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We support the South Carolina Arts Commission’s budget request for Fiscal Year 2013-2014:

This additional funding would greatly strengthen the Arts Commission’s ability to support the work of arts providers statewide and take advantage of opportunities to grow our creative economy through a combination of grants and other services

#1:  $25,000 in non-recurring funds for planning of a Cultural Districts Designation Program.  Cultural districts are special areas, designated or certified by state governments that utilize cultural resources to encourage economic development and foster cooperation between the arts and other local businesses.  There are now 12 states—including Kentucky and Louisiana in our region—that have a formalized state role in the creation of cultural districts, and results are very positive.  Outcomes—in both urban and rural areas—have included

• Attracting artists and arts business to communities
• Local business development and job creation
• New tourism destinations
• Productive reuse of historic buildings and
• Increased property values

The Arts Commission is requesting one-time funds to support the work of a statewide task force to plan such a program for South Carolina and to develop proposed legislation to enact it.

#2:  $30,000 in recurring funds to support on-going professional development for SC Artist/Entrepreneurs.  Individual artists in all arts disciplines form the core of South Carolina’s creative industries.  However many of our state’s artists struggle to build sustainable careers in their fields because they lack the knowledge, skills, and resources they need to do this.  With support from a national funder, the Arts Commission has developed the Artists Ventures program, a strong new approach to helping artists succeed as small business people, but that national support will end this year.  The Arts Commission is requesting funds to continue to build on the successful model of intensive training and one-on-one coaching that they have developed.

#3:  $1,000,000 in recurring funds for Statewide Grantmaking.  This new appropriation would bring the agency’s total grantmaking to more than $2.5 million for FY2014, or about 50 cents per capita.  For the current year the Arts Commission will award about 35 cents per capita.  By comparison, the State Library has at least $1 per capita for aid to county libraries this year.  An additional $500,000 in one-time funds appropriated by the General Assembly would have brought grants to 43 cents per capita, but when the surplus fell short of projections, the additional funds were lost.  New funds will provide a substantial increase to local arts organizations, schools, and other community arts providers that receive Arts Commission grants.

TALKING POINTS AND FACTS:

The Arts Commission’s mission is “…to develop a thriving arts environment, which is essential to quality of life, education, and economic vitality for all South Carolinians.”  The agency works statewide, with partners across all sectors, to make it possible for all citizens to have the benefits of the arts in their own lives, their communities, and their local schools.  Those benefits range from the purely personal joy of the arts experience to the substantial public value that creative industries produce for our state’s economy—$9.2 billion in annual economic output, supporting 78,000 jobs and generating $570 million in state tax revenues.

The agency works towards these outcomes in four basic ways:  direct programs, staff services, partnerships, and grants.  The programs and services they provide are carried out by staff with expertise in organizational development and various arts disciplines, and each year, the Commission reaches all of the state’s 46 counties with grants and/or direct services.  For example, in Fiscal Year 2012:

• 275 teachers from 43 school districts attended Arts in Basic Curriculum summer institutes,
• More than 4,300 high school students participated in the Commission’s Poetry Out Loud recitation competition,
• More than 200 arts leaders from 29 counties attended our Biennial Statewide Arts Conference, and
• 73 previously unknown traditional artists in 15 counties were identified through the Folk Tradition Bearers Survey.

The Arts Commission also awarded 267 grants in 40 counties, leveraging more than $75 million in local matching funds.  In addition, the Arts Commission works with a number of statewide partners to affect policy and practices related to arts education, community development through the arts, and development of creative industries in South Carolina.

In the last five years, the Arts Commission has absorbed significant budget reductions, as have most state agencies.

• Since Fiscal Year 2008, Arts Commission state funds have been cut by 55%, and total income has declined by 48%.
• The SCAC has reduced expenditures in a variety of ways, defining highest priorities and making hard choices, while maintaining core services and support for the arts that their public mandate requires.
• They have cut their administrative expenses by 49% since 2008 which are now 18% of its total budget.
• They have reduced their staff by 44% since 2008.
• In May of 2012, the Arts Commission moved into smaller, less expensive office space, reducing their annual rent and building operating costs by more than 60%.  The Arts Commission has adapted to the changing environment appropriately and proactively and become leaner and more efficient in the process.

ACIG must promote the development and implementation of appropriate curricula, instruction, and assessment based on the 2010 South Carolina Academic Standards for the Visual and Performing Arts. They must also serve as the foundation to support quality arts instruction and the growth of such programs in South Carolina schools.  Successful proposals include dance, music, theatre, and the visual arts.

During the 2012-13, grant cycle 80 grants were funded benefitting approximately 84,000 students throughout South Carolina. The $1.18 million in grant funds is allocated from the South Carolina Legislature.

