The Special Events and Cultural Amenities, or SECA, Commission is investing in new events and experiences for 2020.
What is SECA
SECA recently allocated its pot of just over $1 million from a 1% citywide food and beverage tax.
Recipients
The highest grossing grant recipients are The Last Fling with just over $172,000, and the newly formed Fourth of July event “Naperville’s Salute”, with a little over $108,000.
Subcategories for Funding
Five percent of SECA’s total funds went to capital projects, 15% to visual arts, 40% to performing arts, 10% to new initiatives, and 30% to theme-related initiatives. This was the first time SECA allocated funds with subcategories.
New Events Coming Together
Next year’s theme is “Come Together,” and fitting right into that is Naper Pride’s proposed Pride Fest, to which the commission decided to allocate just over $83,000.
“When it comes to the implementation, I think the application, the way it’s presented, is one that you can tell that there’s much passion behind it and grit,” said SECA Chairman Melvin Kim.
Another new event that received funding was West Suburban Irish’s Irish Fest, which was granted $16,000.
Distributing Funds
The commission’s reasoning for funding certain requests over others and for how much comes down to the applications.
“Many kind of fell below my expectations of how they would be presented and what they would look like,” added Kim.
All allocations will be presented to Naperville City Council in early January for their final approval.
NCTV17 is partially funded by a grant from SECA.
Naperville News 17’s Christine Lena reports.
