From The Morning Call.

By Kathy Lauer-Williams

The Allentown Art Museum hung an empty frame in its lobby on Wednesday and will leave it there to draw attention to what the museum would look like if drastic cuts are made to the Pennsylvania Council of the Arts $14 million grant budget. Under Gov. Rendell’s proposed 2009-10 budget, more than $1 million would be cut from arts funding.

The museum has gone ”artless” as part of the statewide ”Artless Wednesdays” campaign spearheaded by Citizens for the Arts in Pennsylvania, a grass-roots coalition committed to advancing the arts through advocacy, programs and services.

Other arts organizations participating include The Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, along with most of the Philadelphia area arts organizations, that either hung black drapes or closed; three theaters in Bradford County, that draped black cloth over the marquee, and the Southern Allegheny Museum of Art’s four museums, which either draped black cloth or turned off the lights Wednesday. Other organizations put a graphic of a black drape on their Web site.

Musikfest made a similar statement in August in conjunction with Citizens for the Arts, when it stopped the music at all venues for one minute while festival workers talked about the threat of state budget cuts.

”The livelihood of arts organizations, as well as their staffs and artists, are threatened with these proposed cuts — and the potential fallout could be catastrophic,” said Robert Metzger, interim executive director of the Allentown Art Museum.

The frame, an ornate gilt frame similar to those used in the museum’s Kress collection, is accompanied by a panel that explains the state budget impasse and the threat of funding cuts to the arts.

Metzger called going ”artless” a ”unique way for the museum to get involved and advocate — not just for our own organization — but for the entire arts community.”

The museum plans to keep the empty frame up until a budget is passed.

The Citizen for the Arts in Pennsylvania Web site at http://www.savetheartsinpa.com/artless states that ”each Wednesday until a budget is passed, we are asking for arts organizations to make a symbolic gesture to draw attention to what our communities might be like if there is no state support of nonprofit arts groups.”

”This was just the launch,” said group spokeswoman Jenny Hershour. ”We are hoping as we go longer in the budget impasse, more organizations will sign on. We are trying to get the message out.”

9/9/09 marked the beginning of “Artless Wednesdays” being held across the state each Wednesday until a state budget is approved.

Elk County Council on the Arts, located on Main Street in Ridgway, was closed yesterday as it participated in the statewide arts advocacy mission.

The gallery windows were draped in black fabric with signs posted on the windows in demonstration of the 50 programs and projects in Elk, Forest, Jefferson and McKean counties which received funding from the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts since 2007.

“As citizens we deserve a responsible state budget, to be passed in a timely manner,” noted Abbi Peters, ECCOTA executive director. “I urge residents to continue applying pressure to our legislators, call, e-mail, stop in their offices and remind them of the faces, the lives, the jobs that are affected by the drastic cuts and elimination in programs and services that are currently being proposed in the budget. These programs and services are vital to the quality of life and future of our community.”

The Artless Wednesday initiative was started by discussion of arts advocacy groups, Save the Arts of PA and Citizens for the Arts in PA.

The groups passed along the word to statewide arts organizations, encouraging them to demonstrate.

Among the proposed demonstrations arts organizations are considering include hosting a string quartet minus the instruments or covering artwork in public spaces.

“This shows how much art is in our lives and our community and how we’d be impacted if we lose that funding,” Peters said.

If the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (PCA) is eliminated from the state budget, Pennsylvania will be ineligible to receive federal level arts funding and become the only state without a state arts council.

The current budget provides $14 million in funding for arts grants and $1.2 million for the administration of the PCA. Broken down this would cost each taxpayer a nickel a week or $2.60 for the entire year.

“Arts funding ripples out further than the actual projects,” Peters noted.

She explained that Kane’s Art in the Wilds receives state funding and attracts a crowd of 4,000 people. Those people spend money in the area on food, gas and lodging, therefore supporting other businesses and industries.

“These programs provide jobs, tax revenue and quality of life in PA,” Peters added.

In 2007/08 art projects and programs funded by state dollars totaled $34,442 in grants to 24 organizations across four counties; in 2008/09 funding was $34,211 to 25 organizations and in 2009/10 the budget decreased to $22,618 to 16 organizations.

Among the possible programs which may be eliminated if the art grand funding is not included in the state budget are Art in the Wilds, Ridgway Chainsaw Carvers Rendezvous, University of Pittsburgh at Bradford’s Arts Programming, Bradford Creative and Performing Arts Center, First Night Bradford and The Punxsutawney Groundhog Club.

From The Daily Review.

By WARREN HOWELER
Times Editor

SAYRE — Motorists who travel by the Sayre Theatre Wednesday will notice something different — a black drop-cloth covering the marquee.

The action that will soon be taken by the Sayre Theatre and the other theaters managed by the Bradford County Regional Arts Council will be repeated by facilities across the commonwealth of Pennsylvania that specialize in the arts — such as libraries and museums — in recognition of “Artless Wednesday.”

