Groups may pool arts funds

Web posted November 17, 1996

By Bill Syken
Staff Writer

Arts groups in the area are considering radically changing the way they raise money.

A committee from the Greater Augusta Arts Council is gathering information on united arts funding, in which fine arts groups would raise money together, similar to how social service agencies raise money through the United Way.

The idea has been suggested before, and shot down before. This time, however, the people talking about it are the ones with the money - the area's big corporate arts donors.

A switch to united funding would make life simpler for them. Instead of having to sort through dozens of solicitations each year, they could just give a block of money and let the arts council decide how to spend it.

Tommy Stone, in addition to being president of the arts council, is also regional manager for Georgia Power. His company deals with two or three requests for money a month.

``We think it would just work a lot smoother, give it in one lump sum, let them, the arts council, in an impartial way decide how to allocate the money,'' Mr. Stone said. ``We think it would make life easier for everybody.''

Right now the committee is talking to people in Baton Rouge, La., Charlotte, N.C., and other cities that have united arts funding. Sometime soon, likely in January, the committee will ask the overall arts council for permission to investigate further through discussion with arts groups, big donors and other interested parties.

The most likely holdout among groups is the Augusta Symphony, which has historically opposed united arts funding. As a financially successful organization, it would have little to gain from throwing in with everyone else.

Pat Finch, the symphony's executive director, said that united arts funding could create a wasteful bureaucracy and dilute the passion volunteers feel for their particular organization. She also contends it would not alleviate the number of requests coming to the big donors in town, because the arts groups would still raise some of their own funds. The American Symphony and Orchestra League, a national organization to which the Augusta Symphony belongs, opposes united funding.

Gerald R. Woods, a former president of the symphony board, heads the committee that is investigating united funding. If given permission to proceed further, he said, he welcomes comment from any interested party. He pledged that input would be taken seriously and that change would not be forced on any group.

It's inevitable any change on this scale will make some people in the arts groups nervous - especially if it gets to the point where people have to devise a specific process for dividing up the money. In organizations where participants, many of them volunteers, put so much pride in their work, it's natural people might become defensive.

But Mr. Stone said it's time to deal with the concept conclusively, one way or another.

``We need to seriously look at it and decide,'' Mr. Stone said. ``If we determine it's good for this area, let's get a mechanism in place. If we determine it's not for this area, let's quit talking about it.''