posted by admin on Dec 2
LOUISIANA DIVISION OF THE ARTS
Rapides Symphony Orchestra, Alexandria Museum of Art, West Monroe steel guitar player Laymon Godwin, New Delta Review Literary Magazine, New Orleans jazz radio station WWOZ. These are just a few of the thousands of arts organizations, enterprises, and individual artists that grace every corner of the state and every discipline imaginable. Their contributions have forged Louisiana’s reputation as a land rich in culture and creativity. They have nurtured the state’s quality of life and fattened the economy. Recognizing the powerful influence of the arts on both Louisiana’s psyche and pocketbook, Lt. Governor Mitch Landrieu has retooled CRT’s Division of the Arts grants program to encourage organizational and individual growth as well as creativity.
The lion’s share of the Division of the Arts budget goes into the grants program, with $4.6 million of state-appropriated funds granted out in Fiscal Year 06/07; and in FY 07/08, grants funding hit a record $5 million.
The grants program the Division inherited disbursed funds primarily on a project-byproject basis. “Now, just like with any industry sector, the idea is to develop a solid, stable arts infrastructure,” said Arts Division Director Veronique Le Melle. Half the Division’s grant funds still go to the Decentralization Program, which directs funds to regional arts agencies that re-grant in all 64 Louisiana parishes for local arts priorities. But the other half goes to Direct State Funding of the Arts, where the Lt. Governor has initiated several new funding programs to achieve his paradigm shift from grant-making to strategic investment.
