Minnesota Citizens for the Arts

Minnesota Citizens for the Arts (MCA) is a statewide arts advocacy organization that organizes the arts community to lobby the Minnesota State Legislature and Congress. Our mission is to ensure opportunity for all people to have access to and involvement in the arts.

MCA Accomplishments
MCA’s successes include increasing the state’s appropriation for the arts from no financial commitment to a high point of over $13 million annually, preventing substantial decreases in arts funding, securing and protecting the tax exemptions that benefit philanthropic and nonprofit arts organizations in Minnesota, and working on behalf of nonprofit arts organizations with Minnesota’s Congressional delegation.

In 1997, the arts community came together through MCA to pass the largest increase ever in the history of Minnesota’s state funding for the arts. In an incredible outpouring of grassroots advocacy, thousands of arts advocates called and wrote to legislators during the 1997 legislative session asking them to support the arts. As a result, the legislature approved an increase of $6 million per year each for 1998 and 1999.

In 1999 and again in 2001, we successfully fought an attempt to cut the arts funding by half, securing for an additional four years the $13 million/year appropriated by the state. As a result, state arts funding was stable for six years at that high level. In 2003, during the state’s worst ever budget crisis, MCA fought back from the Governor’s proposal of a 40% cut in arts funding, reducing the final cut to 32%. We are committed to regaining what we have lost.

MCA also has gained the support of most of Minnesota’s federal Congressional delegation for the arts and culture on the federal level.

MCA also worked in recent years with other nonprofit partners to fight off attempts to tax nonprofits and to pass the Minnesota Charitable Giving Relief Act, which allows non-itemizers to get a tax deduction of 50% of their contributions of over $500 per year to charities.

MCA Goals

1. State Arts Funding. To ensure access to the arts for all Minnesotans by working to protect, and if possible increase, state appropriations to the arts in Minnesota
2. Enlightened Tax Policies. Recognizing and encouraging the public’s engagement with and support of nonprofits by working to promote and maintain tax policies beneficial to charitable giving, arts philanthropy and nonprofit arts organizations
3. Arts Education. To support the inclusion of arts as a basic requirement in Minnesota schools
4. National Endowment for the Arts. To support federal funding of the arts and enlightened national tax policies for charities
5. Cultural Bonding Requests. To support a state role in providing resources to create cultural infrastructure in Minnesota

Who We Are
MCA’s staff and Board of Directors come from all over Minnesota and not only work in arts organizations of every genre, size and type, but also come from the general public. Half of MCA’s board of 36 directors comes from Greater Minnesota. Our board membership represents every corner of the state.

How Did We Get Started?
Click here for background, information and lots of great pictures from MCA’s 31-year history.

How Do YOU Fit In?
MCA is a grassroots advocacy organization. This means that we organize members of the arts community, including the arts supporting public, to demonstrate to our legislators the importance of the arts in Minnesota and to affect the outcome of legislative decisions by making sure that our elected officials hear the voices of the arts community. Our coalition includes artists, audiences, arts educators, and arts organizations, big and small, and the general public in metro and rural areas who believe, as we do, that the arts contribute in positive ways to communities statewide.

Although the state legislature meets every year, the budget is usually created every odd-numbered year. In addition, the political climate constantly changes as new parties take control of the legislature, the Governor’s office and Congress, and new legislators are elected to serve the public.

The most important piece of this puzzle is YOU. Your input is important to your legislators, whether it be letters, meetings, phone calls, or even a simple postcard. We succeed because thousands of arts advocates in the state of Minnesota, organized by MCA, make their voices heard year after year. We are here to help you be effective!

Photos from top: MCA Executive Director Sheila Smith applauded the hundreds in attendance at Arts Advocacy Day 2007 for their commitment to the arts (Photo Credit: Scott Streble), MCA Lobbyist Larry Redmond testifies on behalf of the arts as House Majority Leader Tony Sertich looks on in a 2007 committee hearing, St. Paul arts advocates attended MCA’s reception for Congresswoman Betty McCollum, recipient of an MCA 2007 Arts All Star Award and an Americans for the Arts 2007 National Award for Congressional Leadership. The reception was held at the College of Visual Arts (Photo credit: Mark Albers).