My New York Experience (part II)

By Tamara Bracic
CEC ArtsLink Fellow 2007

Part II of III

What I was really impressed by in the Dance Theater Workshop was also a well developed Fundraising and Audience development departments. My professional background comes of course from a totally different system of arts financing to begin with. In Slovenia there is a relatively big number of organizations active in the field of contemporary performing arts, varying from big institutions to smaller independent Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). But the financing mostly comes from a small number of main funders which are: the State Government (Ministry of Culture through multiple funding programs to which one can apply on a yearly or three-year basis = multiannual funding), the City Municipalities (which also developed various funding programs for culture and arts and one can apply for funding on a yearly or three-year basis as well), International Foundations (European Union funding programs for culture and arts, various international foundations, some private foundations – in this case the competition is bigger since the artistic organizations from all the EU member countries can apply, but when the application is successful, the funding for projects is quite good), Corporate Sponsors and Donors. The analysis of funding of an average NGO organization in contemporary arts in Slovenia would look something like that – the State government and the City Municipality contribute about 60 - 75%, the International Foundations about 15 - 20% and Corporate Donors about 5 – 10% of their yearly budget.

On the other hand, in the US the situation seems to be almost the opposite and getting to understand the US system of funding was new and very interesting for me. Through the history of the modern States the society has developed many different mechanisms of how to keep arts and culture going without much help from the State Government. In contrast to Slovenia, where the State took over the role of a caretaker over arts and culture, in the US they were protected, supported and developed by and through different mechanisms evolving in the civil society. People themselves had to take the responsibility of supporting the kind of arts or the cultural creativity they most admired, appreciated or connected to. All the private foundations, the corporate sponsorships and individual donations have developed into a well functioning system of funding of culture. Except that – like everywhere, including Slovenia – there is not very much money, not even enough for everyone to be able to work in good conditions and without a lot of economization of time and resources through the process of creating their piece of art, their performance…

Artists in Slovenia work in hard conditions, especially freelance artists and the not yet renowned contemporary dancers and choreographers. In Slovenia contemporary artists encounter also a lack of rehearsal and performing spaces for contemporary performing arts. But as deep as I could peak into the everyday life of some US artists, especially dancers and choreographers in New York, I was surprised at the conditions in which they create their artistic works. I got the feeling that almost every freelance artist has to have at least one more job in order to survive, pay the rent and pay for the studio hours, which is quite a big cost. So if the artists work approximately eight hours a day and perhaps even have another job, how much time is there left for them to explore and create their art at all? Having two hours in the studio here and there is hardly enough to concentrate, let alone have the time to slowly explore new creative materials…

To be continued…