The black drop-cloths will cover theater marquees and other such art-related symbols is part of a state-wide protest of the budget proposals being thrown around in Harrisburg that either eliminate all funding for the arts for the 2009-2010 fiscal year or cut it by two-thirds, according to Sayre Theatre Manager Marjorie Ross.

For the 2008-2009 fiscal year, the total state budget for the arts in Pennsylvania was $15 million. In his proposal for the current fiscal year, Gov. Ed Rendell proposed a $1 million cut in funding.

However, Senate Bill 850 — which was the Senate Republican’s response to Rendell’s budget — eliminate all funding for the arts from the state budget, said BCRAC Executive Director Brooks Eldredge-Martin.

Senate Bill 850 was later defeated in the state House of Representatives and Pennsylvania still has no budget in place for this fiscal year, which began on July 1.

In the meantime, Senate Republicans have proposed an alternative figure for arts funding for the current fiscal year — $5 million, said Eldredge-Martin.

Wednesday’s visual protest is aimed at showing people within the state what it would be like to have one day without the arts, said Ross.

“So you might go into a museum in Pennsylvania on Wednesday and their statues will be shrouded,” she said. “At theaters like ours, our marquees will be covered in black.”

“We’re just trying to say ‘save the arts in Pennsylvania,’” Ross stated.

There is an expectation that some funding will cut from the arts budget for this fiscal year, said Ross.

“But to give us a big fat zero is a shame,” she said.

Ross noted that some of the initiatives offered by the Bradford County Regional Arts Council that could be loss through the elimination of the state’s arts funding include the artist-in-residency program and the arts programs that are presented at the theater for school-age children.

“All these things will be gone,” she said.

Ross also stated that it costs every taxpayer in the state of Pennsylvania $2.50 a year to support the arts.

Ross encourages anyone who is concerned about this issue to contact their local state representatives.

Pennsylvania is in day 68 of the state budget impasse. This impasse is hurting nonprofit groups all over the Commonwealth including arts organizations. It is so important for Pennsylvania’s arts organizations, arts patrons, and those who are touched by the arts everyday to continue to keep members of the Pennsylvania General Assembly informed as to what the arts do in our communities. We need to be persistent in delivering the message that, as their constituents, funding at $14 million for the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (PCA) grants program and at $1.2 million for the administration for the PCA is a priority.

artless Wednesdays…what is it all about? Starting Wednesday and continuing each Wednesday until a budget is passed, we are asking for arts organizations to make a symbolic gesture to draw attention to what our communities might be like if there is no state support of nonprofit arts groups. Our hope is that your gestures will create opportunities for discussion on “Main Street, PA.”

To learn more visit the artless Wednesday site.

LAWRENCE, Kan. — Ben Ahlvers is a full-time arts education coordinator, but his passion is with the fanciful creatures, human figures and oversized hammers he fashions from clay.

The nationally recognized ceramic artist was chosen to receive a fellowship from the Kansas Arts Commission to attend an artist residency in Montana. But after Kansas officials cut the commission’s budget midyear by $300,000, he didn’t receive the $1,000 check.

“They were still going to have a reception and I joked to somebody that I was going to go and eat $1,000 worth of finger food,” said Ahlvers, 35, who said he and his wife had to live off their credit cards and sell more of his artwork to fund the trip.

“The $1,000 would have made it a lot easier and I wouldn’t have had to fret as much,” he said.

States across the country are slashing their arts funding for the second year in a row as they cope with falling tax revenues. Those cuts, which often happen during recessions, are a serious blow to arts agencies and individual dancers, painters and actors at a time when private donations are down and many art organizations are being more selective in what they produce.

Julie Britton, vice president of development or the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center in Florida, said officials may have to skew away from avant-garde art designed to push boundaries in favor of things more certain to sell tickets.

“Part of our mission is to bring people things that are new,” said Britton. “That’s very difficult to do when you have to be risk-averse in this situation.”

The Tampa Bay center’s state grant is expected to be $25,000 or less this year, which is down from $200,000 a couple years ago.

The National Assembly of State Arts Agencies estimates states reduced their arts funding an average of 7 percent in the fiscal year that began July 1. That average doubles to 14 percent when Minnesota is not included because the state almost tripled its art budget to $30.2 million thanks to a new sales tax.

In financially strapped states like Arizona, South Carolina, Georgia, Ohio, Louisiana and Florida, the reductions are steeper, falling 30 percent or more, forcing agencies to trim the amount or value of grants, shutter programs that provide arts education and lay off employees. In two states that haven’t completed their annual budgets — Pennsylvania and Connecticut — lawmakers are considering eliminating their state arts agencies entirely.

States did get a boost this year in funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and some one-time job preservation grants through the federal stimulus bill. But administrators said the money won’t make up for all the funding they’ve lost.

“It’s really going to have a devastating effect,” said Terry Scrogum, executive director of the Illinois Arts Council, which saw its budget fall 51 percent this year to $7.8 million. “We’re going to try to maintain as many of the operating grants as we can. They’re obviously going to be at a reduced level. Others will be whittled down or suspended.”

