The Commission
The Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission was created by the Dane County
Board of Supervisors in 1976, at the end of the American bicentennial observance,
to foster public participation in local arts and historical activity; to increase
public access to the cultural resources of the county; and to forge working
alliances between public and private sectors in support of the arts. The fledgling
agency was launched the following year in a basement storeroom of the courthouse,
provisioned with a federal surplus desk, a $5,000 budget, and high expectations.
For over a quarter century through five administrations, the commission has built and sustained a strong, focused, publicly responsive program, producing a solid record of community service. Although the commission is one of the smallest units of county government, it is widely regarded as one of its most successful and respected agencies. A division of the county executive office, the commission serves 430,000 citizens through three program areas: grantmaking; commission-produced publications; and information and technical assistance. Governed by an eleven-member policymaking board of eight citizens and three county board supervisors, the commission's $600,000 program is administered by a staff of one.
A unique financial structure
During the last two decades, the commission has carefully crafted a diversified
financial base unlike any other public arts agency in the United States. It
is a remarkable mix of leveraged private-public dollars which include an annual
Dane County appropriation matched by major donations from area corporations,
foundations, and individuals. Six donors contribute over sixty percent of
the commission's annual grant budget: the Overture Foundation, American Girl
Fund for Children, the Evjue Foundation, the Madison Community Foundation,
Pleasant T. Rowland Foundation, and the Endres Mfg. Company Foundation. Longtime
underwriters of commission publications are Alliant Energy and the Webcrafters-Frautschi
Foundation.
Grantmaking
At the forefront of its program activity, the commission provides a continuing
and stable source of funding for nonprofit groups, schools, municipalities,
and individual artists seeking support for arts and history projects. In fact,
the commission's annual $470,000 grant disbursement, constitutes the largest
single source of support from any public agency which awards funds for the
arts and humanities in Dane County.
The $470,000 allocation is awarded in three annual competitions for a culturally and artistically diverse range of exhibitions, music and dance concerts, touring productions, community and neighborhood festivals, arts-in-schools residencies, and historical publications and exhibits, reaching 470,000 service recipients in virtually every town, village, and city in the county. Every year approximately 125 project and capital grants help generate an additional $5 million in matching funds from other local sources. The commission's grant review process is assisted by a knowledgeable eight-member arts advisory panel and four-member local history advisory panel.
Over the last twenty-five years the commission has awarded more than 2,300 grants to hundreds of such disparate organizations as the Perry Hauge Log Church Preservation Association; Li Chiao-Ping Dance; Southern Wisconsin Hmong Association; Opera for the Young; Elvehjem Museum of Art; Centro Hispano; Verona Community Theatre; Urban League of Greater Madison; Mazomanie Historical Society; Token Creek Music Festival; Oregon School District; Wisconsin Chamber Orchestra, Ballet Folklorico; and Mount Horeb Landmarks Foundation.
Publications for the public
The commission is perhaps best known for its popular annual art posters and
desk calendars featuring works by area artists. These signature products expand
the reach of the agency into the county and help generate revenues to support
the commission's ongoing program. Every year forty town, village and city
halls serve as distribution sites for 15,000 posters and 8,000 calendars.
Other award-winning publications for children include Everybody's Ethnic:
A Dane County Alphabet; CAPITAL LETTERS IN DANE COUNTY ARCHITECTURE;
and A Gallery of Colors and Numbers. Commission-produced books have
included Back to Beginnings: The Early Days of Dane County; Settlers
of Dane County: The Photographs of Andreas Larsen Dahl; and Historic
Places of Rural Dane County.
An information source
In addition to information provided daily to the public through its office
and on its website, the commission publishes an inventory of over three hundred
Dane County cultural organizations and an annual listing of local arts and
crafts fairs. The agency is currently developing an extensive artists' help
desk with Madison CitiArts to appear on Portal Wisconsin.
Awards
Over the last two decades, the Dane County Cultural Affairs Commission has
received awards recognizing its programs and publications from the American
Association of Museums, National Association of Counties, American Association
for State and Local History, Graphic Design USA, Philip Morris Industrial,
State Historical Society of Wisconsin, Downtown Madison, Capital Community
Citizens, and the Madison Community Foundation.
Editorials
"The commission is a model agency. Its activities are testimony to the good
that public funding for the arts can produce … [It] has shown itself
over and over again to be a wise steward of public arts money [and] has proven
itself worthy of the public trust." Wisconsin State Journal
"The commission has successfully integrated cultural richness into life in Dane County. It's done so with a quiet but determined sense of purpose that has allowed the rest of us to take for granted what might be controversial in other hands." WISC-TV
"This area has one of the nation's models in private-public arts partnerships that really nurture the grassroots. The Cultural Affairs Commission has worked for the past 20 years to leverage modest amount of county tax money to raise far greater amounts of private money. The result is a cultural vitality that adds immeasurably to the quality of life here." The Capital Times
"Talk about piling up good will …" Isthmus
