Several arts groups appear to have missed out on Arlington County grants this year due to issues in handling paperwork.
A number of groups were left behind when the Arlington County Board recently divided up $366,000 in fiscal 2025 grants to arts organizations and individual artists. Among them were several performing-arts troupes, which in past years had received funding.
They were left out in the cold during the latest round due to “procedural issues,” said County Board member Takis Karantonis, who expressed chagrin at the result.
“They really depend on these grants. Sometimes it’s really critical,” Karantonis said on Nov. 19, when Commission for the Arts chair Adam Green gave an overview of the fiscal 2025 funding effort.
Green said that if arts organizations don’t provide all the information requested in the grant application by the annual September deadline, they are likely to find their chances limited.
“When they’re not complete, they’re scored on what’s there,” he said, adding that county-government staff provide “multiple opportunities” — including workshops and briefings — to make sure prospective applicants have the information they need to make a full submission.
But he also said it wouldn’t hurt to have more outreach.
“There’s a space there to improve,” Green said. “If you’re looking for a way to have applications not slip through [the cracks] … I think the answer is communication.”
The Arlington government’s cultural-affairs staff is housed under Arlington Economic Development, an agency whose main bailiwick is dealing with businesses. Karantonis noted that some arts groups “don’t do bureaucracy well.”
“Flexibility has to be part of the [grants] program,” he said.
While a number of performing-arts troupes were left out of funding this year, others — including Dominion Stage, Encore Stage & Studio, Synetic Theater and the Arlington Players — did receive grants, ranging from $7,000 to about $30,000.
Government leaders this year added more ongoing funding to the grants program for the first time in nearly a decade, and as a result, the median award was up 80% over last year.
“The arts and the artists and the organizations are going to benefit tremendously,” Green said.
Board Chair Libby Garvey will be leaving elected office on Dec. 31, but expressed the hope that the local government’s funding for arts groups, which has been in place since the 1990s, will continue.
“I think we’re headed into some very difficult times, and one way humans get through difficult times is the arts,” she told Green. “I think you’re going to play an important role.”
Photo via Erik Mclean/Unsplash