Overall, states contribute just 2 percent of the total annual pool of arts revenue in the U.S., according to Americans for the Arts. While a seemingly small percentage, arts advocates say organizations use those dollars to leverage donations from local governments, match federal funding from the National Endowment for the Arts and attract the private donations that make up the bulk of their annual budgets.

That private giving has also suffered during the recession. According to the Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University, private donations to the arts decreased 6.4 percent between 2007 and 2008, the latest years available, and has likely fallen farther this year.

The cuts in arts aren’t universal. Besides Minnesota, a handful of other states, such as Oregon, New York and Texas, have seen increases, either because their states are in better shape or because of one-time surges of new revenue.

The arts typically take a hit during recessions, as state budget writers are forced to balance theater expenses and sculpture grants against cuts to social service agencies, education or transportation. Arts budgets have fallen 20 percent in the past two years, compared with 38 percent during the 2001-2004 recession and 28 percent during the early 1990s, said Angela Han, spokeswoman for the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies,

But arts agency leaders said legislatures make a mistake when they look at the arts as a luxury as opposed to a key source of jobs and community identity.

“I don’t think any government entity in the United States has ever understood the true value of the arts in terms of economic development, arts education or in community revitalization,” said Sue Weiner, executive director of the Georgia Council for the Arts.

In a 2007 study, the Americans for the Arts found that the nonprofit arts and culture industry anually generated $166.2 billion in economic activity and 5.7 million jobs.

Han said that while the recession may show signs of abating, she doesn’t expect state arts funding to snap back soon.

“Following the 2001 recession, it took budgets three years to recover,” she said.

Back in Lawrence, Ahlvers recently found out that the Kansas commission may get funding to give him his $1,000. But with state revenue still hurting, he’ll believe it when he sees it.

“As an artist, I think of course they (states) should put money in the arts,” he said. “But there’s another side of the arts that thrives on an underdog side of life.”

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Contact your legislators today and tell them $5 million for arts grants and $500,000 for PCA administration is unacceptable.  For contact information visit Citizens for the Arts in Pennsylvania.

This is where you come in…

• Contact both your state senator and state representative by PHONE and ask them to add arts funding through the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (PCA) to their priorities list. A phone call will have more impact than an e-mail or fax at this point in the process.
• Follow up your phone call with an e-mail or a fax.

We are being heard. A legislator from Elk County remarked to one of our advocates that the arts were a “hot button” issue. In the speeches made during the Senate debate on HB 1416, four senators specifically talked about the arts during their remarks. They were Senator Jay Costa, Senator Vincent Hughes, Senator Anthony Williams, and Senator Wayne Fontana. If they represent you, please send them a note of thanks. We were also told by several legislative staffers that our Save the Arts Rally was the most impressive rally that has been held in years. So, your efforts are receiving notice.

Phone numbers for your legislators can be found by visiting our Legislative Action Center and typing your zip code in the box located at the top of the page. If you have difficulty finding the phone numbers, please give me a call at 717-234-0959 or send me an e-mail at jlh@citizensfortheartsinpa.org and I’ll locate the number for you. We need to keep up the pressure…CALL your legislators today!

Sincerely,

Jenny
Jenny Hershour
Managing Director

P.S. As soon as we have the names of the members of the Conference Committee, we will notify you as to the next steps to take.

HB 1416 as amended will be sent back to the House of Representatives tomorrow morning where one of three options can take place:

* They concur with the changes made by the Senate and send the bill to Governor Rendell for his signature;
* They vote to nonconcur with the changes and send the bill to a conference committee for further diliberation and compromise, or;
* They take no action on the bill

This is where you come in…it is vitally important that you call your legislator Tuesday morning to tell him/her that you would like the House to nonconcur with the HB 1416 as amended. This the only way that PCA funding can be restored to the budget.
We are down to the wire here. If you think that state arts funding is an important service for Pennsylvania government to provide to its citizens, then CALL your legislator in the morning.

You can locate contact information for your legislator by visiting our Legislative Action Center at http://capwiz.com/artsusa/pa and typing in your zipcode in the box at the top of the page.

Please give call your House member if this is important to you. Do you want Pennsylvania to be the only state without an arts council, without state funding and without federal funding? Yes, money from the National Endowment for the Arts will also disappear if PA arts grants are eliminated from the budget because NEA grants must have a match from the state. Don’t let this happen, keep arts money in Pennsylvania by contacting your House member and telling him/her to vote for nonconcurrence with HB 1416 as amended.

If you have any questions or need a telephone number, please contact me at jlh@citizensfortheartsinpa.org or at 717-234-0959. Contact your House member NOW!

Robert Letieri, chair, Citizens for the Arts

Senator Jay Costa

Senator Anthony Williams

Mayor Pete Lagiovane

Mrs. Pennsylvania Kate Cohen

Caroline Allen, past president of Pennsylvania PTA

High School Senior Drew Shaull

Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Chair, Diane Dalto