Bossier Arts Council out $50k after city suddenly moves East Bank management in house

On Tuesday, October 4 the Bossier Arts Council announced via a Facebook post that the Bossier City Council decided to cut funding from the East Bank District & Plaza

The BAC manages the social media accounts, booking and handling of events in the Plaza and help with bringing opportunities and visitors to the businesses within the district.

"Since 2018, the Bossier Arts Council has managed all of the events in the plaza. We have coordinated with organizations to ensure that they follow city policies in regards to insurance/permit requirements. We prep the site for events and ensure that it is clean after the event. We have done this faithfully for years. To call our new Executive Director (just two weeks on the job) in for what she thought was a meet and greet - and have the Mayor, the CAO and two attorneys sitting across the table was deplorable," explained previous BAC Executive Director Robin Jones.

"If the East Bank wasn't thriving, I could see a need for a change, but as it stands we have gone above and beyond our contract with the city to ensure that new businesses want to be in the East Bank and that is a cultural gem for the city. The premise that they want to "take it back in-house" is absurd. It has never been a city role. Beyond our contract with the city, we also program the district with art activities that are family-friendly. We host quarterly arts markets for the makers in our community. We are celebrating our 1 year anniversary at a Cultural District designated by the State of Louisiana. This is a ridiculous and backwards move by the city."

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During Tuesday's city council meeting, current executive director Brittany Pope brought the issue to the council members and urged them to allow BAC to continue the handling of the East Bank District.

Pope made the council aware that the BAC receives $50,000 in funding specifically for the handling of booking, setup for events, staffing and more. If the city were to take over the East Bank District and Plaza that funding would be cut from the BAC.

"We are hands-on all over," explained Pope. "That would dramatically impact us going forward if we no longer had that funding coming. Some of our long-term strategic planning that goes in line with our neighbors of the East Bank is dependent on us handling the programming and the booking of the plaza."

Councilman Brian Hammons asked Pope when someone books the plaza if there is a rate schedule and if there is where does that money go.

Pope explained that for-profit organizations pay a $250 fee while non-profits pay $150 to rent out the area and that money is spent cleaning up before the event and anything else that is needed for them to occupy the space.

BAC Board President Mollie Corbett explained that since the East Bank's inception in 2018 that it has always been managed by the BAC and that the funding they receive for it makes up 20% of their budget and 1/5 of their annual operating budget.

"We are so woefully uninformed that this was coming and we actually just secured a $17,000 grant with the Community Foundation to upgrade the stage and provide new sound equipment," said Corbett.

Corbett goes on to explain that with this decision and the funding being cut, the BAC will no longer be able to execute its role, but will move on and will continue to provide the community with quality family-friendly arts-forward and community-building programming as best they can.

At the city council meeting, the council made the decision to move the issue to the Tuesday, October 18 council session after reviewing the case made by the BAC.

"The Bossier Arts Council has given time, resources and talent to the East Bank District and Plaza for several years and helped navigate its growth successfully," said event planner Emerie Eck Gentry. "There has always been a good working relationship between Bossier Arts Council and the City of Bossier and unsure why the change now. I hope that the leadership of Bossier will recognize the value the Bossier Arts Council brings to the East Bank District and Plaza and does the right thing."

Meredith G. White is the arts and culture reporter for the Shreveport Times. You can find her on Facebook as Meredith G. White, on Instagram and Twitter as @meredithgwhite, and email her at mgwhite@gannett.com.

This article originally appeared on Shreveport Times: Is the city council cutting the funding for the Bossier Arts Council?