Amid big questions about how to sustain creative industries in a post-COVID, inflationary economy, Chicago’s proposed cultural budget for 2025 is under close scrutiny by some arts advocates.

Mayor Brandon Johnson’s 2025 budget calls for about $73 million for the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) for next year. Last fall, City Council approved more than $84 million for the department. However, fewer grants than forecasted came in, according to the city’s budget department, so DCASE actually received about $66 million, according to this year’s budget documents.

Presented last week in a public hearing, the budget on paper appears to give DCASE an increase of about 11% for fiscal year 2025. But when compared to what passed the council last fall, this proposed budget actually represents a drop, some say. The budget cycle comes as theaters, dance groups, performing arts agencies and more are trying to confront shifting philanthropic support and audience declines.

“Just doing the year-to-year comparison of what got passed last year to what’s proposed for this year, DCASE’s budget is down,” said Geoffrey Cubbage, a policy and budget analyst with the Better Government Association.

DCASE is responsible for marquee events like Taste of Chicago and the Chicago Blues Festival that draw locals and tourists downtown. The department has also increasingly become a critical funding source for small and midsize artists, administering grants that allow many in Chicago’s creative scene to continue their work.

“It’s funding that is accessible and available to the breadth of our extraordinary cultural communities,” said Claire Rice, executive director of Arts Alliance Illinois, which has advocated for the continuation of DCASE’s grants programs. “It’s a statement of values for our city that they include public funding as part of the budget. They recognize arts, culture and creativity as a real economic and civic and social boon for Chicago.”

When asked by WBEZ whether this year’s proposed budget would allow DCASE to sustain its current level of work, a spokeswoman said in an email that the department will not comment on the budget until it is approved.

DCASE’s funding comes from the city’s special events and hotel tax, plus a mix of public and private grants. Because of how the department is funded, it has not been affected by the citywide hiring freeze, allowing for DCASE’s full-time employee count to remain steady in the next fiscal year. That’s good news for a department that’s been roiled by high staff turnover.

While making her case before the council on Friday, DCASE Commissioner Clinée Hedspeth (whom Johnson appointed in March) described next year’s budget as a boost. She said the additional funds are needed to maintain the department’s support of individual artists and arts organizations around town, while also keeping up with rising costs for large-scale events, especially as COVID relief dollars run dry.

“To maintain special events and festivals, and then also recognizing that because [American Rescue Plan Act] funds are being spent down and already allocated … the need to support artists is there. So that’s where it’s coming from … the increase,” Hedspeth told alderpersons in the nearly three-hour hearing.

Arts advocacy groups are also trying to parse what the proposed budget will mean for the city’s cultural sector, especially when it comes to DCASE’s grant programs.

Rice, with the Arts Alliance, said her organization is “cautiously optimistic” that the same level of funding for DCASE’s direct grantmaking will be available next year.

“We’re optimistic that they can maintain grant funding even in this extraordinarily challenging year, which was our primary goal,” Rice said. “We’re excited to get as much money as we can into the hands of the arts and culture makers of the city.”

DCASE leaders said at the Friday hearing that maintaining the grants programs is a priority.

“We are hopefully, with this increase, able to maintain our number of grants that we’ve had for the past couple of years and not take a decrease,” Meida McNeal, DCASE’s deputy commissioner for cultural grants and resources, told alderpersons. “That is how we will continue to support both individual artists and arts organizations.”

In 2024, DCASE awarded slightly more than $1 million through its Individual Artists Program, a considerable increase from the $496,300 awarded through the same initiative in 2019. At the hearing, Hedspeth said that more than half of the grantees were first-time applicants and 60% were in low-to-moderate–income neighborhoods.

Overall, the department awarded roughly $8 million in grants in 2024 to about 500 recipients.

At Friday’s hearing, council members said they want to see DCASE drum up more money for the city through avenues like special events permits and the film industry.

“We need to figure out a way to make sure that we get money back from these large events,” said Ald. Pat Dowell, 3rd Ward. “I think you could be more of a contributor to the corporate budget, and that’s something that we really do need to put a focus on.”

Hedspeth said the department is looking for ways to generate more revenue, including a 10% increase on space rentals at the downtown Cultural Center, which DCASE manages. DCASE also wants to make the city more of a filming destination.