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From the Executive Director
The following information was released yesterday from Harrisburg:
Senators
Corman, Pileggi and Scarnati introduced Senate Bill 850. It appears that it
eliminates all state funding for
the arts. There is no mention of Grants to the Arts or the PCA in the bill.
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We need you to contact your PA legislators and urge them to keep arts funding in the budget. Here's what I said in my email to Senator Lisa Baker and Representative Karen Boback:
As Executive Director of the Cultural Council of Luzerne County and a
board member of the Luzerne County Historical Society, I am writing to
urge you to support the Governor's proposal for the Pennsylvania Council
on the Arts (which includes $14 million for Grants to the Arts) and
restore funding to the Pennsylvania Historical and Museum Commission. The recently introduced Senate budget proposal would zero out these line items completely. This budget is particularly important, because it funds the vital grants that support arts and culture organizations statewide -
revitalizing communities and maintaining jobs in the sector.
Total elimination of both line items would be disproportionate to other
cuts. Though tough times have translated to tough choices all across the
board, a slumping economy is particularly tough on nonprofit arts
organizations, who are finding less support from corporate and
philanthropic institutions.
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Arts organizations and individuals in Northeastern PA benefit from a PCA program called Pennsylvania Partners in the Arts, administered in our region by the Scranton Area Foundation. Through this collaborative effort organizations or individual artists
within Lackawanna and Luzerne Counties are eligible to apply for grants
up to $3,000.
A total of $626,648 has been distributed through Lackawanna and Luzerne
counties since the partnership began in 2001.
Over the last few weeks, the Cultural Council has coordinated workshops in Wilkes-Barre and Hazleton which were attended by a total of about 35 people. If each of these people applied for and received an average grant of about $1,600, that would mean $56,000 in grants coming to Luzerne County this year. But there is much more at risk! PCA has a wealth of programs that benefit our region. For a list of these, click here.
In the interest of full disclosure, the Cultural Council received a PPA grant of just under $1,500 last year to support the publication of a catalog of our juried exhibition, Inspired by the Susquehanna, held last October at the court house. This catalog is a collection of 24 wonderful works by 19 regional artists, and if YOU write your legislators and send us an email naming your legislators, the date you wrote them, and your name, we will pick ten of you at random to receive, at no cost, a copy of the catalog, soon to be published.
The Governor's total Fiscal Year 2009-10 operating budget proposal, including all commonwealth funds, is $61.7 billion. The $14 million in proposed arts funding is two one-hundredths of one percent of the total. Is it worth it? $14 million is about $1.13 per person in Pennsylvania. Is it worth it?
IF we lose the PCA we loose all arts funding from state dollars. Programs
would end. Organizations would close. PLEASE contact any
legislator you can. We need
to bombard Harrisburg
with emails. Please read the article below from Citizens for the Arts in PA and contact your legislators.
Thank you!
Mike Burnside
Executive Director
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PA Arts Grants in Serious Trouble
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PA Senate Introduces Budget Bill - Includes ZERO Funding for Grants through the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts
We need your help NOW to save arts funding!
Late Friday, May 1, 2009, the Pennsylvania Senate introduced their version of the budget for FY 09-10.
This version, known as SB 850, includes zero funding for Pennsylvania Council on the Arts arts grants or for the agency itself.
If the Senate version prevails, beginning July 1, 2009 there will
be no arts grants in Pennsylvania. It is so important that we let
the Senate know that arts funding is important to us and to the
economic vitality of the state.
Please contact your state senator as soon as possible to
let him/her know that $14 million for arts grants is important to you.
If you wrote to your senator last week, give them a call today to tell
them:
You don't support SB 850 with zero funding for arts grants;
You would like arts grants funded at the $14 million level, and;
You would like the PCA's administrative budget set at $1.232 million.
You can find out contact information for your senator by clicking HERE. Then enter your
zipcode in the box provided. You will be taken to a page
with information for all of your elected officials. Please personalize
any phone conversation or letter that you may write with anecdotes
about how arts funding has enriched your community.
If you have any
questions, please contact Jenny Hershour at jlh@citizensfortheartsinpa.org or by phone at 717-234-0959.
Thank you so much for your help with this important advocacy campaign.
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The Cultural Council