Former Arts Council chair, Gregory & Appel's Dan Appel, steered public funding to flush insurance clients

"Gregory & Appel uses a team approach to develop a 'multi-layer relationship' "
--Dan Appel quoted in Rough Notes Magazine, July 2007

We promised to connect the dots to tell you who are the true benefactors of Indianapolis' budget dollars given to the Indianapolis Arts Council. It is not the selfless arts outreach picture that the elite Indy arts administrative insiders want you to believe is true. Unfortunately, many well meaning arts supporters believe the rhetoric which now beg you to 'save' the arts.

Arts insiders' proposed salvation requires us to borrow even more money we don't have from the bond bank to operate our red ink city, while we never pay down a penny of the ungodly principle we owe. Arts insiders are addicted to the previous administration's constant credit line use to cover day-to-day operating expenses. The insiders feel 'entitled' to the bond money coming from thin air, even though it comes at horrific price to our children who will inherit the debts of their parents.

(Did we ever mention your property is literal collateral for municipal lending done by the bond banks and that's the cause of the property tax crisis?)

In 2006, the Indianapolis Arts Council's chairman was local insurance sales executive Dan Appel, in charge of sales for the the $100 million dollar a year insurance powerhouse Gregory & Appel Insurance. Appel's duty, as chair of the arts council, was to insure the honest stewardship of public tax dollars within his executive control.

You can bet that the commissions Dan's company makes off $100 million in annual sales is likely more than you will earn a few decades.

City Councilor Christine Scales was first to point out that much of the arts council budget awards unneeded grants to large arts institutions with healthy bank accounts and the comfort of secure black ink. That realisation made tax activists suspicious. Why are we funding healthy institutions over our many grass roots cultural arts programs which are the places that incubate an appreciation for the arts among disadvantaged individuals, rather than society's already advantaged? That's a great question, Councilor Scales. Ask Dan Appel.

We discovered that public money is not typically used to 'save' important arts efforts in jeopardy of disappearing, but more likely to keep lucrative not-for-profit clients loyal to Gregory & Appel Insurance. Call it kick backs, call it back scratching, call it favors, call it what you will, but it reeks of self-dealing.

Is the funding Appel's clients received, equal to their insurance premiums? That's a question to which we may never know the answer. Maybe Appel will come clean and tell the public how much in annual premium the benefitted organizations pay him each year for insurance. And maybe he will also tell us if other Indiana insurance companies have a fair shot at bidding their lucrative insurance coverage.

This obvious self-dealing flies in the face of the "Save Indy Arts" website created by Lisa Sirkin owner of Gracie Communications -- a website which was up and running the day after we published Councilor Scales letter to the Mayor critiquing the arts budget.
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A quick search of Sirkin's clients shows that she benefits well from public funded contract work within Indy arts circles which mainly include the well-heeled arts organizations contributing to the $100 million plus in insurance premiums collected each year by Gregory & Appel. No wonder Sirkin panicked and launched the site, while publicly claiming on August 11th that it "made me get outside my comfort zone."

Lisa, the taxpayers are uncomfortable too. And we're the folks who ultimately have to write the checks to pay the arts council who fund Dan Appel's clients, who finally hire you in the long run to run the PR to keep the milk flowing.

Here's the skinny on the solvent arts institution clients of Gregory & Appel that got the biggest share of your arts funding in 2006. We hope Dan Appel will come clean and tell you how many more of his clients (or employees of his clients) are on the receiving end of our city's debt.

$239,000 Children's Museum of Indianapolis

$140,000 Eiteljorg Museum

$155,000 Indianapolis Museum of Art

$ 47,500 International Violin Competition

$ 89,500 WFYI Teleplex

$ 29,750 WFYI Teleplex (2nd grant)

$ 21,000 Fine Arts Society of Indianapolis

$ 14,500 Madame Walker Theater

$736,250 PUBLIC ARTS FUNDING AWARDED TO GREGORY & APPEL CLIENTS IN 2006


"We have a large number of specialty programs that have helped us during the soft market", Dan says, adding that "they also give us some market clout with our insurers."
--Rough Notes Magazine, July 2007

We couldn't say it better if we tried, Dan. Stay tuned. There is more we have ready to expose between now and the public budget hearings before the city council.