Perfect Pitch: Considerations for a Dedicated Funding Source for Arts and Culture

Convinced by a compelling business case that showed how arts and culture contributes to a strong knowledge economy, the Maricopa Regional Arts and Culture Task Force called for a region-wide commitment to arts and culture development. The 30 elected, business, arts, and philanthropic leaders also agreed that, given the current financial limitations of the region’s arts and culture sector, a new era of achievement would require a "well-rounded system of funding and support through public, private, and philanthropic means." Without this, the potential for arts and culture to help ensure "a high skill, high innovation economy in a great, livable place" would go unfulfilled. Given the economic imperatives, size of the arts and culture sector, and various election results, creating a "well-rounded system of funding and support" for arts and culture in metro Phoenix would seem to be realistic. Yet, for all of these and other pluses, the task force’s members realized that their successors would have to have "perfect pitch" on any proposal for a dedicated funding source for arts and culture.