NHSCA Defunding Opposition Letter
We at the Creative Artists of New England (a prospective non-profit), also known as CANE, have witnessed the decline of arts personally. As artists fresh out of college, we have seen, discussed, and felt the impact of the arts being pushed aside and defunded. We are a group founded by graduates from the now closed New Hampshire Institute of Art (NHIA), who lost a valuable asset to the art community and that felt insurmountable. Not only had we lost a campus dedicated to the arts, we lost a community of like minded-individuals, all experiencing the same grief. After NHIA was bought and merged with another college, the community of artists seemed to disappear in Manchester, NH. Losing NHIA felt like Manchester was closing the chapter on the art world; it lost the force that encouraged learning, and the need for a strong community.
Similarly, within the past year, we have seen a plethora of other colleges, galleries, and art communities lose funding across the country. For example, big colleges like the University of Arts in Philadelphia, the San Francisco Art Institute, the Delaware College of Art and Design, and so many others closed within the past year, all cited funding deficits. The economic impacts of closures like this are devastating for the local economies, as thousands of jobs are lost.
In 2021, the New York Times [1] reported that the arts sector contributed a whopping $1 trillion to the US economy, but still, each year the arts seem to grow less and less. This defunding is a direct result of the same thing, a thing that is a threat to artists everywhere: the invalidation of arts as a career. Not only artists are affected by the defunding of the arts.
With the potential for New Hampshire to lose necessary funding from state and federal sources,
now more than ever, New Hampshire must advocate for just how important the arts are to
our culture, health and economy.
CANE is trying to create this organization with the hope of bringing arts back into areas of New England that have long since lost their communities. The arts have opened communities up to collaborative spaces where even the everyday person can grow their skill sets, and see the world in a different lens.
New Hampshire is full of organizations trying to build community, encourage connection, and create lasting visual impacts by drawing in tourists (which boosts New Hampshire’s economy). These companies need funding to help the state's economy.
In the 2024 fiscal year, the New Hampshire State council for the Arts funded over $1.5M in over 60 communities, individuals, and organizations. This has directly resulted in the $3.4B contribution from the Arts and Culture sectors on the NH state economy, creating/sustaining more than 20,000 jobs (3.2% of the state’s GDP)[2], which is on par with the construction industry in NH.
Two examples of these communities are:
The Arts Build Community (ABC) of Manchester, New Hampshire. The creator, James Chase, has encouraged local artists, and outside volunteers to come together to create large scale murals which often get shown and praised on social media from people in and outside of New Hampshire.
Kimball Jenkins of Art at French. Both groups' missions are to be affordable educational spaces for children and adults to learn or test out new art mediums. They also encourage experimentation of creativity, community resources, public events, and cultural appreciation.
Not only does the NH state council for the arts contribute to the health of the economy and community, it contributes to the health, education and cultural heritage of individuals living within the state [3].
Our State government needs to see the vital role our State Council on the Arts, our artists and arts industry plays in the story of our state, so that they continue to fund and further invest in the arts here in the granite state.
For more information on the impact of the NH State Council of the Arts and the arts in
general here in NH, please visit arts4nh.org or https://www.nharts.dncr.nh.gov/
For more information about the positive impacts of funding the arts, please visit https://nasaa-arts.org/nasaa_advocacy/why-government-support/
[1]Source: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/02/arts/design/arts-education-necessary.html
[2]Source: U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis & National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (2024) Data Collected for 2022
[3]Source: https://www.nharts.dncr.nh.gov/programs
Thank you,
The Executive Board of the Creative Artists of New England
