Residency funding troubles in the United States
Deborah Obalil, director of the American Alliance of Artists' Communities talks to Trans Artists about the consequences for residential art centers of recent developments in funding policies in the United States.Obalil: "In the United States residential artists communities can apply for a special tax status, a non-profit tax status. Because of this status people who support our communities can deduct a certain amount from their taxes. One of the requirements to be able to get that tax status is that the organisation is in some way or another contributing to the greater public good. However, the traditional argument that by serving artists we are serving the public good, is not having the same impact as some years ago."
"These last years some of our members are finding it increasingly difficult to justify getting support. Even some of them are having their non-profit tax status challenged. Most residency communities dont have a lot of interaction with the public. Which is logical, the mission is to create this dedicated time and space for artists to work. And very often this includes solitude. Not always, not all artists choose to work that way, but artists communities give them that choice. And its because of that separation from the public I think artist-in-residence programs are facing this criticism more than ever."
"But increasingly residential centres do catch up with the arts, in many cases theyre even at the heart of new developments. In general most centres understand that artists dont need to be necessarily isolated. In some way the challenge of artists communities is good. It forces them to really look at how they support artists and if their mission fits with what artists need and want. It is a different challenge for different artists communities, because each one has a different kind of public engagement." Th
Deborah Obalil, (Res Artis General Meeting, 2002).
