Mission
The mission of the Arts and Culture Alliance of Chatham County is
- to promote and advance the arts and culture industry in Chatham County,
- to advocate for pro-arts and culture public policy change, and
- to serve as a platform to provide the industry a voice for the betterment of economic impact, job growth, quality of life, education, and overall community creativity.
The Arts and Culture Alliance of Chatham County’s vision is to provide a diverse, vibrant, prosperous, and sustainable arts and culture industry in Chatham County.
History
In December 2016, the City of Savannah cut from a proposed budget all funding for arts and culture. A few from the arts and culture industry wrote to their representatives and spoke before the City Council to have the cut re-considered. The arts and culture funding was kept intact, but without an increase and with City Council disregarding the Department of Cultural Affairs funding recommendations. Instead of prorating recommendations to the allocated amount, the funding awards from 2016 were replicated. A few organizations saw no change in their amount, many received more than recommended, many saw less than recommended. No new applications were considered.
In the spring of 2017, the City of Savannah left for a strategic planning retreat and returned with a list of priorities entitled. Absent was any reference to arts and culture either directly or indirectly. What was most disconcerting was the absence of arts and culture among the list of economic development sectors to prioritize.
By late spring/early summer, it was apparent that something had to be done to begin building an alliance to bring the industry together to form a single collective voice like that of many other industries in the region. Originally, it was to serve as an initiative to respond to only public policy decisions, but when the idea was publicized, it was apparent that it could be more.
The initiative is indeed to be in a position to respond to public policy decision-makers, but also to help encourage a more friendly business environment for artists and organizations, foster collaborations, promote the industry as a whole, and to host capacity-building workshops.
Following are a few of the ideas or projects the Arts and Culture Alliance of Chatham County is considering:
- Increase in the City of Savannah’s arts and cultural investment funding,
- Arts and culture operating funds from Chatham County,
- Closer partnerships with county, city, municipalities, and other economic development entities as it relates to arts and culture,
- Industry-wide event showing the best of arts and culture in the county,
- Small business financing or other options being available to not-for-profit arts and culture organizations,
- Comparable small business incentivization for attracting artists and organizations to the county,
- Arts and culture community fund to use promoting the industry and providing other support services,
- Technical support for capacity building,
- Arts and culture-specific short-term loan fund,
- More integration of public art into large-scale capital improvements.
Staff
Patrick A. Kelsey, Executive Director.
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Patrick is a Professor of Business, Department of Liberal Arts at the Savannah College of Art and Design. Joining the faculty in 2011, he teaches a full spectrum of graduate and undergraduate courses, in the classroom or online, including accounting/finance, marketing, fundraising, and legal issues. Before SCAD, he worked as Managing Director and Development Director for NYC’s Irish Repertory Theatre, General Manager for Camp Broadway, General Manager for Broadway’s Lyric Theatre, and Director of Operations for Broadway Across America. He has served as a grant or investment fund panelist for the Nancy Quinn Grant for ART/NY, Georgia Council for the Arts, SouthArts, and the City of Savannah’s Department of Cultural Affairs. For the term of 2018-2023, he was appointed as a Cultural Affairs Commissioner for the Department of Arts, Culture and Historical Resources. He was elected as Chair for the 2021 term. In addition, in 2019 he was appointed the State of Georgia’s State Arts Advocacy Captain for Americans for the Arts’ annual Arts Advocacy Summit in Washington, DC. Patrick is the President/CEO of Georgians for the Arts, a 501c4, organization dedicated solely to advocating for the advancement and support of arts and culture for Georgia.