Scottsdale City Council taps TDC funds to support two community events
By Terrance Thornton | Digital Free Press
With a crispiness in the morning air and a mellow warm to the evening stroll — it is most definitely fall in the Valley of the Sun.
Scottsdale City Council during its Oct. 24 regular meeting at City Hall, 3939 N. Drinkwater Blvd., provided two separate funding measures — using tourism development funds derived from bed-tax remits — to help ensure as the ambient temperatures dwindle the economic opportunities of event season are captured.
For the ongoing Scottsdale ArtWalk Gold Palette Event, Scottsdale City Council provided a payment of $75,000 to be allocated toward promotions and marketing efforts meanwhile the upcoming Scottsdale Dia De Los Muertos festivities is being provided a $60,000 shot-in-the-arm to help shoulder costs of public art installations in support of the community event.
Both items were approved during the local governing body’s consent agenda during the Oct. 24 regular meeting.
“On Sept. 19, 2023, the TDC recommended that City Council allocate up to $75,000 from the Tourism Development Fund in support of the agreement,” said Scottsdale Tourism and Events Director Karen Churchard in her Oct. 24 report to City Council regarding the Scottsdale Gallery Association event.
“The tourism & events department’s detailed fiscal year 2023-24 bed tax adopted budget, presented to the TDC, identifies $350,000 of the $2.8 million event development budget for arts and culture.”
Ms. Churchard points out the Gold Palette ArtWalk, which is a series of eight to nine events held throughout the cooler months of the year, is the longest held ArtWalks in the nation and last fiscal year received $75,000 to host the annual event.
“Proposed marketing and promotional benefits will focus on highlighting the Scottsdale destination and Old Town through media and promotion,” she said. “The producer’s proposed direct dollar marketing spend is $63,700 with a total event budget of $95,871. The TDC recommended providing $37,500 in advance of the event. The final $37,500 will be provided once all contract requirements have been fulfilled.”
Scottsdale tourism development: supporting a new cultural event
Part of the Scottsdale Dia De Los Muertos festivities, which is a deeply held Mexican-American tradition and produced here by LORE Southwest Media & Arts, is a celebration of family, past and present.
“Requested funds will be used to support the placement of a large-scale art installation associated with the Dia de los Muertos event, the deeply held tradition and intimate celebration of family, past and present,” Ms. Churchard said of where the tourism development funds will go. “Twenty-nine art pieces will be placed south and west of the Scottsdale Civic Center lawns from Friday, Oct. 27, through Monday, Oct. 30, in conjunction with the Fiesta De Muertos y Danza dance performance at the Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts on Oct. 28. Additional festival activation will take place at the Old Adobe Mission.”
Ms. Churchard explains the art installation coincides with the ongoing ‘Fall In Love’ marketing campaign centered around the ongoing 70 activities in and around Old Town Scottsdale through late November.
“Art and culture are an important components of Scottsdale’s overall tourism image and its product,” she said in her Oct. 24 report to City Council. “Art exhibits help increase national and international visibility for Scottsdale as a desirable tourist destination and address one of the 2021 Scottsdale Tourism Strategic Plan key principles culture and creativity.”
With an overall budget of $476,000, Ms. Churchard explains the one-time payment of $60,000 to the producers of the Dia De Los Muertos event will come from bed-tax remits meant for tourism investment.