The Arts Curricular Innovation Grants provide schools and districts with the funding for arts strategic planning, effective implementation of the state arts standards, standards-driven assessment, the use of instructional best practice strategies, and arts-specific professional development.

Ten years of ongoing research in South Carolina schools has demonstrated increased and enhanced arts education programs have significant impact on students, schools, and teachers. Research conducted by the University of South Carolina Office of Program Evaluation found that schools with quality, comprehensive, and sequential arts programs greatly changed the ecology of the school. Research at these schools concludes:

• higher student attendance,
• fewer discipline referrals,
• higher parent approval,
• fewer student interruptions and more time on task,
• higher teacher attendance, and
• higher teacher morale.

Arts Curricular Innovation Grants also provide quality professional development for arts teachers and classroom teachers.

• Teachers and administrators from every district in the state have attended summer professional development arts institutes through the Arts Curricular Innovation Grants.
• Over 325 teachers and administrators attend 15 institutes last year.
• The South Carolina Arts Leadership for Success Academy (SCALSA) and the Arts Assessment: Student Evaluation Institute have been approved by the Program of Alternative Certification for Educators (PACE) as two of the three required courses for PACE arts teachers.
• New teachers attending SCALSA have a very high retention rate. Out of 272 teachers attending SCALSA only 11 have left the teaching profession.
• Research from the Office of Program Evaluation at USC supports the quality of the arts institutes funded through the Arts Curricular Innovation Grants. Observers in a five year longitudinal study reported:
  • the quality of standards-based arts lessons had greatly improved after attending the Curriculum Leadership Institute in the Arts (CLIA) and
  • after teachers attended the Arts Assessment: Student Evaluation Institute there was noticeable improvement in teachers assessment of students’ knowledge of the South Carolina Academic Standards for the Visual and Performing.

Applicants must use grant funds to achieve all of the bulleted items below:

• Plan, develop, and implement arts education curricula, instruction, and assessment based on the 2010 South Carolina Academic Standards for the Visual and Performing Arts.
• Develop lesson plans and curriculum guides based on the 2010 South Carolina Academic Standards for the Visual and Performing Arts and purchase resources required to implement these lessons.
• Provide for teacher professional development programs for arts specialists or appropriate classroom teachers.

• A minimum of 30%of the total budgetmustbe used for scholarships for SCDE-approved 2012 arts summer professional development institutes. These include institutes on curriculum, leadership, assessment, technology, creating in the arts, artistically gifted and talented, media production in the arts, and arts integration.
• Hire certified arts specialists or contract with professional artists approved by the South Carolina Arts Commission (SCAC).
• Administer the South Carolina Arts Assessment Program (SCAAP) as a major part of an ongoing needs assessment and evaluation.  The objective of SCAAP is to allow educators and school districts to assess students’ arts achievement based on the 2010 South Carolina Academic Standards for the Visual and Performing Arts.
  • Nearly 5,058 fourth grade music and visual arts students from 32 schools participated in SCAAP in 2012.
  • The test gives teachers feedback on the implementation of standards-based arts education and allows arts teachers to make informed decisions regarding the adjustments in their long-range plans.

The grant includes innovative practices. Applicants must include and detail innovative practices to

• Enhance, accelerate, and assure student achievement in the arts,
• Implement the 2010 South Carolina Academic Standards for the Visual and Performing Arts,
• Embed innovative practices in the grant’s strategies and action steps, and
• Include strategies to more effectively engage students in their arts study.

 The EIA-Arts Curricula funds in the SCDE budget have been crucial to the progress of arts education in South Carolina since the passage of Target 2000 legislation in 1989.  This funding supports the improvement of arts curricula and instruction through competitive grants to schools and districts. The grants impact is statewide as well as local, due to the fact that these grant funds support statewide professional development for arts teachers that has dramatically improved arts instruction and integration with other subjects including STEM. Arts Curricular innovation Grants also support a standardized arts assessment program that is an important tool for local and statewide arts program improvement.

About this report

Researchers at the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina analyzed 2008 data from the U.S. Census Bureau and the U.S. Department of Commerce, Bureau of Economic Analysis, regarding the creative economy associated with the arts, design, crafts and related activities in South Carolina. The results of the analysis reveal that creative enterprise in the state engenders a core impact of $9.2 billion and a full impact of $13.3 billion. (Research conducted by Veronica Watson, research analyst.)

Dr. Douglas P. Woodward Dr. Douglas P. Woodward is the director of the Division of Research and professor of economics at the Darla Moore School of Business at the University of South Carolina. He earned his Ph.D. in economics at the University of Texas in 1986. Dr. Woodward’s primary research interests are in the areas of regional economic development, entrepreneurial economics and international economics. He has published numerous academic articles in economics and regional science journals.