Even Michigan’s symphony orchestras are getting a bailout from the state.
The Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity has awarded $5.65 million in need-based grants through the new, one-time Symphony Economic Recovery Program.
The grants support all 41 eligible symphony orchestra applicants across the state. Grants were distributed proportionally to enhance sustainability and community reach.
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The program isn’t a pandemic relief pass-through subsidy from the federal government. It’s being funded by the state from Fiscal Year 2024-2025. Specifically, section 1043(2) in the Fiscal Year 2025 budget, said Chelsea Wuth, a communications specialist for LEO.
“LEO received 41 applications with a total funding request of approximately $13.8 million, far exceeding the $5.65 million allocation for this competitive grant program,” Wuth wrote in an email.
The largest symphony, by revenue and number of employees, is the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, which received $1.25 million from the SERP. Other grants ranged from $1,000 for rural symphonies to $351,000 for Interlochen Center for the Arts to $793,000 for Detroit Opera.
“Taxpayer dollars lavished on symphonies this year would be better spent fixing Michigan’s roads and bridges,” said Michael D. LaFaive, senior director of the Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative at Mackinac Center for Public Policy. “Five million dollars would fill a lot of potholes.”
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The Mackinac Center has been researching and writing about arts subsidies for decades. Evidence suggests that government art subsidies flow from the poor and middle classes to wealthier citizens, and not vice versa, according to “Show Me the Monet! Why Not Privatize the Arts?”
In another commentary by David Bardallis, “Ernest Hemingway and Art Subsidies: A Farewell to Alms,” Hemingway’s rugged individualism and self-reliance offers an important lesson about keeping art separate from politics.
“Undoubtedly, it never occurred to him to call for government art subsidies, which subject the individual’s creative and artistic vision to committees of bureaucrats doling out millions of tax dollars, often according to some political agenda,” Bardallis writes.
LaFaive says taxpayer handouts for the arts are problematic at best and grossly unfair at worst. Why should tax dollars from people who do not attend the symphony help subsidize those who do?
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“First they confiscate money from lots of artists themselves to give it to a favored few artists chosen by government bureaucrats,” LaFaive told The Midwesterner. “It also confiscates money from taxpayers who may prefer to spend their money on other activities, be it art, sports or some other endeavor. So, it diminishes people who have no interest in the arts.”
LaFaive is currently waiting on his own Freedom of Information Act request to dive into these “high-brow subsidies” and specific information about state-supported arts grants.
There is a line-item in the state budget for arts grants and many dollars flow to various symphonies, choirs and museums, LaFaive said.
“It politicizes the arts,” he said “Can anyone tell me a great work of art that was born of a backroom deal?”
Wuth said that since the applications exceeded the available grant funding, the appropriation language directed LEO to award the grants proportionally—meaning all 41 applicants received funding.
“LEO is thrilled to help sustain arts and culture in Michigan and ensure all applicants received funding to enhance their communities and contribute to their financial stability,” said Susan Corbin, LEO Director, in the release. “This initiative aligns with our vision to make Michigan a place where all people, businesses and communities have the economic means and personal freedoms to reach their full potential.”
The grant period will run through Sept. 30, 2029. The grants will support a variety of needs including the renovation of music halls, instruments, musician staff, administrative staff, professional development and marketing and outreach to expand attendance, the release said.
How much the orchestras received:
| Agency Name | FY25 Award |
| Redford Civic Symphony Orchestra | $1,000 |
| Gaylord Community Orchestra | $1,000 |
| Orchestra Sono | $1,000 |
| Kalamazoo College | $1,023 |
| Cadillac Area Symphony Orchestra | $1,064 |
| Mason Orchestral Society | $1,074 |
| Spectrum Orchestra | $1,134 |
| Detroit Medical Orchestra | $1,459 |
| Dexter Community Orchestra | $1,568 |
| Benzie Area Symphony Orchestra | $2,134 |
| Grosse Pointe Symphony Orchestra Society | $3,884 |
| Ypsilanti Youth Orchestra | $4,883 |
| Fenton Community Orchestra | $5,522 |
| Rochester Symphony Orchestra Society | $7,680 |
| Metropolitan Youth Symphony | $8,080 |
| Macomb Symphony Orchestra | $9,469 |
| Beaver Island Performing Arts Alliance | $10,977 |
| Warren Symphony Orchestra | $13,557 |
| The Marquette Symphony Orchestra | $13,735 |
| Dearborn Symphony | $17,241 |
| Midland Center for the Arts | $18,149 |
| The Music Center of South Central Michigan | $22,848 |
| Lenawee Symphony Orchestra Society | $26,022 |
| Soo Theatre Project | $27,468 |
| Saginaw Bay Symphony Orchestra | $30,868 |
| Michigan Philharmonic | $32,601 |
| Southwest Michigan Symphony Orchestra | $40,159 |
| National Arab Orchestra | $45,285 |
| Traverse City Philharmonic | $63,456 |
| West Michigan Symphony | $89,880 |
| Ann Arbor Symphony Orchestra | $92,720 |
| Lansing Symphony Association | $95,016 |
| Jackson Symphony Orchestra Association | $95,806 |
| Kalamazoo Symphony Orchestra | $211,769 |
| Interlochen Center for the Arts | $351,155 |
| Sphinx Organization | $397,096 |
| Blue Lake Fine Arts Camp | $489,104 |
| Grand Rapids Symphony | $619,934 |
| Flint Institute of Music | $750,107 |
| Detroit Opera | $793,055 |
| Detroit Symphony Orchestra | $1,250,000 |