California Gov. Jerry Brown on Wednesday signed a state budget that includes $8.3 million in funding to the California Arts Council, with $7.1 million designated as a permanent annual increase.
The California Arts Council is the state agency responsible for granting funds to promote the arts, and according to a recent report by the Los Angeles County Economic Development Corporation, the creative industry is responsible for “1,447,100 jobs (direct, indirect, and induced), or nearly one in 10 of all wage and salary employment” in the state.
KQED reports:
Donn Harris, who chairs the California Arts Council, says that some of the money will go towards beefing up pilot programs for the young, veterans, and underserved communities.“We think the arts can apply to so many things that we don’t want them to be part of some elite piece off to the side,” Harris said. “We see this as part of the fabric of life.”
The governor’s original budget plan, proposed in January, allocated only $1.1 million from the general fund to the agency, but the proposed funding received an unexpected increase of $5 million as part of the governor’s “May revise.”
Read the story here.