Grants to Arts Organizations Dropped by 3.5% Last Year, Report Says

Giving to the arts by the nation’s foundations dropped by 3.5 percent in 2002, the first decline in eight

years, according to preliminary figures by researchers at the Foundation Center. They predicted in a new report that, after cresting at $4.2-billion in 2001, arts grants for 2002 would total $4.05-billion, in part because of the weak economy and the completion of several large capital campaigns.

The report charts foundation trends in arts giving since 1995. In 2001, the last year for which a complete analysis is available, several large arts grant makers cut support, including a three-fifths reduction in grants by the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, in Los Altos, Calif., as well as a one-third drop in arts giving by the Freedom Forum, in Arlington, Va., and the Brown Foundation, in Houston.

The declines come after many foundations saw their assets plummet along with the stock market.

Loren Renz, vice president for research at the Foundation Center, said she doubts arts giving will bounce back in the next few years.

“Arts organizations are wise enough to know it’s not a time to come to foundations with big ideas,” she said. “Until foundations are able to replenish their asset bases, we don’t expect giving to increase.”

Biggest Grant

The Foundation Center, in New York, based its estimate of giving in 2001 on a sample of 1,012 foundations that supported the arts in 1995 and 1,007 that did so in 2001. To be included, foundations had to give at least $10,000 to arts organizations.

The largest single arts grant in the 2001 sample, $38.2-million, came from a donation of artwork from the Lauder Foundation, in New York, to the American Art Foundation, an operating foundation that acquires, restores, and donates works of art.

Grants to arts and culture groups accounted for 11.8 percent of overall foundation dollars in 2001, compared with 14.9 percent in 1998 and 12 percent in 1995. Arts and culture groups rank fourth among the causes commanding the greatest amount of foundation support, following education, health, and human services.

Of the more than $1-billion donated by individuals, corporations, and foundations following the September 11 terrorist attacks, $56-million went to arts and culture groups.

The largest grant, $37.5-million, came from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, in New York, to assist arts groups directly affected by the attacks.

More Groups Get Aid

The number of arts organizations receiving grants in 2001 increased by more than 59 percent since 1995. However, the median arts grant, $25,000, has stayed constant since then, while the median in all fields rose to $30,000 in 2001.

Among the grant recipients in the 2001 sample, museums received 34 percent of grant dollars; performing-arts groups claimed 30 percent; and media and communications organizations, including public television and radio, received 8 percent, as did multidisciplinary arts groups, including education programs and arts centers.

The remaining grant dollars went to visual arts, historic preservation, humanities, and other types of charities, including arts libraries and arts-management groups.

Nearly two-thirds of the grants awarded by foundations were smaller than $50,000.

Grant dollars mainly went to capital support (36 percent), specific projects and programs (31.6 percent), and operating support (18.2 percent).

Foundations in the Northeast accounted for nearly 40 percent of all arts grants, while foundations in the Midwest, South, and West each gave about 20 percent. However, one Western foundation, the Donald W. Reynolds Foundation, in Las Vegas, headed the list of foundations giving to arts groups, with $57.8-million in 2001. Among the foundation’s gifts: $30-million to the Smithsonian Institution, in Washington, for the purchase of Gilbert Stuart’s “Lansdowne” portrait of George Washington, a national tour, and exhibit space.

A copy of the report, “Arts Funding IV: An Update on Foundation Trends,” may be ordered for $19.95, plus $4.50 for shipping and handling, from the Foundation Center, Dept. NN10, 79 Fifth Avenue, New York, N.Y. 10003-3076; (800) 424-9836. The report can also be ordered online at http://www.fdncenter.org/marketplace.