Protect Arts Funding in This Year's State Budget!

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In January, Arts Alliance delivered a letter to Governor Pritzker with over 2,000 signatures from creatives across Illinois that called for preserving the historic gains achieved for the arts in last year’s budget.

On Wednesday, February 19, the Governor released his proposed FY26 budget, which maintained almost equal funding for the Illinois Arts Council (IAC) from last year's FY25 budget. (25.58M to $25.76M)!

Receiving the Governor’s support is a huge win and a testament to the impact of our collective advocacy. We now must turn our focus to our state legislators and call on them to support the Governor’s recommendation to preserve these critical dollars to sustain arts and culture across Illinois.

By hitting "Submit all," you'll:

Send an email to your State Senator and State Representative calling for their support of the Governor's proposed Illinois Arts Council dollars in the FY26 budget.
Send an email to Governor Pritzker thanking him for his commitment to our creative community in a challenging budget season.

You're welcome to customize letters to Senators and Representatives.

Thank Governor Pritzker for supporting the arts in this year's budget

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Tell your Legislator to Support the Governor's Proposed Budget

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Dear {{legislator_greeting}},

As a member of the creative community in your district, I'm writing today to ask you to stand with Governor Pritzker to support maintaining funding for the arts in this year’s state budget.

Last year saw a critical win for our local arts community: a bipartisan majority of the legislature passed a 75% increase to the Illinois Arts Council's grantmaking budget and an overall agency budget increase of 53.5%. In the FY26 proposed budget, Governor Pritzker called for preserving this critical funding for the arts by allocating $25.76M to the Illinois Arts Council.

This funding—long overdue and long advocated for—is the primary driver of state support to the creative sector and a lifeline for arts organizations and artists throughout Illinois.

Given the uncertainty facing the arts community at the federal level, we cannot afford to backtrack on this investment. Please stand with the arts community and the Governor by supporting the proposed Illinois Arts Council budget in the FY26 budget!

Protect Arts Funding in This Year's State Budget!

Act now!