Davis Islands Today

Last month, Julie Torres’ art column mentioned the unusual circumstances in which the Arts Council of Hillsborough County awarded 11 grants rather than the usual 10. We stand by that story, but want you to read the two responses we received from the Hillsborough County Arts Council. The letter from from Denise Chavez is below. Please also see the letter from Hillsborough County Arts Council Director of Program Services Jenny Carey.

LETTER TO THE EDITOR
by Denise Chavez, board member of the Hillsborough County Arts Council

I was so very disappointed to read the article relating to the Individual Artist Grant Recipients. It was totally misleading.

I am a member of the Hillsborough County Arts Council and had the privilege of sitting on the Individual Artist Grant Committee. The way the process works is each committee member receives a CD of the individual artist’s work, written material provided by the artists explaining why they would like to be awarded the grant money, their budget and a questionnaire relating to their work. The members of the committee then rate each section according to the information the artist provide. We do this on our own. I personally went over some of the information the artists provided several times to see if they met the criteria. We then meet as a group each of us giving our total score for each artist. We discuss each artist, their work and questionnaire and our comments are given to each artist as feed back to help them the next time they apply. It is not easy to make these decisions because, of course, it is subjective and we would like to help everyone.

In this particular instance the difference in points between 10th and 11th was miniscule. If you rounded up they would have had the same score. The point difference between 11th & 12th was great so there was no question. The Arts Council felt that was fair and really did not believe any artist would begrudge another artist the opportunity to have funding for their project. There was no undue influence.

I am sorry your reporter felt the need to besmirch an organization whose voting members are comprised of volunteers and only have the good of our talented and underfunded local artists at heart. The Arts Council has no personal agenda other than promoting the arts and the artists in the community.

Shame on you for not doing a better job of researching the situation instead of looking for a “story” that does not exist. And shame on the artist who complained, sounds a little greedy to me.

Sincerely,

Denise Chavez