SoCal arts groups get trickle of federal stimulus funds

The federal government says its economic stimulus package from earlier this year saved or created more than 600,000 jobs. A small portion of those funds went to arts organizations, including some in the Southland that used the money to save jobs.

Ryman Arts, a two-decade-old Los Angeles group that offers free fine arts classes to area teens, received $26,000 in federal stimulus money. The group’s using the money to help pay the salary of its full-time administrative coordinator, a position held by 28-year-old Tiffany Galindo.

She says she's thankful. "I feel like I’m really busy all the time. And I think the organization is really important in the community, so being that I’m one of four people here I think that my role is very valuable."

Officials at the L.A. County Arts Commission, which handed out about $250,000 in job-saving stimulus grants, say that in its application Ryman made a strong case that it needed a lifeline. Executive director Diane Bringham says the group’s already struggling without its director of development, whose job it was to look for grants.

Keep up with LAist.

If you're enjoying this article, you'll love our daily newsletter, The LA Report. Each weekday, catch up on the 5 most pressing stories to start your morning in 3 minutes or less.

Subscribe

"With the recession we just weren’t able to sustain that position. So unfortunately we had to let that position go. And that’s tough at any time – good people, good colleagues."

Ryman Arts serves about 300 students a year. Its annual budget is less than three-quarters of a million dollars. In the last year, Ryman Arts has cut spending on office supplies and telephone service, and reduced employee benefits.

It could be worse, says education manager Rebecca Tuynman. "We saw our neighbors right here, next door to us, they’re another arts nonprofit that are now gone, gone under. We all have their office supplies and their old printer because they lost everything."

Five-figure grants won’t reverse long-term damage to California’s celebrated arts infrastructure, says former California Arts Council chief Barry Hessenius. "It is so little an amount of money in the overall scheme of things that it’s going to do not nearly enough as we ought to do to protect the creative environment that we have here in California."

Ryman Arts occupies office space in downtown L.A. cramped by filing cabinets and stacks of paintings, prints and photographs created by the students it has served for 20 years. The group was founded to honor Herbert Ryman, a Disney artist who promoted fine arts training.

In spite of budget cuts, says Brigham, the group measures success by the person. One of the framed works of art in her office is by Marisa Reisel, who took Ryman’s Saturday classes as a high school senior six years ago. "She’s a young woman who went to Culver City High School. Was really active both in their program at Culver City and indeed in our art program as well."

Riesel went on to study art at Princeton University. Now she’s a working artist in San Francisco, and she phoned Ryman recently to get advice on applying to graduate school.

Arts observer Hessenius isn’t sure the business of the arts faces those bright prospects. He says next year may be tougher, as many foundations end multiple-year funding cycles and the government money spout slows to a trickle.