Residents and nonprofit leaders are calling for the city council to reject the proposed $1.2 million funding cut to Boston’s Arts and Culture cabinet which was proposed by Mayor Michelle Wu earlier this month.
The hearing comes as Boston contends with a nearly $50 million deficit brought on by snow removal, public safety and health care costs. Wu’s spending plan, which totals nearly $5 billion, reduces funding to the Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture by 27% from last year.
Many argued that loss of funding would hurt Boston’s economic health and a lead to a lack of outlets and opportunities for the city’s youth.
“When you cut arts and youth employment funding, you are not just cutting programs, you are removing safe spaces, opportunity, and income,” said Musau Dibinga, director of OrigiNation Cultural Arts Center in Jamaica Plain. Dibinga recalled being bullied as child and finding “a voice and sense of belonging” through dance.
“I urge you to go back to the drawing board and find a way to restore the $1 million cut to the Office of Arts and Culture’s FY27 budget.”
The Mayor’s Office of Arts and Culture is responsible for supporting and promoting the city’s arts community and works with the Arts Commission and Boston Cultural Council. The office’s proposed budget reduction means the removal of community-based grants; one fewer full-time employee, reducing the office to 23; and a pause on the city’s Artists in Residence program.
Lakiyra Williams, known professionally as Oompa, was among the residents who said it was city grants helped power her early career and lead to a thriving business.
“Because of those investments, I’ve been able to build a brand and a company that’s generated millions of dollars in revenue for the creative economy,” she said.
“The problem isn’t just tight budgets,” she continued. “I’m from Academy Homes Projects in Roxbury, and I was raised by a single mother who made $10,883 every year. I know what it means to choose between food and fun. It’s that arts and culture have never been proven essential. It’s treated as decoration, something you add when you can afford it and cut it when you can’t.”
Boston’s art sector plays a sizable role in the city’s economy. According to a recent city survey, 18% of residents said the creative economy was their primary source of income, said Arts and Culture Chief Joseph Zeal Henry.
“The creative industries contribute $15 billion a year to Boston’s economy, and just the income tax of Boston’s creatives is almost half a billion in the state coffers,” Henry said, later adding that addressing the industry’s physical space needs will be a priority for the office this term.
The mayor explained her budget as one that focuses funding for key priorities like “essential city services, housing, and robust support for youth and immigrant communities,” according to the budget document overview.
Some advocates took issue with that directly.
“In a year of difficult choices, stability in core services is being prioritized and that’s important, but investment in our civic life and quality of life is not keeping pace,” said Dawn Simmons, artistic director of SpeakEasy Stage Company.
“We need the city to protect the sector that makes Boston an exciting place to live, work and call home.”
Other departments are also facing cuts to portions of their budget. The mayor’s budget proposes a 43% decrease to funding for the Office for Immigrant Advancement; a 24% decrease to the Office of Fair Housing and Equity; and a 18% decrease to the Economic Opportunity and Inclusion cabinet.
Earlier in the day, at a separate budget hearing focused on the Office of Economic Opportunity and Inclusion, the former chief of that office, Segun Idowu, urged the city council to restore $2.6 million in funding to the office he left earlier this year.
The council has until the new fiscal year begins on July 1 to either propose an alternative budget and override Mayor Wu’s, or approve the mayor’s spending plan.
