A proposal to create arts districts in Delaware easily passes in the General Assembly.
A resolution to ask the Delaware Division of the Arts to begin working with the Small Business Division and the Delaware Arts Alliance on a plan to create the program passed the House Administration Committee last week and cruised through the House on Tuesday. The proposal passed the Senate unanimously in mid-May.
State Representative Mara Gorman, sponsoring the measure in the House, explained to House Administration Committee members what arts districts can do for economic vitality.
“These are special areas that are designated or certified by state governments using cultural resources to encourage economic development and cultivate synergies between the arts and other businesses,” she said.
Gorman says that the arts and culture district proposal ties directly into the state’s Creative Economy Advancement and Tourism Expansion, or CREATE plan, instituted two years ago by the Delaware Arts Alliance.
The creation of arts districts as part of state policymaking has been a growing trend in recent decades. So far, 19 other states, including nearby Maryland and New Jersey, have created such programs, with more than 400 arts districts across the country.
That was a point underscored by Cultural Planning Group’s Martin Cohen, presenting the plan to members of the General Assembly’s Arts and Culture Caucus last month.
“Delaware is not just being asked to pioneer an untested concept,” he said. “19 states have done this before. The lessons are available and the models are proven.”
States who have enacted arts and culture districts have seen big impacts, Gorman told the House Administration Committee last week. The effects include encouraging artists to live and work in the area and a greater likelihood of preserving historic buildings. There are also significant economic effects, she said.
“They encourage business and job development, creating hubs of activity and offering stuff for consumers to do and see and buy,” she said.
A potentially long path ahead
While the proposal has cleared the legislative process, there is still a long way to go before arts and culture districts begin to take shape.
First, stakeholders, including the Delaware Division of the Arts, Division of Small Business, and the Delaware Arts Alliance, would need to do a study, Gorman explained.
“We know that these districts are effective and work and people like them, but there are a lot of different approaches that you can take to establishing them,” she said.
One thing the study would potentially resolve is the role of tax incentives in arts districts. Speaking to the Arts and Culture Caucus last month, Cultural Planning Group’s Cohen said that tax incentives were not mandatory, and that some states provide direct assistance, like help with technology, marketing, and peer networking.
"And these generate substantial community returns on their own. Tax incentives are policy options, they're not a prerequisite,” he said. “It is best to keep in mind that a robust program has a mix of incentives, economic development tools, direct support programs, and capacity building.”
However, he warned, one important thing is funding. The resolution headed to the House floor does not create any new funding for an arts and culture district program; that would be handled by lawmakers in the context of a budget bill in the future. That’s a challenge in Oregon, which in 2024, became the most recent state to create arts districts, but has yet to fund the program.
Cohen stressed that arts districts sink or swim based on having adequate early funding for their programs.
“Seed funding is not a luxury, it is the mechanism that actually launches a district. So getting a community from state recognition to operating reality requires resources, particularly in the first two or three years. This is for planning, for hiring district management, for early programming, for marketing infrastructure,” he said. “So without that initial investment, recognition remains a certificate on a wall.”
He added that the early seed funding is a major determinant in whether an arts district program remains sustainable into the future.
Delaware Public Media's arts coverage is made possible, in part, by support from the Delaware Division of the Arts, a state agency dedicated to nurturing and supporting the arts in Delaware, in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts.
