Midlands Voices: Endowment is a true Nebraska institution

The author, a Lincoln attorney, is president of the Nebraska Cultural Endowment.

These are tough times in Nebraska. In the past year, we've experienced drought and low crop and livestock prices, low tax receipts and deep cuts in state government (some of which, like those at the University of Nebraska, have been devastating). Companies with Nebraska connections and their shareholders are hurting. Even the Huskers are sputtering.

We've been here before. Sometimes it's been a lot worse. Many of us remember the ag crisis of the early '80s. The Great Depression of the 1930s started earlier here and lasted longer. When my wife and I moved into our home in Lincoln a few years ago, we were told that it sat empty for a couple of years in the late '20s, with broken windows and our bedroom a home for birds.

What is remarkable about our downturns is not how bad things were but how creative and resourceful our state and its citizens have been in overcoming our challenges and staying focused on long-term objectives.

In a state limited both in population and financial resources, we built the nation's most architecturally significant capitol over 10 years on a pay-as-you-go basis. George Norris created the nation's only one-house legislature. Terry Carpenter, Jack McBride and Ron Hull created our great public broadcasting system. And LaVon Crosby and her colleagues in the Legislature established the Nebraska Cultural Endowment, a public- private partnership to support the arts and humanities, the first of its kind in the nation.

All of those achievements have important common elements: They generally cost much less than their equivalents elsewhere, and they resulted from effective joint ventures. The Nebraska Cultural Endowment is a joint venture of the Nebraska Arts Council, the Nebraska Humanities Council, the Nebraska Legislature, the governor, businesses, foundations and donors. The endowment arose because of uncertain federal funding of the arts and humanities that peaked in the mid-1990s and threatened the existence of both councils.

The Legislature recognized that the two councils were essential partners of our state and communities through public programming in the visual and performing arts and in the things that make us human - our literature, our languages, our histories, our religions and our government.

And the Legislature recognized that the arts and humanities councils do the job more cost-effectively than other alternatives, because they involve partnerships with Nebraska schools, community groups, libraries and cultural institutions that already have physical facilities and a funding base. Together, they attract private support like magnets.

The projects benefiting from arts-council and humanities-council support range from Shakespeare on the Green to the Cather Spring Festival. They include programs such as the nationally recognized Prairie Visions teacher-training program, the Great Plains Chautauqua, the Artist in Schools and Communities Program and the Humanities Resource Center.

In 2001 alone, the Nebraska Arts Council awarded grants to 93 communities in 79 counties, and more than 2 million people, including nearly 880,000 children, attended arts events that used these grants. In the same period, the Nebraska Humanities Council provided more than 800 grants and speaker-bureau programs in 171 communities throughout the state, reaching a total audience of 837,000.

The Nebraska Cultural Endowment works on two basic principles: First, since the missions of the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Humanities Council involve essential public functions (education, economic development and the building and preservation of our communities), government participation is both necessary and appropriate. Second, these are also essential private functions; citizen participation with both time and money strengthens them greatly.

With these principles in mind, the Legislature set aside $5 million in a permanent fund to support the arts and humanities in our state, creating the first cultural endowment in the nation involving both the arts and humanities. It has worked beautifully. It requires the councils to demonstrate support from sources other than the state, because only the income from the fund is available, and only if it is matched from non-state sources.

Since the legislation was enacted in 1998, the councils have matched the income every year, generating more than $1.6 million in combined public and private support for the arts and humanities. And we are doing more than that: To demonstrate to the people of Nebraska that we are doing our part, the Nebraska Cultural Endowment has embarked on a $5 million capital campaign to provide a permanent match for the state fund.

We are pleased to report that we have thus far raised nearly $1.7 million in non-state funds, much of it from individuals, businesses and foundations throughout the state.

The Nebraska Cultural Endowment is proud to take its place as a true Nebraska institution - contributing significantly to the good life in our state in a unique and cost-effective manner and cultivating a legacy of stewardship for history, the arts and ideas. What better way to celebrate arts and humanities month? Thanks to everyone who has contributed to our success.