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The Indy Arts Council is seeking a line-item increase in the proposed Indianapolis budget to better fulfill the organization’s mission to distribute grants to arts and culture not-for-profits in the city, CEO Julie Goodman said.
The amount proposed for the Indy Arts Council in 2025, $1.3 million, will be discussed Thursday during a Parks and Recreation Committee budget hearing at the City-County Building. The 2023 and 2024 budgets each allocated $1.3 million for the arts council, and the Marion County Capital Improvement Board added $250,000 each year.
Goodman said static funding represents a disservice to not-for-profits vying for dollars in the annual grants program. In 2023, a record-setting 85 organizations received grants. The record was broken again in 2024, when 91 organizations received grants.
“We were able to give increased awards to 37 organizations, which was great,” Goodman told the IBJ. “But because the overall funding hasn’t increased, we also have 33 organizations that received decreases this year.”
Goodman talked about the council’s quest for increased investment when she addressed an Aug. 22 audience at Start with Art, an arts council fundraiser at the Indiana Roof Ballroom. Mayor Joe Hogsett also spoke at the event.
Budget support has fluctuated since 1987, when the arts council was founded to add arts and culture to the Pan Am Games in Indianapolis. The initial investment of public money was $1 million. Not counting pandemic years of 2021 and 2022, the peak amount was $3 million in 2005, Goodman said, when the city budget and the CIB each contributed $1.5 million.
The total amount in 2009 was rolled back to $1 million—identical to the 1987 figure—because of recession challenges.
Goodman said the arts council would like to return to the $3 million allocation of 20 years ago.
“This is general operating support for [not-for-profit] arts and cultural organizations based in Marion County,” she said. “We don’t have any city funding or public funding to support individual artist grants, project grants, festival support and sector marketing. There are categories of work that arts councils do that we are not able to support in a meaningful way.”
In the proposed 2025 budget of $1.6 billion, the $1.3 million (or 0.08%) for the Indy Arts Council is listed as assistance to an external entity. Other funding in this category includes $3 million in crime-prevention grants and $71,500 for the Early Intervention Planning Council.
City-County Councilor Crista Carlino, chair of the Parks and Recreation Committee, is receptive to the arts council’s appeal for increased funding. Carlino cited the recently announced 2025 WNBA All-Star Game in Indianapolis as an opportunity to showcase the city’s art and culture.
“I’d really like to see us be at $2 million [for the arts council],” Carlino said of the proposed budget that’s scheduled for a vote of approval on Oct. 7. “I want to work with my colleagues on the council to see if we can work with the controller in the administration to get that funding to $2 million this year.”
Money budgeted for the Indy Arts Council originates from the city’s general fund and is not affiliated with Indy Parks.
“There are a variety of ways that we can work together to increase the funding in the local budget, as well as get philanthropic investment in the arts scene,” said Carlino, who represents District 11, an area that includes Indianapolis Motor Speedway. “It takes our whole community investing and showing up and consuming and supporting our local arts scene.”
Goodman said groups that receive funding have a strong return-on-investment track record.
In a 2023 national study by advocacy organization Americans for the Arts, Indianapolis-based not-for-profit arts organizations and their audiences were credited for delivering $523.8 million in annual economic impact.
The arts and culture industry supports 7,478 full-time equivalent jobs in Indianapolis and generates more than $87 million in local and state government revenue.
Goodman said CIB leadership has indicated that its 2025 contribution to the Indy Arts Council will be more than the 2024 amount of $250,000.
“We’re still behind, but it’s moving back in the right direction,” Goodman said of overall funding to distribute to not-for-profits. “We appreciate that, and we appreciate the openness of the city to be in the conversation with us.”
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