Artless Wednesday event protests cut in state arts funding
From The Daily Review.
BY JAMES LOEWENSTEIN
Black cloth will be draped over a portion of top of the marquee at the Keystone Theatre in Towanda today, with a message underneath it stating: “Imagine a world with no arts,” said the director of the Bradford County Regional Arts Council.
The draping of the black cloth, which will also be occurring on the marquee of the Sayre Theatre in Sayre, is occurring as part of Artless Wednesday, which is a one-day event that is occurring statewide to draw attention to the possible drastic cut or elimination of state funding for the arts in Pennsylvania this year, said Brooks Eldredge-Martin, director of the Bradford County Regional Arts Council, which owns the theatres.
Because those cuts could occur, Artless Wednesday also aims to show citizens how important the arts are to their children’s education, the economy, and the quality of life, he said.
“Imagine Bradford County without theatres, live shows, movies, festivals, music, dance, voice and instrumental lessons, graphic arts, puppets, and singing,” Eldredge-Martin said. “The arts often define the quality of life in communities. Artless Wednesday is an attempt to help citizens realize the benefits of the arts in their communities.”
The Artless Wednesday event is being coordinated by the Citizens for the Arts in Pennsylvania, which is an advocacy group that works to support the arts in the Commonwealth, Eldredge-Martin said.
The Citizens for the Arts in Pennsylvania is planning to continue the Artless Wednesday event each Wednesday until a state budget is passed, he said.
In addition, as part of the Artless Wednesday events, citizens who go the Web sites of arts councils, museums and theater groups in Pennsylvania will encounter a grey screen with a message such as “What if there were no arts?,” he said. The citizens will have the option of closing the screen so that they can enter the Web site and use it as they normally would, he said.
“We’re not trying to stop any programs from occurring,” he said. “We’re just trying to make the point of letting people know how involved our lives are with the arts.”
The state budget proposal that was passed in the Senate, which is known as SB 850, would cut state funding for the arts to zero, Eldredge-Martin said. What the Bradford County Regional Arts Council is hoping for instead is a budget that would allow programs like the arts to take a big cut without losing the infrastructure that has allowed funding for arts programs to reach the entire state. Eldredge-Martin pointed out that the governor’s budget proposal already includes an approximately 8-percent cut in arts funding from last year, and that arts programs could absorb even more cuts, but said that to take funding to zero is “illogical and unwise.”
Republicans in the House are suggesting that state funding for the arts, which was $15 million last year, be reduced to $5 million this year, Eldredge-Martin said.
Drastically reducing or eliminating funding for the arts will not solve the budget problems that the state is facing, he said.
“The problem is much bigger than that, because of other reasons,” he said.
And it only costs the average taxpayer 5 cents a week, or about $2.50 a year, to pay for the state funding for the arts, Eldredge-Martin said.
If state funding for the arts is eliminated, the Bradford County Regional Arts Council’s Arts in Education program will be eliminated or drastically reduced, Eldredge-Martin said. The Arts in Education Program includes artist residencies in schools and pre-K classrooms, professional live performances at the Keystone and Sayre theatres for public school students, and the Missoula Children’s Theatre’s week-long residencies in Canton, Troy, Towanda and Sayre, he said.
Linda Nickerson of the Troy Youth Arts Camp said the camp will be affected if there is a drastic cut in state arts funding this year.
She explained that state grant money is used to “bring in top-notch arts educators to work with our youth. This interaction is of immeasurable (importance), and we will not be able to continue this piece of the arts camp without the state grant money.”
State budget cuts would end the extended weekend hours at Blue Heron Art Gallery in Wyalusing, and would force the art gallery to scale back on the number of art shows it offers each year, said Wendy Gaustad, community director of the art gallery.
Due to the uncertainty of state funding, the Home Textile Tool Museum in Orwell Township may need to plan for fewer artisans to provide workshops and other programs at the museum in 2010, said Esther Welden, a spokesman for the museum.
A representative of the Valley Chorus in Bradford County said that a cutoff in state funding will have “a very bad effect on what we are able to offer to concert audiences.” For example, the chorus has relied on a state grant money to help it use a live orchestra for its Christmas concerts over the past several years, the representative said.
Under Senate Bill 850, there would be a cutoff of state money for more than 26 arts organizations and events in Bradford County, according to a press release from the Bradford County Regional Arts Council.
James Loewenstein can be reached at (570) 265-1633; or e-mail: jloewenstein@thedailyreview.com.
