An artful use of stimulus dollars?

Posted on March 23, 2010

By Jay Howell

More than $470,000 in American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (aka the stimulus plan) funds have found their way to Idaho arts groups. This money came from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and went either directly to groups like the Boise Contemporary Theater, the Idaho Shakespeare Festival and the Log Cabin Literary Center, or was distributed to groups statewide through the Idaho Commission on the Arts.

All the State’s a Stage

According to records obtained by the Idaho Freedom Foundation, $254,200 was distributed to 44 Idaho arts groups by the Arts Commission. The award description said the money was “To support arts projects and activities which preserve jobs in the nonprofit arts sector threatened by declines in philanthropic and other support during the current economic downturn.” Director Michael Faison said the recipients reported back that the stimulus money has “created or saved” 14 full-time jobs, 18 part-time jobs, and 12 contract positions. According to the website recovery.gov, that equates to 22.5 full-time equivalent (FTE) jobs.