Golden Turkey Nominee: State-funded Dungeons & Dragons podcast

The Golden Turkey Committee returns to the State Arts Board’s Creative Individual grant program for this year’s low-dollar-but-high-outrage Golden Turkey Award nominee. In this case, $10,000 of sales tax revenue was sent to a guy in Duluth to produce four live Dungeons & Dragons podcast episodes in greater Minnesota. According to his application, “these live events will be free to the public, continuing a five-year storyline.” To his credit, he fulfilled the requirements of the grant and did in fact produce more episodes of his Twin Portals podcast, including several live events at a small theater in Duluth. But in what fantasy kingdom is giving some geek $10,000 to play Dungeons & Dragons on a podcast a good use of taxpayer money?

The Dungeons & Dragons grant was made possible by the Legacy Amendment to the State Constitution, which dedicates a portion of sales taxes to pay for Arts and Cultural Heritage programming. The amendment expires in 2034 and programs like this are a strong reason to let it expire. Hopefully the ballot language won’t be so biased toward a “yes” vote like this year’s lottery amendment.

To make matters worse, 2024 was not the first year of funding for the D&D podcast. They received $5,999 in 2021, $6,000 in 2022 and $10,000 in 2023 in addition to this year’s grant. That’s $31,599 of your money over the last four years. Where do we sign up for a grant?

The full list of Creative Individual artist grants can be found here, but fair warning, it will make you mad. The State Arts Board split up $3.5 million to 363 “artists” across the state in 2024. Some examples of your sales tax revenue at work:

• $10,000 for a Hmong paper doll and adult coloring book, beautifully showing intricate Hmong cultural designs.
• $ 9,791 to guide area youth in painting self-portraits in the shape of leaves, and incorporate them into a mural painting titled Tree of Community, to be installed on the exterior wall of the Harmony Food Coop in downtown Bemidji. Here is a photo of the finished product:

• $10,000 to design and embroider three framed pieces that tell a story of Natives thriving and flourishing despite the traumas inflicted through the doctrine of discovery and subsequent colonization.
• $10,000 to develop skills to produce and publicly present reimagined trans flags to fly in June 2024 through a project called Freak Flags.
• $ 10,000 to create a public installation about top surgery that celebrates queer, trans, and two spirit identity.
• $10,000 to research and create a contemporary khayameya Egyptian tent structure to gather queer community in conversation and healing.

The Creative Individual grant program of the State Arts Board continues to provide perfect examples of Golden Turkey spending. The Committee is working on our own application for $10,000 to develop original songs and artwork about the spending habits of wayward Minnesota politicians. Wish us luck (and vote for the Golden Turkey winner here).