Ask the head of any state arts agency in the country, and they’ll tell you that fiscal year 2003 isn’t going to go down in the annals of history as a banner year for arts spending. A study sponsored by the National Governors Association and the National Association of State Budget Officers found that 2002 was the worst year for state economies since World War II. Across the country, states are slashing their funding to state arts agencies by as much as 62 percent (in Massachusetts), and are even taking back monies already given. In Arizona, the legislature not only deferred payment on monies pledged to the state arts endowment in 2002 and 2003, but also removed $1 million in principal from the endowment last year.

It’s no surprise then that a search for more statewide crafts initiatives (see “New Support For Craft,” The Crafts Report, May 2002), yields few programs — and none in states that weren’t already seeking to promote craft in some way. Most states are struggling to keep the programs they’ve got.

Still, there are faint rays of hope shining through the budgetary abyss, some of which may illuminate creative ways to market crafts with scant resources.

State Officials Understand Value of Arts

It’s not as if state governments don’t know what arts organizations in general, and crafts in particular, do for the state economy. A 2001 report of the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices states that the non-profit arts industry generates $36.8 billion nationally. In the same report, the crafts industry is singled out as an important impetus for revitalizing “under-performing” regions.

Many states have recently sponsored conferences on ways to use the arts to stimulate the economy. Tennessee’s “Cultural Crossroads...Heritage Tourism and the Arts,” conference featured former Cherry Creek Arts Festival president Bruce Storey.

The Iowa Department of Cultural Affairs sponsored a “Creative Economy Unconference” in March, an event featuring Richard Florida, author of “The Rise of the Creative Class: And How It’s Transforming Work, Leisure, Community and Everyday Life.” However, neither conference’s program specifically singled out crafts and craft artists as a vehicle for economic development.

The same might have been the case for the Louisiana Travel and Promotion Association Summit in Lafayette, La., this year, had not the Louisiana Craft Guild joined the association. The Guild’s marketing director, Deborah Simeral, arranged guild member demonstrations at the summit. The demonstrations, which included metal enameling, shibori cloth dying, ceramics, and woodturning, were a big hit, says Simeral. “A lot of the people (at the summit) work in tourist information centers,” she says, “but many of them had no idea these people were in their state.”

It’s a good time for Lousiana’s tourism officials to take notice of the four-year-old guild: membership has tripled in the past year and the guild’s gallery, now in its third year, represents all 180 of the guild’s artists.

Guilds Promoting Craft in Their States

The Louisiana Craft Guild’s involvement at the summit represents the new way of promoting craft in tough times: it was a fairly low-tech, low-cost, and innovative way to promote craft throughout the state.

In 2002, the Indiana Arts Commission was hoping to team up with several other state agencies to begin promoting craft through programs similar to Kentucky Crafted and North Carolina’s Hand-Made in America.

According to Indiana Arts Commission information director Polly Herald, state budget woes have kept the collaboration from happening, though some kind of crafts marketing program remains a priority when funds do become available. Until then, the Arts Commission has had to consider new ways to promote and support crafts artists.

“ We have to be very strategic with limited resources,” Herald says. “We’re looking for things that don’t cost money. How can we give artists visibility? How can we help them network?”

Herald says the Commission has talked about offering a tax workshop for artists, and looking in-house to use resources the state already has — for example, offering exhibition space in common areas of the seven inns operated in state parks.

Talk of branding and “craft community” designations has been put on hold until the resources are available to give such a program teeth. “We want to make sure what we do isn’t superficial, because we don’t have enough resources to do something that isn’t meaningful,” Herald says.

Multitask Programs More Likely to Succeed

In fact, any programming aimed solely at craft artists is unlikely for a while in Indiana. Another feature of programming in tough times, Herald says, is that a program has to be able to multitask. “The more constituents you can affect, the better.”

She cites her online newsletter, Arts Eye, as one of her most cost-effective programs helping artists to network and publicize events. “It’s high impact for constituents, but low impact on the budget.”

Indeed, the Internet may be one area where state officials can still make some progress in crafts marketing. Many states have Web sites that support craft, whether through folklife departments or through state departments of commerce or tourism.

The Virginia Commission for the Arts Web site (www.arts.state.va.us/) features a thorough directory of retail craft galleries.

North Carolina’s virtual tour guide (www.discovercraftnc.org/), in its beginning stages last year, has become a dynamic and user-friendly guide to finding galleries and individual artists throughout the state.

Additionally, many states offer online artist rosters with links to the artists’ home pages, online calendars of events, some specifically limited to crafts fairs, and links to specialized statewide arts organizations and guilds.

Maryland Has Model Program for Artists

Last year, Maryland became the first state to offer communities the opportunity to become “Smart Growth Arts and Entertainment Districts.” Since then, the state has designated seven districts, some of which offer artists tax-free housing and studio space, and all of which offer sales and income tax breaks for the writers, performers, sculptors, painters and craft artists who decide to live or work in the districts. In addition to supporting the arts, such programs can create a thriving cultural scene in previously declining neighborhoods.

Carol Vital, former senior project coordinator in Maryland says she’s received calls from other states interested in following her state’s lead, but so far, no other state has implemented such a program.

“ With state budgets the way they are, (tax abatement programs like Maryland’s) are seen as money taken away from the state, but it’s really money they didn’t have,” says Vital. “If a building is run-down anyway, the state’s not getting any revenue from it.”

Vital says there’s been a lot of building and renovation going on in the arts and entertainment districts. Fiscal year 2003 will be the first in which artists are entitled to income tax abatement, and Vital hopes it won’t be the last. She says Maryland’s own budget woes have forced cuts to other tax-relief programs. Her own position has become the victim of a new administration tightening its money belt, and it’s possible that the A&E credits could be cut, too, she says, “and that would be devastating.”

A Few Programs Bucking Tight Budgets

One organization that may be bucking the trend of dwindling funds is Florida Craftsmen, a non-profit organization funded by state and local agencies. Executive director Michele Tuegel thinks the organization may be indirectly benefiting from the state’s tight budget. The craft organization, which recently purchased their 17,000 square-foot building through fund-raising and a 2-to-1 matching grant from the state, received more from the state this year than ever before.

“ Our advantage may be that our programs are very visible statewide, compared to community arts centers serving a local audience,” says Tuegel.

The Florida Craftsmen Gallery is also bucking economic trends: gallery sales for November and December 2002 were up 17 percent over 2001.

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