COLUMBUS – Columbus City Council Tuesday announced a new plan for funding the arts in the city, one that includes a smaller ticket fee than one proposed by arts leaders.
The Columbus Art Alliance is a two-part system for financially supporting Columbus’ cultural and performing arts community, with a 5 percent fee on tickets to performances and sporting events to support artists and facilities, including Nationwide Arena, Council president Shannon Hardin announced Tuesday.
“We must take responsibility for our aging buildings and for the next generation of arts, artists and arts education for local families and their kids. This plan offers a path forward for two important challenges,” he said.
Council had been considering a proposal from the Greater Columbus Arts Council for a 7 percent fee, with 30 percent of the funds raised to be used for maintaining and improving Nationwide Arena, which prompted critics to label the plan an “arena bailout.”
A system for supporting the arena with money from the Hollywood Casino Columbus had not been working out.
Hardin’s plan calls for funds from the tax on tickets to performances and sporting events at venues with more than 400 seats and on tickets more than $10 will be used to support a “creativity fund,” which would provide grants through the GCAC
to arts organizations and facilities.
This fee, which would not be levied on tickets to events at Nationwide Arena or those to Ohio State University sporting events, is projected to generate $6.6 million, doubling the amount of money available for arts organizations and venues, Hardin said.
“I am proud of our Columbus nonprofit arts and cultural organizations, and not just because they individually and collectively remain committed to being part of the solution. But because these nonprofit organizations…have stepped up and agreed to place this fee on their own tickets and admissions,” said GCAC president and CEO Tom Katzenmeyer, who says funds will not fully provide the $15 million he says the city needs to invest in the cultural community in order to make it the equal of those in similar cities, such as Cleveland and Indianapolis.
A “stabilization fund” will be supported by a 5 percent ticket fee on events at Nationwide Arena and will be used to invest in maintaining buildings with an estimated $3 million in revenue annually, a measure Hardin says will ensure that only revenue raised from events at Nationwide are used to support improvements at the arena. Eighty percent of the funds will be available for long-term capital and maintenance projects at the arena, while museums, theaters and other arts facilities receive the remaining 20 percent.
Council will host a public hearing on Thursday at City Hall and consider the proposal on Dec. 10.
If enacted, the plan would be in place July 1, 2019.