The Price of Service Cuts: Terminating State Council of the Arts Would Thwart Local Artistic Expression
July 20, 2009
Deep cuts to public services are being considered in Harrisburg as lawmakers and the Governor work to resolve the budget crisis. PBPC is tracking news reports on the potential impact of these cuts on local communities across Pennsylvania.
Today, we look at the threat to the Blair County Arts Foundation from the General Assembly’s proposal to eliminate $14 million for the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.
The Altoona Mirror reported on July 20 that zeroing out arts funding from state government would make it impossible for local organizations, like the Blair County Arts Foundation, to offer artistic experiences to people in their communities. The state council provides $16,000 of the foundation’s $421,000 budget, and the current economic climate would make it hard to “plug that hole” through fundraising and donations.
More information about how proposed cuts will hurt Pennsylvanians can be found at PBPC's 30 Ways in 30 Days Service Cuts Will Hurt Pennsylvanians, which examines proposed cuts to public education, college costs, hospitals, children's health care, senior services, state police patrols, and agricultural programs, among other areas. Return to the Price of Service Cuts.
Read the full article below.
Cuts, but at what cost? Budget proposal would terminate $14 million for state arts council
William Kibler
July 20, 2009
http://www.altoonamirror.com/page/content.detail/id/520891.html?nav=742
Brandon Wike grew up in a housing project, and as he enters his senior year at Altoona Area High School, his ambition is to become a drama or music teacher, maybe a choreographer.
Aren't public housing projects supposed to produce boxers and basketball players?
Wike danced out of that mold at Fairview Hills with help from after-school theater workshops funded by the Blair County Arts Foundation, with money from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.
The state General Assembly is considering budget proposals that would "zero out" all $14 million for the council, making it difficult for organizations like the foundation to expose their communities - including poor families - to artistic experience.
The threat has created enough angst among those organizations that they rallied with others from across the state in Harrisburg to protest, saying the cut would cost "tens of thousands of jobs," while leaving Pennsylvania the only state without an arts council.
Wealthy families would still manage to get their kids those experiences, but families like Brandon's might not, said Kate Shaffer, BCAF executive director.
The state council provides the foundation $16,000 a year in a $421,000 budget, and the bad economy would make it hard to "plug that hole" through fundraising and donations, Shaffer said.
Staffing is already "bare bones," so the foundation's Arts Festival and Family Theatre - programs that expose the general community to art - are likely victims, she said.
Wike loves to be the center of attention, and theater helped him channel it constructively, said Kathi Ardizzone, administrative officer at Fairview Hills.
It has kept him from getting into fights, getting bullied and getting into trouble, Wike said as he prepared to go to work Friday at a local pizzeria.
Through acting, "I can be who you want, what you want, when you want," he said, adding that he loves the scope and range theater has given his personality.
All kids should "have the opportunity to be whatever they want," Ardizzone said.
But it takes money.
State Sen. John H. Eichelberger Jr., R-Blair, voted against giving any money to the arts council in a recent bill. But it's not as simple as that, the senator said.
Art is only part of the picture, in a tier with a host of other institutions and programs, including libraries, pre-kindergarten, Science in Motion, Classrooms for the Future, 4-H and county fairs - some of which have been "zeroed out" in budget proposals, Eichelberger said.
Like other line items, art isn't big enough to be a deal-breaker one way or the other, he said.
Even more critical line items having to do with safety - such as hospital funding - aren't deal-breakers, Eichelberger added.
The deal-breakers are issues like additional taxes and certain funding levels, he said.
Lawmakers are voting on overall packages, and no one is likely to be happy with all 700 line items in any package, he said.
Still, it would be unfortunate to send a signal to the rest of the country that Pennsylvania doesn't value the arts, Eichelberger said, predicting they'd ultimately come up with "a little bit" for art.
The organizations were expecting a cut, just not elimination of all funding, Shaffer said.
All arts organizations depend on state support, which helps to generate additional revenue by requiring match money, said Noel Feeley, treasurer for the Rural Arts Alliance, which funnels the council money to smaller organizations.
The council supplies 12 percent of the $1.2 million budget for Southern Alleghenies Museum of Art, Executive Director Gary Moyer said.
Erasing it would jeopardize the museum's Arts in Education and Artist in Residency programs, which serve 25,000 students in 31 school districts annually, he said.
Forty artists are on the program roster, visiting schools for 10 to 30 days at a stretch to help to teach art to students who sometimes get no other art instruction, often using exhibits from the museum's collections, Moyer said.
Altoona Community Theatre gets about $6,500 from the state to help in a $230,000 budget. Replacing it will mean getting more sponsors, and that will be difficult, Executive Director Steve Helsel said.
If the sponsors don't come through, it could draw the curtains on summer workshops for kids and some theater productions, he said.
If the Altoona Symphony Orchestra loses its $10,000 from the state, it could mean the end of professional development efforts and free education through "Cushion Concerts," young people's concerts and visits to schools and art festivals, Executive Director Brooke Welsh said.
It would be disappointing to lose the "really positive domino effect" of that outreach, she said.
Despite what people think, the arts aren't a luxury, according to Shaffer. Rather, "it defines our character, strengthens our soul," she said.
Cutting all state money for it is "unconscionable," she said.
