Tucson arts groups to get $621,000 in state arts funding

But the money likely won’t hit their bank accounts until next spring.

“It's confusing because it's like we're talking about something that won't take place until next year,” said Kate Marquez, chief executive officer of Art State Arizona, formerly Southern Arizona Arts & Cultural Alliance. “Last year we didn’t get it until May.”

The arts funding was included in the bipartisan $18.29 billion state budget for fiscal year 2027, which lawmakers passed into law in mid-June. The budget sets aside just over $6.6 million for the arts, $2 million of which is from the state’s general fund.

The grants come a year after the Trump administration upended arts funding when the National Endowment for the Arts withdrew millions of dollars in grant offers and terminated existing grants that didn’t align with President Donald Trump’s agenda.

Very few Pima County arts organizations were affected by that May 2025 action because they had either spent or allocated the money before receiving the notice.

The majority of the 2027 Pima County state grants — $621,050 — will go to Tucson arts organizations, from $1,200 given to the Arizona Balalaika Orchestra and the Southern Arizona Film Society to $20,000 grants for Fox Tucson Theatre, KXCI and Tucson Symphony Orchestra.

Art State Arizona, which last year adopted its new name and mission to promote arts statewide, is set to get $12,000, which Marquez said is less than half of the $30,000 she received three years ago. The funding levels are based in part on an organization’s budget; Art State’s budget is $2 million, Marquez said.

“We're all down to … $12,000, which is insane,” she said, adding that the money is the only government funding Art State Arizona receives. “We’re not getting any city funding or any county funding.”

Fox Tucson Theatre “values every gift as important,” said Jonathan Crider, director of external relations, but $2.65 million “chopped up with the number of organizations getting awards, for an organization the size of the Fox, ($20,000) is not going to break the budget.”

But the funding does show that the state is promoting the arts.

“And I think it is a great show of faith that the economic value of the arts is a measurable component of our state finances and quality of life,” Crider said.

That’s a sentiment echoed by Adriana Gallego, CEO of the Arts Foundation for Tucson and Southern Arizona, which distributes and manages state funds for public art programs in Tucson and Pima County.

Gallego said the foundation’s $16,000 Creative Capacity Grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts “reinforces the fact that access to the arts belongs to all Arizonans.” The money allows the arts foundation “to disburse critical financial support and services” to the 38 Southern Arizona towns and tribes it serves, she said.

The arts foundation last week launched the application process for its 2027 stART grants, open to artists and nonprofits from across Southern Arizona. Grants up to $5,000 will be awarded for artist development or community impact projects.

To date, stART has distributed more than $400,000 to 167 recipients in nine cities and five counties, according to Gallego.

The arts foundation also is accepting artist registrations for the annual Open Studio Tours set to take place throughout greater Tucson Nov. 13-15. Register through artsfoundtucson.org.

The Pima County grants were among 409 awards to arts organizations and programs across the state that were announced last week, according to a news release from Arizona Commission on the Arts Communications Director Steve Willcox. Recipients include a community theater in Bullhead City, a pottery festival in Douglas, world-class museums around the state and after-school arts programs.

“Creative expression is central to Arizona’s innovation, prosperity and cultural vitality,” Christina You-sun Park, executive director of the Arizona Commission on the Arts, said in a written statement. “Through strategic grantmaking, the Arizona Commission on the Arts directs public funds to organizations, festivals, and programs that strengthen communities, support the state’s creative workforce and enhance quality of life across Arizona.”