ADVOCACY

Detail of It Happened in November, Kani Alavi, Mural, Berlin Wall

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Restore the Austin Arts Commission’s Oversight Role

Since 2019, from the start of the Cultural Funding Review Process, the Arts Commission’s statutory role overseeing Cultural Arts funding has been diminished. The resulting lack of oversight has led to substantial damage in the local cultural ecosystem. Please read and endorse this letter by clicking on the button above and share it with your community.

Austin Creative Alliance will deliver the list of community endorsements to City Council and Manager before their next meeting on February 27, 2025.

On Wednesday, February 26, 2025, the Austin Creative Alliance Board of Directors will send a letter to the Austin City Council asking that it reform and restore the Austin Arts Commission.

Community letters are a proven advocacy tool.

In May 2023, ACA sent a letter requesting a reorganization of the City’s scattered cultural activities into a unified new entity. Because of you, that letter received over 150 community endorsements. Leveraging that broad community support, we built a coalition across disciplines, from live music, film, dance and theatre to visual arts, so that the new City Manager was hearing a chorus of voices in support of this. Then ACA took a group of community leaders to meet the City manager in November 2024. On February 14, 2025, the City Manager announced the creation of ACME, a unified office housing the City’s cultural programs, a change that had been recommended for over 15 years by multiple City plans. Working together, the arts community helped catalyze the idea’s return to the center of civic conversation. Truly a team effort! Thanks to all of you who joined the chorus asking for change at the City. ACA is very grateful to City Manager TC Broadnax for taking this decisive step.

Music, Arts and Culture in Austin face challenges like never before.

Pressures like skyrocketing housing costs, stagnant incomes, and a lack of affordable studio, venue and work space are impacting our community’s working artists and grassroots organizations. It is more important than ever that the City’s cultural work be led by Arts professionals with practical experience in the field. Join us in the movement to align our City’s Cultural investments with international best practices, and put Austin’s culture at the forefront of municipal public policy.

To address these structural challenges, our advocacy work is currently focused on three areas:

  1. Transparency, accountability, best practices and community collaboration in the City of Austin’s cultural sector investment programs.

  2. Building a new pipeline of private and corporate cultural philanthropy.

  3. Preserving and creating permanently affordable, community owned cultural spaces.

ACA’s steady, long term advocacy commitment has already brought millions of new dollars for public investment in Austin culture. In 2016, we proposed a non-profit real estate holding company for creative spaces to address affordability. City Council subsequently adopted this concept, The Austin Cultural Trust, assigning it to the newly created Austin Economic Development Corporation aka Rally Austin, for which we also advocated. ACA also proposed and pushed for funding streams for the Cultural Trust, such as the $12 million Creative Spaces Bond, approved by voters in 2018, and the Iconic Venue Fund, passed by Council in 2020.

We thank you for your continued support and for joining us in advocating for the artists, cultural workers and community driven organizations who create the beautiful spirit and authentic character of Austin.