Study issues a call to arms on arts funds

In the News

Upgrade facilities, support tourism, Foundation urges

By Maureen Dezell, Globe Staff

Cultural organizations pump more than $1 billion into the Massachusetts economy, and millions of tourists travel to the Bay State each year to visit cultural attractions, from the Museum of Fine Arts to Tanglewood.

But the Massachusetts cultural sector is losing its luster as a tourist destination, and it is in danger of losing ground as a cultural hub as well, according to a Boston Foundation study that is due out today.

Theaters and historic homes are crumbling, and vital museums and arts centers are struggling to pay for basic repairs, maintenance, and expansion planned, the report found. Yet Massachusetts is one of the few culture-rich regions of the country that provides no steady support for capital improvements.

A task force convened by the foundation identified $1.1 billion in basic capital expenditures that should be made in Massachusetts. The recommendation was based on a survey of leaders and supporters of 123 cultural organizations across the state, a majority of which reported repairing and rebuilding cultural facilities as their most pressing need. The response surprised the foundation's leaders, according to its president, Paul Grogan.

"In most surveys, people say they need money to operate, money to program, money to expand," Grogan explained. "The top three recommendations in this study -- for increased investment in infrastructure, travel and tourism, and collaboration -- shows a maturity and reflects a cumulative process in which people have begun to see themselves as a cohesive sector with common goals and needs."

The Boston Foundation report, "Culture Is Our Common Wealth: An Action Agenda to Enhance Revenues and Resources for Massachusetts Cultural Organizations," was put together by a 64-member task force convened last year to respond to findings of a report from the foundation in February 2003, "Funding for Cultural Organizations in Boston and Nine Other Metropolitan Areas."

That study showed a local cultural sector that rivals that of larger cities in number of groups, yet enjoys comparatively less support from corporations, foundations, and public funders.

Charged with seeking out strategies that would boost large and small institutions, the task force researched strategies and recommended ways in which public, private, and philanthropic interests could work collaboratively.

Capital investment rose to the top of the task force recommendations because so many organizations are in serious need of upgraded facilities, said Ann McQueen, program director for the foundation. Many arts groups are housed in aging historic buildings, and many have deferred maintenance on basic repairs, even if they have managed to pay for handicapped exits and fire protections that are now required by state law, McQueen said.

Among the other challenges facing the task force: considering whether to establish local revenue streams or a united fund for the arts.

But those solutions have worked in small regions, and cities that are permitted to levy taxes on themselves, which Massachusetts municipalities are not. The best solution for the Bay State seems to be collaboration among cultural organizations and sectors, such as culture and tourism; and determining strategies that will increase political and public clout in the cultural sector, McQueen said.

The report draws a sharp contrast between Boston, which has suffered a decrease in cultural tourism, and Philadelphia, which has seen its visitor numbers go up -- largely, the report concludes, because of careful coordination between cultural and tourism officials. "What Greater Boston and Massachusetts in general has long lacked is leadership and a willingness to work together," said Peter Karoff, founding director of the Philanthropic Intitiative and an expert on local philanthropy. "This report addresses that."

Findings of the report will be released at a press conference today at the Boston Center for the Arts. Among those attending will be Robert Lynch, the president of Americans for the Arts, an advocacy group.

Maureen Dezell can be reached at mdezell@globe.com