In response to Kansas Arts Commission Chairwoman Linda Browning Weis' wish that the National Endowment for the Arts will continue to provide the new, privately funded Kansas Arts Foundation with matching federal dollars, Robert L. Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts, issued the following statement:

"€œAmericans for the Arts urges National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Chairman Rocco Landesman to refrain from providing federal matching dollars to the Kansas Arts Foundation, a new private organization which seeks to replace the state-funded Kansas Arts Commission, unless this new Kansas entity is in compliance with the federal requirements mandated for all other states, including matching funds from state government. To provide federal funding to a state that does not meet standard federal guidelines not only undermines these longstanding mandatory requirements and the legislative intent of federal arts policy in America, but also debilitates the almost half-century-long policy of state government support for the arts nationwide.

The federal-state government partnership program was specifically intended to build and expand government infrastructure support of the arts in all 50 states and the U.S. territories by matching federal dollar investments with state treasury investments. Even Governor Brownback understood the need to minimally invest $200,000 of state treasury funds in order to secure the NEA federal match when he included this amount in his budget along with the transition decree of turning the public arts agency into a private foundation. Unfortunately, the interplay between the Governor and the Kansas legislature, which voted to appropriate $689,000 for the state agency, ended up yielding zero state government funds.

While it may seem antithetical to advocate for the NEA to not send much needed federal arts funds to the Kansas Arts Foundation, the damage that could be caused by ignoring more than 45 years of cultural policy would surely have ripple effects that could destroy the fragile infrastructure of public support of the arts in the U.S. To provide federal dollars to the newly privatized Kansas Arts Foundation would do a disservice to those states which have complied with federal guidelines and have recognized the value of the arts as a state government priority and allocated state monies accordingly.

In 1965 the National Endowment for the Arts was founded to uphold excellence in the arts, bring the arts to all Americans and provide leadership in arts education. A core belief that both the NEA and Americans for the Arts have upheld since their respective inceptions is that state governments should invest in the arts. And since the NEA's founding nearly 50 years ago, state funded arts agencies have been one of the NEA's primary partners in serving the American people through the arts. It is a partnership that has a proven track record of working and working well.

Further, providing the Kansas Arts Foundation with federal dollars could suggest that all states might be alleviated of their duty to financially support the arts by tacitly granting them permission to follow Kansas' shortsighted example. Without state dollars and state legislative oversight, a private organization does not have the same level of financial and programmatic accountability for delivering arts funding to all corners of Kansas that a public agency does.;

While we at Americans for the Arts are in favor of new private-public sector models of funding, it should not be done at the expense of public dollars. Experience shows that relying solely on the private sector to fund the arts - as Kansas plans to do - €”is a nearly impossible construct for either building or sustaining the arts. In America the success model for arts support has been a three-way partnership, comprising public support, private support and earned income. For example, in the coming year alone, the new Kansas Arts Foundation will need to raise nearly $2 million in private philanthropic dollars. More importantly these dollars will need to be new dollars to ensure that the new Kansas Arts Foundation will not be simply shifting already existing funds to its coffers and competing with the fundraising efforts of the very constituents for whom it is raising support money.

And that's just this year. To provide true, sustainable support for the arts in Kansas, for example, the Kansas Arts Foundation will need to either raise $2 million or more every year or build a trust that will provide steady, permanent income - €”in the form of interest - €”in perpetuity. However, a trust of over $40 million would be required just this year to allow the Kansas Arts Foundation to distribute the $2 million necessary to account for the absent government funding.

But where will these new charitable funds come from? Studies show that, at present, fewer U.S. companies are making philanthropic contributions to the arts. Our most recent Triennial Survey shows that from 2006-2009 alone, the number of businesses providing charitable support for the arts fell 15 percent&a - €”from 43 percent to 28 percent. Further, when state arts agencies distribute grant money, it is often for the sort of nuts-and-bolts needs which private donors find unattractive.

Overall, state support of the arts gives clues to our collective priorities and fundamental beliefs. Is America just about the bare basics, or are we a cultured society that values originality, beauty, design, innovative thought and a creative workforce? Let us hope it is the later."€