Arts a campaign issue

Because the money the city of Wichita spends on culture is a fraction of everything else it does, the arts risk getting lost in the campaigns for mayor and City Council. Or they would, if the Arts Council hadn’t wisely started hosting forums aimed at sounding out the candidates on the subject.

The first one in this election season, scheduled for 6 to 7:30 p.m. Thursday in Mary Jane Teall Theater at Century II (social time from 5:15 to 6 p.m.), should provide a sense of how the wannabe mayors view the city’s well-established cultural funding program, public art projects and other subjects, helping inform voters before the March 3 primary. The Arts Council will host a second forum March 19 for City Council candidates in time for the April 7 general election.

The current city budget includes $3.6 million for the Wichita Art Museum, CityArts, Old Cowtown Museum, the Mid-America All-Indian Center, the Wichita-Sedgwick County Historical Museum, the Kansas Aviation Museum and the Museum of World Treasures, as well as $400,000 for cultural funding grants awarded based on recommendations by the Cultural Funding Committee.

Among the key concerns for Wichitans who see the city’s investments in its museums and arts groups as points of pride:

•  Whether the new mayor and council will continue to support dedicating the equivalent of 1 mill of the city’s property-tax levy to the arts and continue to support the cultural arts plan.

•  How City Hall will address the shortcomings of 46-year-old Century II Convention Center and what Arts Council president Arlen Hamilton calls the need for a “great performing arts center.”

•  Where candidates stand on pursuing a cultural arts district in which, if the Legislature approves, the city could offer tax relief to cultural enterprises facing unusual property valuation increases.

•  Whether the city will retreat from investing in public art projects, or recognize their power to help shape the city’s identity while enhancing its aesthetics.

This is a key time for the arts in Wichita, especially with the Sedgwick County Commission signaling it will rethink its $14,000 annual support for the 49-year-old Arts Council and with arts groups statewide still coping with the Brownback administration’s reluctant, and dramatically diminished, funding of the arts.

The nonprofit Arts Council, which is based at the city-owned CityArts, points to data showing that arts and culture is a $66.2 million industry in Wichita responsible for 2,006 jobs and $6.5 million in local and state government revenue.

The city of Wichita’s strong record of supporting the arts must not be a casualty of the spring elections. Candidates need to realize that when they talk about quality of life and a vibrant community with plenty for young people to do, they are talking about the arts and culture.

For the editorial board, Rhonda Holman

This story was originally published February 11, 2015 at 6:06 PM with the headline "Arts a campaign issue."