these decisions to avoid insolvency.”
According to Fishkin, the dismissal should bring the organization’s budget out of the red for this fiscal year, and produce a savings of approximately $100,000 in the next fiscal year.
Current board President Justin Hectus, in an interview, said, “This was an extremely difficult decision, but was made with the intent of being proactive. The board’s responsibility is to be a good steward of the contributions of our funders, including the City. To accomplish that, we’re not going to shy away from taking a hard look at how we’re doing business, and how we can best serve the community.
“For example,” Hectus continued, “in that same meeting we voted to create a permanent endowment with $100,000 that was generously left by Margaret R McKinney. We could have used that gift to shore up our deficit, but instead we created a permanent endowment. Funds distributed from the endowment will support artist fellowships and programs for years to come.”
The organization has been the subject of intensifying scrutiny and criticism. City officials, community leaders, artists, and arts organizations have all questioned the validity of the current model, and the operational overhead that comes with it.
“Our non-salary operation expenses compare very favorably with similar organizations,” Hectus said. “Salaries, on the other hand, have to be commensurate with the programs we’re producing.”
According to ACLB budget documents, and their contract with the City, the City’s financial commitment to the ACLB is $600,000. Half goes to grants, mostly for organizations with large budgets, such as Musical Theatre West and The Long Beach Symphony Orchestra. A small portion goes to neighborhood grants, grants for individual artists, and smaller cultural organizations.
The other $300,000 goes for operational expenses, including salaries for the staff. An additional $588,000 is expected to be generated from fundraising and contributions, which is used, according to Van Hooten, to “support our programs and operations.”
ACLB programs include Passport to the Arts, which hires professional artists to create and deliver themed, standards-based arts curriculum to at-risk children in local primary schools. Another program, Eye on Design, involves an in-school artist residency that teaches students about public art and culminates in an exhibition of public art concepts created by the students. With Smithsonian Week, the ACLB hires scholars from the acclaimed Washington DC institution to present lectures and exhibitions on specific subjects to students and the community.
ACLB board meetings are open to the public, and take place on the 4th Wednesday of every month at 7:30 AM. Currently, meetings are being held at the Renaissance High School for the Arts but specific information can found by called the Arts Council for Long Beach offices at 562-432-5100. Their website is www.ArtsLB.org