SECA Commission Subcategory Allocations

Donate Today

The Special Events and Cultural Amenities, or SECA Commission ironed out a couple of new concepts at their most recent meeting.

SECA, which is funded by a 1% citywide food and beverage tax, will be subdividing cultural amenities into four categories this year and allocating percentages of their funding to each one. The commission agreed that 40% of the cultural amenities pot will go to performing arts, 15% to visual arts, 10% to new initiatives, and 5% to capital projects.

A New Theme

The remaining 30% will be put into a bonus fund for projects that meet a chosen theme.

“The plan is the organizations or the applicants will be put into one of four categories and based on the merits of the application itself be given a grant or not,” said SECA Chair Melvin Kim. “From that then, organizations that also qualify in trying to participate in that theme, would be eligible for further funding.”

After workshopping several ideas, the commission voted for “Come Together” as the theme for 2020’s SECA year.

Meeting the Theme

Organizations applying for 2020 funding were informed of the theme at a mandatory meeting the next day.

Some were already planning how to incorporate that into their application.

“We’ve already collaborated with a lot of other SECA grant people outside of SECA, so I would like to collaborate with other people and I think that fits the ‘Come Together’ theme very well,” said Peter Ellman, president of the Peter Ellman Band.

“We love working with the community, we want the community to experience art,” said Naperville Woman’s Club President Donna Shaw, who intends to apply for SECA funds for her organization’s art fair. “We want the artists to share their art. So we would like those artists and the community to ‘come together’ to have a successful art fair.”

Naperville City Council will have final approval on the funding percentages and theme.

Naperville Community Television is partially funded by a SECA grant.

Naperville News 17’s Casey Krajewski reports.