West Haven | Arts, Culture & Community | ArtsWest CT
Lara Morton, co-founder of Fuse Theatre of CT, leads a chant outside West Haven City Hall. Photos Kapp Singer.
Artists gathered outside West Haven City Hall Monday evening to raise their voice in support of the arts and called on the city leaders to release federal funds earmarked for funding it.
“The arts make life better!” a dozen people shouted, ahead of the West Haven City Council’s regular meeting. “They help build downtown! They help mental health! Support the arts!” chanted supporters.
Led by ArtsWest CT President Elinor Slomba, the group called for the release of half a million in federal American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) dollars that the city had earmarked for funding arts and culture nearly a year ago but has yet to distribute.
“The ARPA process for funding the arts, we hate to say, has been very uncertain,” Slomba said. “By now, we should have some concrete outcomes that put dollars into the hands of artists, arts organizations, and creative entrepreneurs to restore what was lost from Covid.”
The West Haven City Council approved the use of $500,000 of ARPA funding "for support of the West Haven Arts Community.” in April 2023, and in August the city issued a request for proposals (RFP).
ArtsWest CT submitted the sole application, in partnership with their fiscal sponsor, the Arts Council of Greater New Haven, who will help to administer and disburse the money to fund artist micro-grants, an arts lending library, public events, and more. (Editor’s note: The Arts Paper is an editorially independent division of the Arts Council of Greater New Haven.)
Since then, West Haven artists and arts organizations have been waiting for the opportunity to apply for the funds, Slomba explained. The Arts Council of Greater New Haven submitted a complete contract for $425,000 of the earmarked $500,000 to the city in November, but the newly elected Mayor Dorinda Borer has not yet signed it. The U.S. Department of the Treasury requires that funds must be obligated by the end of the 2024 calendar year.
This is the latest chapter in a longer struggle between arts advocates and the West Haven government. It also comes on the heels of several incidents of serious ARPA funding mismanagement by the city.
West Haven has explored creating a physical arts center, specifically in the former Masonic lodge on Center Street, around the corner from City Hall. In 2022, then-Mayor Nancy Rossi proposed the use of $3.5 million in ARPA funds (plus $1.5 million in state funding, acquired by then-State Rep. Dorinda Borer, who is now the city’s mayor) to purchase and renovate the building.
However, after pushback from ARPA Committee Chair Ken Carney in early 2022, the original plan was scaled back. The West Haven City Council instead reduced the earmarked $3.5 million for arts to $500,000, essentially eliminating the possibility that a permanent arts center could be acquired with the available funds. A portion of the original funds, $2.5 million, went towards resurfacing the football field and track at West Haven High School, which several supporters on Wednesday night expressed frustration over. Now, advocates are hoping that the remaining funds can be used for arts programming and artist grants.
“We’re not asking for a lot. We’re asking for what’s already been promised to us, and is now being threatened to be taken away,” said Lara Morton, co-founder of Fuse Theatre of CT, a West Haven-based non-profit theater company. “The inertia of this city is so hard to break through.”
“As far as we can tell the only current hold up is the mayor claiming that ArtsWestCT does not have a broad enough base of support, too small a board, and that we are contentious and cannot be entrusted with a funding process,” Slomba wrote in an email.
The Arts Paper reached out to Mayor Borer but she did not provide a comment for this story.
“With any transition and with any collaboration, there’s kind of a crawl-walk-run process to build fluency with working together,” Slomba added in a follow up phone call. “It’s just growing pains, but hopefully they’ll get smoothed out soon.”
Following the demonstration outside City Hall, supporters packed Monday’s council meeting to show their support. Slomba and several other West Haven artists and arts administrators testified during the meeting.
Elizabeth Santaus, bookkeeper at Dressler Santaus and treasurer at Fuse Theatre of CT, speaks in front of the West Haven City Council.
“A lot of opportunities have been missed in West Haven’s cultural growth,” said artist Ellen Corso in a testimony, noting that in her 38 years of living in the city she has always had to go to New Haven to exhibit her art. “ARPA funds need to be used to help artists and art space businesses recover what they lost from Covid. I don’t understand what the holdup is.”
Arts Council of Greater New Haven Executive Director Hope Chávez said she was encouraged by her conversations with Borer and was excited that the mayor saw the funding as a top priority for her administration. Chávez testified Monday in support of the funding for artists because the Arts Council is one of Connecticut’s eight Designated Regional Service Organizations, and West Haven falls within its service area.
“I’m aware the contract is not moving forward in its current state,” she said. “We at the Arts Council are excited to stand with you, at the ready, to create and support the systemic and lasting arts ecosystem that this community is so hungry for.”