Senate Plan to Shutter PA Council on the Arts Threatens Already Reeling Arts Sector

Senate Plan to Shutter PA Council on the Arts Threatens Already Reeling Arts
Sector

HARRISBURG, Pa., May 18 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Pennsylvania's nonprofit
arts sector, already deeply challenged by the economic recession, faces an
uncertain future under a budget bill proposed and adopted by the Senate
Republicans that eliminates the state's arts agency and its grants to support
community arts programs.

"The Senate budget proposal would be devastating for the arts," said Philip
Horn, executive director of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts. "A lot of
philanthropic support is shrinking as a result of losses in endowments. Arts
organizations will be seriously challenged to maintain programming."

Horn noted that these programs and events get people to enjoy local festivals,
dine in restaurants, and thereby keep their communities vibrant.

"Our arts organizations are going to be seriously challenged to pay for
increasing costs of infrastructure like facilities, utilities, staff and
programming expenses," Horn said. "Even at the reduced funding levels in the
Governor's budget proposal, we'll be looking at a far different cultural
landscape in Pennsylvania than what we had before."

Compared to the Governor's proposal, the Senate plan would:
-- Eliminate the nationally recognized $14 million grants program
administered by the council that provides support for hundreds of
statewide arts organizations, activities and services through more
than
1,500 grants and 32 regional partners. More than 30 million
Pennsylvanians attend arts events supported by state arts grants, many
for free or at reduced ticket prices;
-- Jeopardize (for failure to provide a state match) a total of $1.338
million in federal funding for Pennsylvania from the National
Endowment
for the Arts, including $359,200 in funding for job creation from the
American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009;
-- Close the doors of the 43-year-old state arts agency that was created
with the bipartisan support under the leadership of Speaker of the
House
of Representatives K. Leroy Irvis and signed into law by Gov. William
D.
Scranton;
-- Result in the loss of hundreds of private sector jobs across
Pennsylvania, including the immediate loss of 40 jobs held by the
council's regional partners;
-- Eliminate or reduce tens of millions of dollars of economic activity
generated by attendance at arts events across the state; and

-- Compromise downtown revitalization efforts that use the arts as the
attraction for other businesses.

The Pennsylvania Council on the Arts is a state agency under the Governor's
Office. Its mission is to foster the excellence, diversity and vitality of the
arts in Pennsylvania and to broaden the availability and appreciation of those
arts throughout the state. Founding arts council members in 1967 included
philanthropists Theodore L. Hazlett, Jr. and H. John Heinz II, artist Andrew
Wyeth, sculptor Selma H. Burke, and architect R. Buckminster Fuller.

In 2004, the agency was named among government's top 50 "Best and Brightest"
in the Innovations in American Government Awards, a national competition
recognizing superior and unique programming initiatives within the public
sector.

For more information on the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, visit
www.pacouncilonthearts.org.

SOURCE Pennsylvania Council on the Arts

Heather Doughty of Pennsylvania Council on the Arts, +1-717-787-1517