What’s Happening With Cuyahoga Arts and Culture?

There’s an art fight brewing, and the paint splatter is getting messy. In December, Cuyahoga Arts & Culture, which uses a tax on cigarettes to help fund arts organizations and individuals, announced a revamp of the Creative Workforce Fellowship. The fellowships, which have given individual artists a total of more than $3 million since 2009, will be changing. Karen Gahl-Mills, executive director and CEO of the organization, says more details will be forthcoming this year. But some, such as Zygote Press co-founder and executive director Liz Maugans, aren’t happy about what the changes might look like and the lack of input or information about those changes. Here are three things to know.

In the Details: Cuyahoga Arts & Culture put aside $400,000 for reinvented Creative Workforce Fellowships in 2017. Gahl-Mills says the organization is assembling an advisory group that will have input on the reshaped program. “All of that is happening now, with the goal of having something approved in the fall so that we can get money in the hands of artists this year,” says Gahl-Mills. “That’s always been the hope.”

Six Guidelines: The new program will include six general principals: flexible funding; a cohort model to bring artists together; learning opportunities; identifying emerging artists and artists of color; art that serves the community and defining what it means to be an artist more broadly. “If there’s a super awesome archaeologist that’s got a project that connects with the community, they would be just as eligible to apply,” says Gahl-Mills. 

Art Mandate: Maugans says a rift is emerging between Cuyahoga Arts & Culture and some artists. She worries that new guidelines will restrict creativity and possibly mean less money available for each artist. Similarly Maugans is concerned artists won’t have input on how potential changes will affect them. “If that’s the way [the program] is going to move forward,” she says. “Then these discussions need to open up.”