Filmmaker Jay Craven:
The Arts Need Support

Vermont filmmaker Jay Craven of St. Johnsbury captivated the annual meeting of the Randolph Chamber of Commerce with tales of the tribulations and triumphs of his years of presenting the arts in the north country—including the time that people stayed away in droves from a Johnny Cash concert because of rumors an impersonator would show up.

On a more sober note, he also explained the financial difficulties under which art organizations in Vermont have to work. That portion of his talk is excerpted below.

By Jay Craven

On May 1st, I’ll mark 32 years of work in the trenches of presenting and producing the arts in Vermont. It will mark exactly 16 years that I’ve spent at Kingdom County Productions, the non-profit film and theater producing and education organization I run with my wife, Bess O’Brien.

This follows 16 years, to the day, that I spent at Catamount Arts, St. Johnsbury’s non-profit arts organization, which I started in 1975, hauling 16mm projectors down dirt roads each week to town halls and school auditoriums in five towns…

By 1986, our budget had reached $1.3 million a year--$850,000 of it in ticket sales and $450,000 in fundraising. I was programming the series, raising the money and earning $10,000 a year. Hmmm. What was wrong with this picture?…

Kingdom County Productions lives up to the name given to the struggling Broadway Theater a century ago when it was dubbed the "Fabulous Invalid." We’re scraping bottom at the bank and we’re peddling hard.

Given all this, where do we go from here? I have several thoughts on this:

First, we need to continue building a sturdy fundraising base for the arts. There are a number of ways this can be done, but public funding will be crucial—to provide a secure base so that artists and organizations can do more than mark time or retrench. We need to grow—but in the current funding climate, ambition can feel like a curse.

I believe that this is partly a state legislature issue, partly a leadership issue, and partly a question that begs us to look at the structure and function of the Vermont Arts Council which is not even remotely impacting the arts scene in the ways it could.

Funding remains at the center of this crisis. Regarding public funding, consider this: Germany spends $65 per capita on the arts; France and Sweden $57 per capita; Canada and the Netherlands $46. In the US, Congress allocates just 40 cents per capita, in comparison.

In public support for what I call "cultural media," the British government allocates $200 per household for support to BBC. US support for combined public radio and TV comes to $1.30 per capita—and this scenario results in virtually no support for independent production and places U.S. public media in fierce competition with other cultural non-profits for scare private dollars.

Private Cuts, Too

Private funding has also been cut back, especially among local businesses, many of whom are on shakier ground than they were 20 years ago. Surveys also show that locally owned businesses contribute much more money, per employee, than chains do.

But the arts can also play a role through improved partnerships with retailers and the media—and through advocacy to chain stores.

Some American cities and states have bucked the trend of arts retrenchment and, as a result, enjoy hugely beneficial cultural, social, educational, and economic dividends from the arts. New York City announced recently that it will increase funding to non-profit groups from $3.5 million per year to $30 million. The city’s arts budget exceeds that of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Other cities, including Philadelphia, Providence, even Burlington have invested significant public funds into the promise of the arts.

But in the rest of Vermont, the going is tough. We have recently seen the demise of the Onion River Arts Council in Montpelier, after 30 years—likewise the Crossroads Arts Council in Rutland. Circus Smirkus closed and dismissed staff—but finally was able to find an angel who gave a very large sum to help them get back on their feet.

Initiatives

Craven also listed "programmatic initiatives" that would vitalize the Vermont arts scene: An "Arts High School," creative economy initiatives that develop new opportunities for the arts, a radio stage, expanded use of public radio and TV for the arts, cultural tours, training of arts administrators, and expanding arts in the schools, including media arts curriculum development.