Madison Cultural Plan 2011 - City of Madison, Wisconsin

While many of the activities and organizations supported by line items are worthy, it
is important for the Arts Commission to consider all contracts for creative sector
services in the context of specific, publicly affirmed priorities.
The city should, however, exempt the Henry Vilas Zoo from competitive application
because its current financial participation is governed by an ongoing partnership
agreement with Dane County, drafted in 1983, when the zoo was transferred from
municipal to county management and control. The agreement calls for the City of
Madison and Dane County to split operating costs for the zoo, with the City paying
20% and the County paying 80% of those costs. That agreement should continue to
be honored.
The city’s role in the Overture Center is changing. Those changes are framed by a
10-year structural agreement between the city and the 201 State Foundation
(signed 12/28/10). The structural agreement creates a mechanism for financial
support that mixes line item support at a fixed amount ($2,000,000 annually
adjusted for inflation based on an agreed upon formula), with a requirement that
the Center submit an annual grant request in the form of a draft annual
performance contract. Under this recently agreed upon approach, the amount of
city participation is fixed, but the performance required under the contract is
annually negotiable.
The terms of the Overture agreement and its practicality and equity have been the
subject of a broad public debate and the investment of considerable thought and
analysis from many quarters. It is too soon to understand exactly how they will fare
over time. It is likely that as experience is gained some changes in expectation will
be addressed in the annual performance contract or even in the redesign of the
structural agreement itself. Whatever the case, given that the city will be the
largest single contributor to Overture’s operating budget for the next decade, it is
imperative that the Madison Arts Commission be engaged as the primary city
entity for review and evaluation of the annual performance contract. The
Commission’s evaluation work should be supported by the Office of Finance with
regard to financial performance monitoring.
Similarly, as The Partnership begins to operate, the Madison Arts Commission should
be responsible for review and evaluation of its performance. See Recommendation 50.
Madison Cultural Plan Findings
66