A new Executive Director was hired in October 2021 for his innovative ideas and vision of growing the Lincoln Arts Council into an even more vibrant and prominent arts advocacy organization. He aimed to grow and enhance our programming to make Lincoln a thriving arts community and economy.

To this end, in addition to the Mayor’s Arts Awards, Lincoln Arts Festival, and existing upstArt Arts Access programming, he initiated several new initiatives, including:

• The creation of a downtown Creative District.

• The establishment of an Emerging Artists program to support local artists with opportunities and business training, in partnership with the Mid-America Arts Alliance.

• The development of the Blank Canvas project to repurpose vacant downtown retail spaces into artist studios, in collaboration with WRK Real Estate and other organizations.

• The incorporation of the Lincoln Calling Music Festival into our programming, recognizing its importance to Lincoln’s cultural landscape.

• The expansion of our upstArt Arts Access programming from a few small in-school residencies to over 100 programs with schools and social service organizations across the city.

As the Lincoln Arts Council’s programming expanded, so did the need for financial support to sustain these initiatives. However, despite an increase in staffing to manage and grow our outreach efforts, we struggled to generate enough funds to support staff, events and programs. The lack of sufficient fundraising efforts, combined with high operational costs, led to a significant gap between income and expenditures, depleting our reserves.

In addition, ticket sales were lower than hoped and costs were higher than projected for Lincoln Calling. The result was a $60,000 loss, another blow to our financial stability that put a significant strain on Lincoln Arts budget. This unexpected shortfall further strained our ability to fund other initiatives and led to a rapid depletion of reserves.

With focus and effort shifted to secure sufficient sponsorships for Lincoln Calling, Lincoln Arts fell short of its financial targets for Lincoln Arts Festival, compounding our losses and deepening the fiscal challenges faced by the organization.

When the Board’s Executive Committee became aware of the financial situation, the Treasurer and the Council’s accountant reviewed our finances closely, revealing that the organizations financial situation was even more precarious than initially realized. With no funds to keep staff on payroll, the organization paused operations on October 18, 2024. A restructuring plan is in place with the hope of resuming limited programming at the beginning of 2025.

Money was spent on projects before securing the necessary funds. Our dreams overshadowed our responsibilities. The Board fully acknowledges its culpability in this matter. There should have been better oversight, earlier. The Executive Director as well as the Board’s Treasurer have resigned, and recruitment efforts are underway to enhance the board membership and effectiveness. 

How do we plan to ensure this will not happen again?

As the Lincoln Arts Council reorganizes, several structural changes are being discussed both for the board and the organization:

Here are some of the reforms being implemented:

• Our bylaws will be amended to require that the accountant report monthly not only to the Executive Director but also directly to the board.

• Our bylaws will be amended to require minimum reserves to be maintained.

• Rules will be put in place requiring that no project spending occur before funding is received.

• Limits will be placed on annual project growth to control runaway spending.

• The board will be reconstituted in part, and a thorough onboarding and training process will be put into place using outside facilitators.

We are working with non-profit consultants to advise us through this process.

What is next for the Lincoln Arts Council?

This depends on a number of factors, including the success of our fundraising efforts and the status of our funding agreement with the City of Lincoln. We are optimistic on both these fronts.

With this in mind, we have made the following decisions:

• This year’s Mayor’s Arts Awards, scheduled for January 9, 2025, is being postponed. Our goal is to bring the Awards back later in the year to celebrate our winners.

• Lincoln Calling will no longer be under our auspices. We are in discussions to have it transferred to another presenting organization.

• The Lincoln Arts Festival is on hold temporarily and will most likely be postponed to 2026. If fundraising goes well we may be able to stay on track to do the festival in June 2025.

• UpstArt programming will be scaled back. A review of the most important and cost-effective programs is underway and these will be retained, pending available funding.

In summary, the Lincoln Arts Council will focus on core programming that aligns most closely with our mission of expanding arts access, harnessing the power of the arts to inspire, heal, and motivate.

How and when will we resume operations?

Our hope and goal is for donations from arts lovers and supporters like yourself to allow us to revive in the new year. We are also requesting funding from our most generous supporters and are in discussion with the Mayor’s Office about continued annual funding from the city.

We have set a fundraising goal of $130,000 from our campaigns – $100,000 from our most dedicated donors, and $30,000 from a grassroots campaign to the general public. Once the funds are raised, we will hire a new Executive Director to strategize and lead a prudent course of programming and fundraising as we look toward the future.

The Arts Council looks forward to continuing our work of serving and offering arts services and opportunities to Lincoln residents free of charge, including new Americans, adults and children with developmental disabilities, the elderly, those in addiction recovery, those in carceral spaces, women who are survivors of domestic violence, and many others.

We are committed to reaching as many people as possible within the constraints of a more limited budget and new financial policies. In due course, we aim to serve them all again. 

– The Board of the Lincoln Arts Council