As the state projects a $3 billion loss in federal funding and many programs that once supported artists nationally have been cut, Hawaiʻi lawmakers are introducing bills that aim to save the arts.
One proposal would create a cultural trust, which is an endowment funded by donors.
Rep. Jeanné Kapela, who chairs the House Committee on Culture and Arts, said it would be modeled after Oregon’s cultural trust program, created in 2001.
Here’s how it works: Donors add up their donations to arts, heritage and humanities organizations for the year, then they take that total and make a donation of equal or lesser value to the cultural trust. Finally, the donor receives a tax credit for that amount.
In Oregon, the tax credit is capped at $500 for a single filer and $1,000 for joint filers.
Kapela said the bill might entail creating a special license plate to aid in generating extra revenue for the arts. She said half of the funds would go to the State Foundation on Culture and the Arts and the other half to the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.
“It’s a really great opportunity for us to highlight the unique cultural history that Hawaiʻi has and find a way to support those who are also supporting the arts,” she said.
Lawmakers have until Jan. 28 to introduce bills.
If the bill becomes law, Hawaiʻi will join about 15 states that have a cultural trust, including Texas, New Jersey and Utah. This came after the decline in state and federal arts funding in the early 1990s.
State arts and humanities organizations nationwide receive a certain amount of funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
But there’s been uncertainty over the future of those programs since 2017, when President Donald Trump first announced a proposal to eliminate their budgets.
Despite Trump calling for the elimination of both agencies, Congress has passed a bill that would keep their budget steady at $207 million.
By law, the NEA allocates 40% of its funding to state agencies.
Federal funds make up about 6.2% of the SFCA’s budget, which funds various programs that support Hawaiʻi artists. The state foundation’s operating budget is more than $773,000.
SFCA Executive Director Karen Ewald said the agency is continuing to allocate funds to the art community with state and federal dollars. She added that the state foundation recently received $75,000 from the NEA.
She said some of the funding has gone towards arts and healing initiatives, adding that the SFCA launched an initiative to increase access to arts education “to strengthen opportunities to connect and combat isolation throughout Hawaiʻi.”
“We’re looking to partner with departments who will help us provide arts education outside of school, so that’s from after-school programs, libraries, senior centers, houseless shelters, public housing and correctional facilities,” Ewald said. “It builds our help to respond to the tragedy in Lahaina.”
Raise the ceiling
In the past two years, artists have protested a measure they say puts arts on the chopping block.
A new law created last year set aside money for performing arts but limited the SFCA on how it can use the Works of Art Special fund.
Hawaiʻi was the first state in the U.S. to create a Percent for Art Law, which transfers 1% of the construction and renovation funds for state buildings to the foundation’s special fund.
So far, all SFCA staff have remained employed since the law was created, but the ceiling to spend from the Works of Art Special fund was lowered from $5.5 million to $3.3 million.
Gaye Humphrey, the executive director of the Hawaiʻi Arts Alliance, said arts advocates are closely monitoring the implementation of Act 131.
“Particularly the rollout of the new Performing Arts Grants Program and how shifts in funding mechanisms may impact artists and organizations statewide,” Humphrey said in an email. “Ensuring transparency, equity, and sustainability in how these programs are funded and administered is critical.”
This year, a bill, which will be introduced by Kapela on behalf of the state foundation, would raise the ceiling again for the SFCA to access more funds from the special fund.
Kapela called it a “cleanup bill.”
This came after the Capitol pools project was delayed another year due to rising construction costs and objections over a state bid. Ewald has told the House Committee on Culture and Arts during an info briefing this month that $2 million from the special fund is allocated to the project, which leaves the foundation with not much left to spend.
“Legislation takes time,” Kapela said. “Good legislation needs to be tweaked, honestly, a couple of times, and that’s just the unsexy part of policy.”
A focus on arts education and mental health
Another bill would create an arts data map, which would look at arts education gaps in public schools, nonprofits and other art initiatives in the state.
Kapela said the data will be public.
“It will allow us to really figure out how we can support those arts deserts,” she said. “We need really good data if we want to be able to pick up the pieces and make sure that there are no gaps.”
Other bills Kapela plans on introducing are transferring the foundation from the state Department of Accounting and General Services to the Department of Business, Economic Development and Tourism.
State lawmakers have tried pushing bills that would do so in the past, but those efforts failed.
“I think that that will be a really important push as we try and reshape how we can support artists here in our state, right, there is are so many artists doing who have incredible work, and we want to make sure that we are supporting the work that they’re doing, and they’re being treated as professionals, they are allowed to grow, and as a state we are helping them do so,” Kapela said.
Other bills would create a music accessibility pilot program and a cleanup bill that clarifies grant rulemaking for performing arts.
Hawaiʻi Public Radio exists to serve all of Hawai’i, and it’s the people of Hawai’i who keep us independent and strong. Help keep us strong to serve you in the future. Donate today.