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Arts and culture grants hold steady; state reports visitation rebound to pre-pandemic levels
Summary
Connecticut’s arts and culture office told the Appropriations Subcommittee that visitation to cultural institutions recovered to roughly 9.7 million annual visits in fiscal 2023 and that discretionary arts grant funding in the governor’s recommended budget remains essentially flat.
Connecticut’s Office of the Arts and Culture told the Appropriations Subcommittee that visitation to cultural institutions has returned to pre-pandemic levels and that the department’s discretionary grants appropriation has remained essentially flat in recent years.
Liz Shapiro, director of arts and culture and museums, reported the office’s most recent counts show roughly 9.7 million visits to about 730 cultural institutions in the state in fiscal 2023, a level she said matched 2019. “In 2019, we had 9,700,000 visitors to about 730 cultural institutions… the last time we did account was for fiscal year 23, and the visitation had returned to 9,700,000 visitors,” Shapiro said.
Why it matters: the subcommittee is reviewing a budget where many community arts and culture line items are essentially flatlined; legislators asked for more granular financial data to understand economic impact and to prioritize scarce discretionary dollars.
What the department said: Shapiro said the office does not routinely track box-office revenue across all venues because admission pricing and underwriting vary widely; the department did provide a general economic figure: the arts-and-economic-prosperity study for Connecticut (FY22) estimated average non-ticket spending by attendees at about $30.47 per visit (food, retail, lodging and related spending). The department’s discretionary arts grant appropriation in the governor’s recommended budget was reported as $1,497,298; that amount is leveraged with expected National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) partner funds.
Legislators’ requests: members asked the department to consider collecting more consistent box-office and admission data in its annual reporting so lawmakers can evaluate grant effectiveness; some members suggested a targeted analysis of financial viability for the largest venues, though Shapiro cautioned a comprehensive viability study of all 730 institutions would be costly.
Ending: the department said it will continue stewarding the existing discretionary grant funds carefully, work to improve data collection where feasible, and provide legislators with further information requested on attendance and grant impacts.
