Wichita arts office reports rising grant interest, warns state funding shift and fewer free events threaten local programs

Lindsay Bino, manager for Arts and Cultural Services in the Wichita City Manager’s office, told the City Council during an annual update that the division saw growth in partnerships and demand in 2025 but faces mounting funding challenges that threaten free community programming.

Bino said the division now works with 49 funded partners and is building a baseline of audience data by collecting zip-code reporting from partners. “We started last year with 13 providers reporting zip-code data; last year we had 29 providers,” she said, noting the work identified eight Wichita zip codes that are underserviced, including 67216 on the city’s south side.

The presentation highlighted several measures of scale: roughly 230,000 cultural-arts encounters recorded by Wichita-based zip codes in 2025, about 651 applications received for public-art calls, and 618 users of a newly launched plain-language procurement toolkit designed to help local artists navigate RFPs, insurance and fabrication requirements.

Jesse Kosar, Cultural Arts Administrator, described a steady increase in grant applications and community trust, and he credited a newly expanded volunteer cultural-funding committee with increasing the program’s capacity to evaluate more complex proposals. “We are up to nearly 120 average applications for the committee to review each year,” Kosar said.

The office reported several programmatic changes intended to expand opportunities: it replaced an “artist access” professional-development grant with an “activation” grant that combines professional development and program funding so individual artists and small organizations can pursue projects with city support.

Despite those gains, Bino cautioned that local providers are offering fewer free events. “In 2025 the number of free cultural-arts opportunities declined,” she said, attributing much of that shift to funding instability at federal and state levels and to organizations charging modest admissions to remain solvent.

Bino also warned of a state policy change at the Kansas Arts Commission that she said is reducing Wichita’s share of state arts funding: “A new provision requires 60% of all funding to be granted to counties with populations of 85,000 or less, which means Wichita now has access to less than 40% of that funding,” she said, adding that the commission’s overall budget also fell, reducing available grants.

On public art and maintenance, staff reported completing nine public-art projects in 2024 and managing 18–20 active projects, while also instituting a more detailed, facility-by-facility maintenance plan funded by the transient guest tax (TGT). Bino said the division is itemizing major maintenance needs so large repairs do not crowd out other facility funding.

The presentation noted a 15% increase in paid artist opportunities between 2024 and 2025, and that roughly half of public-art commissions in 2025 went to local Wichita-based artists. Bino emphasized conservation work and the operational burden of vandalism on maintenance budgets.

Staff highlighted two facilities they called “diamonds in the rough.” Empire House at Old Cow Town Museum, heavily used for performances and rentals, needs substantial rehabilitation and has CIP dollars earmarked for future work; the Mid America All‑Indian Museum was described as underutilized because of capacity and access constraints and a candidate for future capital investment.

Bino closed by pointing to outreach and visibility wins — awards for Botanica and other institutions, a recent Kansas Arts Network conference hosted in Wichita, and ongoing partnerships with national funders — while urging continued attention to affordable studio and performance space, communications and targeted outreach to underserved neighborhoods.

The council had no formal vote on the report; staff will continue refining baseline data and return with updates as part of ongoing budget and CIP planning.