State Arts Organization Grants and Regional Equality: Community Engagement and Grants Decisions

The literature acknowledges disparities in funding distribution between nonprofits in urban and rural areas. In rural regions, public access to the arts heavily relies on a limited number of nonprofit organizations which, unfortunately, encounter structural and administrative obstacles in securing funding, including government grants. Using the case of Indiana arts organizations’ operating support grants, this chapter explores the impact of introducing community engagement as a criterion in state arts agencies’ grant-making processes. The objective is to determine whether this change affects grant allocations for arts nonprofits in rural areas. The findings of this chapter provide evidence that incorporating the community engagement criterion enhances the likelihood of art organizations in rural areas receiving increased government grants.