Sedona’s proposed arts budget for fiscal year 2024 is $178,130, an increase of $20 from last year’s budget.
Not included in the city’s arts budget are individual grants to community arts organizations, which are administered through the city’s small grants program. The grants recommended by the review committee for each of these programs totaled $99,000 out of a requested $186,500:
- Red Rocks Music Festival: $6,250
- Parangello Players: $13,000
- Verde Valley Sinfonietta: $10,000
- Piano on the Rocks: $6,750
- Sedona Arts Festival: $10,000
- Chamber Music Sedona: $14,000
- Sedona Arts Center: $13,000
- Sedona International Film Festival: $13,000
- Arts Academy of Sedona: $0
- Sedona Visual Arts Coalition: $5,000
- Emerson Theatre Collaborative: $8,000
The proposed FY 24 budget also included $232,000 for the Art in the Roundabouts program, but only $167,000 of that will be a city contribution; the remainder of the funding, $65,000, was provided by a donation from Gary and Diane Carson last August.
Total city arts spending for 2024 comes to $444,130 under the current budget. The baseline arts budget of $178,130 works out to arts spending of $18.39 per person, while the city contribution to Art in the Roundabouts adds $17.24 per person and the small grants another $10.22 per person, bringing the city’s total per-person arts spending to $45.85.
Art in the Roundabouts
The largest share of the city’s 2024 arts spending is the one-time allocation of $232,000 for the Art in the Roundabouts program, which will pay for the installation of sculptures in the roundabouts along State Route 179. The four sculptures were selected from 30 submissions by a public vote in 2021.
“We are waiting for the structural engineering plans, and then there’s another phase for ADOT review, which can take some time, and once that happens, I’m hoping that we’ll have them installed throughout 2024,” city Arts and Culture Coordinator Nancy Lattanzi said. The installations will be staggered, with a separate unveiling and artist appearance for each sculpture.
“It’s going to be really exciting, because they’re all so unique in their own way,” Lattanzi said. “It’s looking like they may be installed in the sequence of going north to south, so the first would be Canyon [Road], and then Morgan [Drive], and then Chapel [Road], and finally Back O’ Beyond, the way the artists are creating them, as far as where they are at right now.”
Susan Kliewer’s “Julian & Maria” is slated for installation at Canyon Road, while Don Kennell and Lisa Adler will supply “The Sedona Roadrunner” for the Morgan Drive roundabout. James Muir’s “Eternal” will be featured at Chapel Road and Mark Feldtkeller’s “Look In Up” will adorn the Back O’ Beyond roundabout.
Art in the Classroom
The main focus of the city’s arts and culture programming is the Artist in the Classroom project. Created in 1989, it is one of the city’s oldest programs and recruits local artists in many fields to share their skills with students through everything from workshops to regular classes.
“I am refreshing it,” Lattanzi said of the program in the run-up to the coming school year. “I am going to be hiring new artists and looking at more creative ways to hire a different curriculum.”
Lattanzi hopes to be able to expand even further on the program’s success in the future.
“I’d like to see a lot more inter-generational projects, which is what I’ve done in the past and I want to revisit those through the schools as well as the library,” Lattanzi explained. “I feel it’s really important to get the younger generation involved as well as the older generation. I’ve done partnerships with the schools and Sedona Winds, where I’ve brought students — it was the most emotional beautiful experience — to interview them, to write books about them, to perform for them. I want to do more of that. That’s my trajectory right now, especially coming up on the new school year … This is an arts town, an arts destination, which is great, but I think the kids get lost along the way, and that’s really important.”
Artists are paid $28 per hour plus reimbursement for materials.
Art in the Chambers
Lattanzi also confirmed that the Moment of Art will continue at the first council meeting of each month, following a suggestion that was made at the March 28 meeting to discontinue it in order to simplify broadcasting the meetings.
“I’m working on a John Soderberg tribute for the Moment of Art,” Lattanzi outlined. “It’s looking like it’s going to land in the August slot … For September, I’m going to have Amy Ernst, because she can talk about her work, which will just be going up in September. Everyone in the community that I know art-wise is really excited to either meet her or just come see her work. And that’s being shipped, actually, as we speak … October is Arts Month, so I’m looking for something that incorporates a little bit of all mediums. November is a Writer’s Month, so I’m going to reach out to a writer who wrote a book about Sedona. And something holiday-ish for December.”
Sedona Cultural Park
“It would be great to see that come back to life. I know a lot of people would love that,” Lattanzi said of the Sedona Cultural Park, which the city acquired last December. “I don’t really know what the exact plans are going to be; I know we’re going to do a lot of outreach.”
“I hope it’s really community-oriented and of course that the arts are incorporated in the plan, whatever that might look like,” Lattanzi added. “Whether it’s concerts, outdoor movies — everybody wants a piece of the pie … there’s an arts museum in the works that’s been taking quite some time … art classes, workshops, performances, the infrastructure is there for the outdoor concerts. And it’s removed so you’re not going to have noise issues. I’m thrilled that the city bought it, because it’s been a long time coming. I can just picture it with the performances here.”
