Hawaiʻi lawmakers are expected to approve a few culture and arts bills this week before the crossover deadline on Thursday.
One measure would be to allocate money to the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts to develop a Hawai‘i-Japan Pacific Monument. Another bill would recognize the nonprofit Hawai‘i Symphony Orchestra as a state orchestra and grant it $500,000 for the next two years.
House Bill 1378 would create a grants program under the SFCA for artists to promote and execute performing arts events in the state.
The bills that would fund culture and the arts come amid uncertainty about federal funding.
"We're keeping a really close eye on what's happening on the federal level," said SFCA Executive Director Karen Ewald, who added that the situation is fluid.
By law, state arts agencies receive 40% of federal grant money Congress provides to the National Endowment for the Arts, which granted the SFCA more than $900,000.
The SFCA oversees the state museum Capitol Modern, formerly known as the Hawaiʻi State Art Museum. The state agency is tasked with promoting the arts and reducing barriers to cultural participation in Hawaiʻi. It does so by offering programs and grants, such as its outreach initiative program and community arts grants and fellowships.
Rep. Jeanné Kapela, who chairs the House Culture and Arts Committee, introduced House Bill 1378 to add a program dedicated to the performing arts, including but not limited to singing, dance, musicals, and theater.
The measure would appropriate money for performing arts, which would run through the SFCA. The SFCA would then give grants to performing artists who apply for them in the state.
Kapela, who has been a classical ballet dancer for 17 years, said dance classes and running a show are expensive.
"I'm really excited about the opportunity to be able to provide funding specifically towards performing arts grants for small all the way to large projects," she said. "To be able to make sure that in our school system, students are being exposed to dance and theater and other types of performing art that can make an impact on someone's life."
Some arts-related bills have died, including one that would transfer the SFCA from the state Department of Accounting and General Services to the Department of Business, Economic Development, and Tourism.
On its surface, Senate Bill 582 would just transfer the foundation and its funding from one agency to another. But the bill could have switched the funding for the art agency's salaries from the special fund to the general fund, giving lawmakers more direct control over how those funds are used.
The measure included that language after a joint hearing before the Senate Transportation and Culture and the Arts, and Economic Development and Tourism committees.
Ewald, who opposed the measure, said it puts the SFCA's jobs and programs at risk of reduction if there's a general fund shortfall.
"It's not providing a safety net, especially with the threat of federal funding across all departments," she said.
The foundation has a $20 million budget — nearly half of which comes from special funds. Special funds are a pot of money an agency has that can be used for specific programs.
For example, the SFCA's works of art special fund can only be used for costs related to the acquisition of art, consultant and staff services required to carry out the art in public places program, site modifications, displays, interpretive work, maintenance, repair, restoration, and storage.
Ryan Stubbs is the chief program and strategy officer at the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies. He said it's common for arts agencies to move departments, but whether or not their funding is affected varies by state.
"There's a pretty wide disparity in just the aggregate appropriations for those agencies," he said. "So we have a chart here showing states that have changed since 2002 even, and overall their appropriations have increased greater than 50%, whereas the combined agencies that undergo some of the placement changes their appropriation have declined a little bit."
Other measures that died would have created a Hawaiʻi Leadership Awards Program to honor people who have made "considerable and outstanding contributions" to Hawaiʻi and exempted renovations from having to set aside 1% of construction costs for the SFCA's arts funds.
Kapela said she acknowledges that the arts community has been “up in arms for a number of years.”
“We want to make sure that on the federal side, with so much up in the air and arts on the chopping block, that we're finding a way and a pathway forward to be able to protect the works of art special fund and at least hold the integrity of the fund so that we can continue to fund artists and the an uplift culture here in our state for generations to come,” she said.
