Council on the Arts seeks funding for Arts Across the Prairie and flags staff turnover in appropriations hearing

Jess Christie, executive director of the North Dakota Council on the Arts, told the Senate Appropriations Committee the council awarded more than $2 million in grants in the current biennium and needs one‑time funds to move forward on a multi‑region public‑art program.

Christie testified at a public hearing on Senate Bill 2010 and described grant totals, programs and a multi‑year public art initiative called Arts Across the Prairie. "To date, in this biennium, we have provided 396 grants, to the amount of over $2,000,000 in 71 cities, 39 counties, and across all 8 regions of the state," she said. Christie described programs for K–12 arts education, a Poetry Out Loud program that reached dozens of schools, institutional support grants requiring a 1:1 cash match, a folk and traditional arts apprenticeship program, and an "Art for Life" program that pairs arts organizations with elder‑care facilities.

A central request was funding to implement…