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 and fabricate public artworks in the Arts Across the Prairie series. Christie said the program — community driven in each region — has reached a point where five of eight works are ready to build and that the council seeks funds both for fabrication and for an endowment to help with future maintenance. The council proposed allowing up to $50,000 annually from a cultural endowment maintenance fund and requested a one‑time fabrication package from the $1,000,000 cultural endowment the Legislature provided in a prior session. She told the committee the $1,000,000 had been invested and generated roughly $200,000 in interest, and that the council was requesting $380,000 from that corpus for the Arts Across the Prairie fabrication and related site work.

Christie and fiscal officer Robin Bosch described staffing and turnover. The council’s staff totals include six FTE and two temporary full‑time members; Christie said the agency expects several long‑term employees to retire over the current and upcoming biennium, including the long‑time fiscal officer and other senior staff. "In the past 2 years or over course of a 2 year span, our small team at NDCA will see a retirement of half of our team," Christie said, noting that turnover creates both budgetary and organizational challenges. The council asked the committee to consider funding for a requested additional FTE (a public information position) and to allow for leave‑payout coverage for departing staff.

During questioning Senator Mather and others pressed for clarification on fund matches and the council’s use of a $1,000,000 cultural endowment created in prior legislation. Christie said the endowment had been invested through the state Retirement and Investment Office, that its intent was to be spent down for Arts Across the Prairie fabrication as well as to support maintenance, and that the council has not yet spent the $50,000‑per‑year maintenance authority. Robin Bosch said the council must match National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) federal funds 1:1 in the aggregate, although not every subgrant requires a specific 50/50 match; she explained which grant programs require what kinds of matches and said the council regularly reviews grant guidelines to maximize reach.

Senators questioned how the state’s vacant/new FTE pool and OMB policies affected small agencies. Legislative fiscal staff explained the pool and how agencies access funds withheld for vacancies and how conference funds are accounted for when private contributions and registration fees are used to underwrite agency conferences.

Ending

The committee set the council’s request aside for follow‑up; members asked for clarification of multiple budget lines — including the cultural endowment mechanics, leave‑payout projections, and the Arts Across the Prairie one‑time needs — before advancing the appropriation.