As several other major cities boost arts funding, Chicago’s proposed 2027 cultural spending plan is flat

Funding for the department that puts on Chicago’s large-scale events, such as Jazz Festival and Taste of Chicago, would remain essentially flat under Mayor Brandon Johnson’s proposed 2027 budget.

The Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events is set to receive about $62.5 million next year in the proposed budget. That’s up less than 1% from the arts budget that passed City Council last year.

At a budget hearing Wednesday at City Hall, commissioner Kenya Merritt said the department’s “commitment to Chicago's creative community remains unwavering.”

“Arts and culture are essential to our city's identity, economic vitality, as well as our quality of life,” Merritt told City Council.

But amid a broader budget shortfall, aldermen spent much of Wednesday’s hearing asking Merritt about the rollout of an initiative that would do more to recover funds the city spends to support special events, ranging from neighborhood street fests to large-scale music festivals.

Recouping the cost of city services allocated to such events, like police and sanitation, was among cost-cutting and revenue-raising ideas outlined in a 2025 report from the consulting group EY. Merritt said implementation is still in the works and what the changes will look like for event organizers is not yet clear.

“We have to strike a balance,” Merritt said. “We don't want to be in a position where we're losing events. They're so critical to our economy as well as to our neighborhoods.”

Candace Dane Chambers/Sun-Times

Chicago’s flat funding proposal for its cultural affairs department comes as many other major cities nationwide boosted funding for their municipal arts departments.

Advocates and arts leaders say local funding has become a more critical ingredient since federal arts support has withered under President Donald Trump. Private foundations that buttress the arts have also shifted their priorities elsewhere.

In September, WBEZ/Chicago Sun-Times reported that New York, Los Angeles, Houston and Phoenix all increased funding to their city’s cultural departments by at least 2% in their most recent budgets. In New York, Mayor Zohran Mamdani allocated a record-setting $323.8 million for the local cultural department, an 8% increase from the year before.

Johnson told WBEZ/Sun-Times at the time, “My commitment will be consistent, and I’ll remain vigilant in my call to invest more in the arts.” The mayor added that, “Making the investments in arts and culture, that I believe is the way to define my administration.”

In addition to special events, DCASE also includes the city’s film office and provides funding directly to artists and arts organizations across Chicago. Merritt said Wednesday the department remains committed to grantmaking, despite the department having spent down the last of federal COVID-relief dollars, which helped to boost those programs.

“We're sustaining our investment into artists, into cultural organizations, and grants to our creative workers,” Merritt said.

Timothy Hiatt/For the Sun-Times

In 2025, DCASE awarded a total of $10.8 million in grants to artists and arts organizations across several programs, according to public records. Recipients ranged from large companies like the Joffrey Ballet to the South Side storefront Perceptions Theatre.

Arts Alliance Illinois, a statewide advocacy group, called on Johnson this fall to increase the department’s grantmaking budget by $15 million. Instead, funding remained the same.

“We're disappointed,” said Claire Rice, the group’s executive director. “We would have loved to see, especially after the remarks by the mayor underscoring his support for the arts, for that to correspond to support in the DCASE budget.”

Rice also pointed to the study the alliance released this summer that found the cultural sector is Chicago’s third-largest workforce. “We're really an investment strategy,” Rice said. “It's not a charitable donation. Investing in culture is jobs and economic development for the city of Chicago.”

Pat Nabong/Sun-Times

Next year, the department’s workforce would see a slight increase under the proposed budget, which calls for two additional full-time staffers at DCASE, bringing the department’s headcount to 82 employees, roughly the same number of positions it has had for several years.

DCASE typically draws all of its funding from outside of the city's general operating budget, funded instead through a hotel occupancy tax and outside grant dollars. This year, in a change from that model, DCASE is set to receive a small amount ($133,580) from the city’s corporate fund for salaries for the two new proposed positions.

The Better Government Association notes it's the first time the cultural department has received corporate fund dollars since 2011, under former Mayor Richard M. Daley. According to a DCASE spokesperson, the new positions will be focused on special events cost recovery and that those costs recovered would reimburse the corporate fund.

Courtney Kueppers is an arts and culture reporter at WBEZ.