Deciding the fate of $11,300 in arts grant funding for five organizations was put on hold by the Grand Forks City Council on Monday.
Council members voted to approve funding given to 10 other organizations by the city's Art Regranting Program. The money for the five groups was held until the council decides whether eligibility requirements for the grants were too loosely interpreted.
"The guidelines say their mission must be directly related to the arts," said Doug Christensen, the council member who suggested holding the funding at the Feb. 25 meeting of the council's finance committee.
Christensen had argued the Greater Grand Forks Historical Society, Moutainbrooke Recovery Center, Valley Memorial Homes, Development Homes Inc. and the LISTEN Center did not meet the requirement as it is written.
The matter will be sent back to the finance committee for discussion.
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Interpretation
Marie Strinden, executive director of the North Valley Arts Council, said the program has granted funding to more than 10 "nonarts" organizations since 2001. NoVAC has overseen the Art Regranting Program for the city since the 1990s, according to Strinden.
The statement from the grant program's application that council members took issue with says the mission of the applicant organization must directly pertain to arts and culture.
"Over the last decade, our organization has interpreted this to mean 'a nonprofit, arts or educational organization must produce a program that directly pertains to arts and culture,'" Strinden wrote in a letter to the council and Mayor Mike Brown.
In past years, the LISTEN Center, an agency providing services for physically and developmentally disabled clients, has used its funding to bring free public theater performances to the community.
Valley Memorial Home, a nursing home, uses program money to fund art therapy for its residents, who then host a public art show.
"Not only do these programs provide an opportunity for some of our most vulnerable populations to take part in the arts," Strinden wrote, "they are also some of the only programs funded by Arts Regrant money that pay the participating professional artists."
Making change
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Strinden says the council has the option of following the grant application's wording and excluding nonarts programs or changing the wording to reflect NoVAC's interpretation.
If the council chooses to withhold funding, the $11,300 could be awarded to other organizations this year through a special process or added to next year's grant total. This year, the regrant program had about $152,000 in requests and $116,000 available to give applicants.
Seventeen organizations applied but only 15 received funding as the remaining two organizations turned in late applications.
The grants were awarded by a committee composed of area business, education and arts leaders who have no stake in any of the applying organizations.
Other news
• Cullen Goenner, an economics professor at UND, presented his study of 2005 and 2010 antismoking legislation's economic impact on Grand Forks to the council. Its findings concluded legislation from both years had no impact on restaurant or bar sales in the city. The study was sponsored by the Grand Forks Tobacco Free Coalition and can be found on its website at www.tobaccobytes.com .
Call Jewett at (701) 780-1108; (800) 477-6572, ext. 1108; or send email to bjewett@gfherald.com .
