Duane Gautier: "East of the river arts grants should go to artists + organizations BASED east of the river!"
Take a moment and watch the testimony of my amazing boss (and friend!)
Duane Gautier, CEO of
ARCH Development Corporation at yesterday's DC Council Committee meeting on Finance & Revenue. Part of the testimony focused on the funding for the Arts.
Although Wards 7 and 8 account for 24% of the DC population, we only receive about 6% of the Arts and Humanities grant funds. Of the east of the river grants that were distributed specifically for east of the river programming --
less than half of those organizations that received funds are actually based and/or headquartered east of the river.
I'm no artist but what is wrong with this picture?