Arts nonprofits request $550,000 city investment in culture

Members of Sedona’s arts community, led by Sedona Arts Center CEO Julie Richard, made a pitch to the Sedona City Council to increase arts and culture funding in next year’s budget during the council’s April 9 meeting.

Richard told council members about the results of the recently-completed Arts and Economic Prosperity 6 study, which was conducted by SAC in partnership with the Sedona Chamber of Commerce. The study found that nonprofit arts organizations in Sedona generate at least $13.5 million in annual economic activity, including $546,654 in tax revenue for the city and county.

“For FY25, we’re requesting reinvestment into the nonprofit arts and culture sector in Sedona of $550,000, which represents the amount of money essentially that the nonprofit arts and culture organizations give back to the city of Sedona on an annual basis, just a small fraction of the total economic impact that we have,” Richard told the council.

“Your $550,000 ask compares to what currently? What’s in our FY24 budget?” Councilman Brian Fultz asked. “Is this a comparison we can make to the small grants program? … Are you asking for a whole lot more?”

“Quite a bit more,” Richard said. “Right now we are part of the overall small grants pool, I think it’s divided up between 25 or 30 nonprofits in the community. What I would ask is that we be separated out from the rest of the nonprofits and that this fund be dedicated solely to the nonprofit arts and culture organizations.”

The City Council voted last July to increase the funding pool for the small grants program from $200,000 to $350,000, with 40% of that funding designated for arts organizations, 40% designated for service organizations and 20% to be allocated at the discretion of the small grants committee. In FY24, the city of Sedona made grants totaling $99,000 to nonprofit arts organizations.

“Looking at the community survey about where they want to see money spent or not spent, it was ‘don’t need to spend any more on the arts’ was basically my takeaway from reading that survey,” Fultz continued, referring to the city’s latest budget survey.

“I just don’t agree,” Richard said. “Sedona talks about it being ‘a city animated by the arts.’ Sedona was founded on the arts … The arts center was the beginning of the community. In fact, the city voted on becoming a city at Sedona Arts Center. We go back to before the beginning of the city, and we got away from that at some point. It’s time that we refocus on those things.”

“If we are supposed to be ‘a city animated by the arts,’ what the community’s telling us in the budget survey doesn’t support that,” Fultz said.

Former City Manager Karen Osburn, now a temporary consultant since new City Manager Anette Spickard joined the city on April 8, told council that the budget survey was not a scientific survey.

“Sedona Arts Center is my neighbor, and one of the reasons they’re my neighbor is because they were there when we had an opportunity to buy a hotel,” Best Western co-owner Randy McGrane said. “Having an arts center next to a hotel is instrumental to us. This hotel supports the arts because it is a return on investment.”

“Arts are way too low,” McGrane continued. “We get them higher by investing more in arts. We’re losing some of what Sedona has meant and why people come. So let’s try to change that narrative … Lastly, the kind of artists who work for not-for-profits are locals.”

“I’m here to specifically ask for your support in visionary redevelopment of the Sedona Cultural Park,” former Verde Valley Sinfonietta conductor and Sedona Conservatory founder Russell Fox said. “Societies do rise and fall on the values and principles embodied in their cultural arts … Arts development initiatives are chief economic drivers in every forward-thinking municipality’s strategic plan … Our now muchenlarged population hopes for and envisions a major renaissance in the performing and visual arts.”

“We are at a pivotal moment when we have the opportunity to invest in something truly transformative: Our arts community,” Sedona Ballet founder Winnie Muench said. “Unlike mass tourism, which focuses on low-spending, high-volume visitors, arts tourists tend to seek out authentic experiences and are willing to invest in our local artwork, performances and workshops. This will create sustainable livelihoods.”

During Sedona Ballet’s recent hosting of American Ballet Theatre, more than 35% of the audience came from out of town, Muench said, adding, “By investing in arts, we invest in the soul of Sedona.”

“The arts call forth people who are more sensitive to the environment, to other people,” artist Nicholas Kirsten said. “My wish is that you would continue to support the arts and look into the deeper understanding now that we have from these wonderful neuroscience women who dug deeply into what it does to our brain,” referring to the book “Your Brain on Art” by Susan Magsamen and Ivy Ross. “It enhances our brain, our body, our everything. Our environment needs to be full of art and support the arts.”

“Ticket sales only account for one-third of our annual operating revenue,” Sedona International Film Festival Executive Director Patrick Schweiss said. “The rest all has to be made up from grants, city support, memberships … Whether it’s the $550,000 that you’re boosting the arts — which would be awesome — or somewhere in between your increase and that, it would show a great, great deal of support from the city, saying we truly want to be, and want to support being, ‘a city animated by the arts.’”

“The data Julie has presented is rock-solid,” said Mike Upp, a ceramicist and president of the Sedona Visual Artists’ Coalition. “If you invested that amount of money in supporting the arts, you wouldn’t just get $550,000 in impact, the impact would be higher.”

The council will hold its budget work sessions to thresh out the proposed FY25 city budget on Wednesday and Thursday, April 17 and 18. The draft budget proposes expenditures of $100.3 million, the second highest in the city’s history.*

*Editor’s note: The original version of this story stated that the city’s draft budget projected declining revenues in the coming year. While state shared revenues are expected to decline, overall revenues are expected to increase.