The city of Milford is providing funding for an arts festival in the city.
But it’s going against its own regulations to do so.
Milford city council approved $3,346 in funding for an arts festival known as The Big Draw.
The international festival focuses on promoting drawing in the community as a means of expression and creativity. The Mispillion Art League runs the festival locally.
The Mispillion Art League is struggling to find the funding it needs to pull off its annual Big Draw Festival.
Morgan Golladay is the president of the art league.
“And we have approached probably three or four different businesses that are either connected directly to energy resources or to recycling to help provide sponsorship for us. And we keep getting turned down.”
So the art league turned to the city for help, asking for a little over $4,600 dollars to create pamphlets and advertise the event.
City Council approved just over 3,300 dollars in funding despite a regulation prohibiting the city from donating money to private organizations. They call it a one time grant and note the city will partner with the art league on the event.
Vice Mayor Jason James says this could open the floodgates to allow more organizations to request funding.
“The 2000 agreement with council that voted on was to not fund these types of organizations, so I think we still have to deal with that, what do we do with that, do we honor that. And the other thing I would say is the concern is even though this is a one time thing, there’s a lot of other organizations that are dealing with COVID that would need a one time cash infusion that they could ask the city for.”
Ultimately, the city granted $3,346 in total after multiple council members donated a total of $1,300 to help defray the cost from the city.
The only “no” vote was Katrina Wilson, who objected to the particular arrangement the city is going into with a private arts organization.
The Big Draw festival is scheduled for October and organizers hope to host in-person, as well as virtual workshops and activities. This year’s theme focuses on recycling, so the organization hopes to save money by having participants find recyclable materials to use in art projects.
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 theArts.
