Mythmaking and Grantmaking

For years, the arts have been moving to the suburbs as patrons of ballet and the symphony, and the deep-pockets who fund their seasons and new concert halls migrate there as well. New arts centers have been proposed or are being built in Cobb County, Ga., Blue Ash, Ohio (near Cincinnati), St. Louis and Mesa, Ariz. According to a 2002 study by the Illinois Arts Alliance, more people were working for arts organizations in Chicago's suburbs than in the that arts-haunted city itself. As this map shows, Washington, D.C. is ringed with performance venues, with more under construction. The pace of arts-flight is likely to quicken. In recent years, those in control of the grants that support many of the most prestigious arts institutions have begun to examine what one report called myths about the suburban art scene (pdf). When it comes to large projects, grantmakers increasingly look at a region as a whole instead of stopping at the city line.

The suburban arts boom is not restricted to major companies. In 2004 the Minnesota-based McKnight Foundation released a study that showed suburbanites in their state had many fewer opportunities to learn or participate in the arts (and were dismissed by artists as vapid and conformist). In response, the foundation began issuing grants to arts organizations to develop branches outside cities.