Outlookfor arts is blue

State level decisions to slash funding to well established arts programs threaten to drastically reduce - or altogether eliminate - the means to provide the community with some of Orange County's important cultural enrichment resources. The Virginia House of Delegates has already approved the 2010 - 2011 budget which calls for a drastic cut in funding to the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities (VFH) and the Virginia Commission for the Arts (VCA). Worse, both organizations are slated to have funding cut off entirely in the 2011- 2012 budget.
Education advocates are rallying to save the jobs and academic resources for which there's progressively less state funding, and county leaders and school officials are scrambling to find any available money that could squeeze even one job, or simply the most elemental resources for reading, writing and arithmetic from the schools' proposed budget. Meanwhile, what's left of arts and humanities school staff and faculty, and officials at non-school entities like the James Madison Museum, the Arts Center in Orange and even The Montpelier Foundation, are wringing their hands over anticipated losses resulting from funding cuts to the Virginia Foundation for the Humanities and the Virginia Commission for the Arts.
Last month, the Virginia House of Delegates approved a state budget which includes a nearly $300,000 reduction in funding to the VFH. Similarly, state funding to the VCA is slated to be slashed by 50 percent. Worse, both foundations will lose all state funding - a total of more than $1 million - in the FY 2011 budget, leaving private donors and similarly crippled national endowments and foundations to foot the bill for the county's cultural enrichment programs, media, performances, museums, and more.
"The VFH helps underwrite museum exhibits and historical research throughout Virginia," Hilary Holladay, PhD, director of VFH's fellowship program explained. "If the VFH loses its state allocation, Orange County will no longer have a prime source of funding for historical research and museum exhibits. It would also lose the expertise that the VFH staff offers through its many programs. As things currently stand the foundation could not survive in any meaningful way without state funding."
Local sources for arts and culture, performances and exhibits, less VFH financial support, will be left holding their hands out in order to cover the shortfall in funding.
Orange Downtown Alliance Director Jeff Curtis said VFH funding helped provide Orange residents with outdoor music, concerts and festivals. But in present and future years, without resources made possible through the VFH and VCA, it will be a monumental task to try to find funding to bring festivals and musical performances to Orange again.
"Those funding opportunities are very important to us. We're trying to do great things for the community and there's no money," Curtis said.
But Virginia may be shooting itself in the foot by reducing - and eventually eliminating - funding to VFH and VCA. Beyond the loss of funding for community programs, not-for-profits and foundations, Holladay said the local economy will wither if the draw for tourists is diminished.
"Grants go to community groups and organizations (such as those in Orange) that are preserving and promoting Virginia history," she said. "These exhibits and programs help bring tourists to the state and provide important educational and cultural resources to local residents. So the state funds we receive are funneled right back into the economy and help educate citizens young and old."
Even in the halcyon days before the Great Recession, the VCA initiative to strengthen arts education in public schools was an invaluable tool for strengthening and enhancing students' intellectual and creative development.
Orange County Schools Academic Gifted Coordinator Carol Hunter said the expanded learning experiences available through the VCA Artist in Residency program offers students profound lessons far beyond what conventional SOL curricula offer.
In Orange County, VCA has brought Artist in Residency programs to schools, providing important cultural, music and arts experiences and learning to local youngsters beyond what conventional education funding can support. And now, when educators are left scrambling to find ways to pay for the most basic lessons, the VCA's artist residency grants and teacher incentive grants could create even greater abysses in the county's public school learning experience.
"The resources that are available to us from the Virginia Commission for the Arts will be even more important to us in the future since our resources are depleted," Hunter said.
Hunter said VCA funding made possible an African art and storytelling program at Orange Elementary School in recent years, with a traditional African drum performer and an African storyteller. Through assemblies and targeted workshops, students' regular social studies lessons became comprehensive and powerful educational experiences, Hunter said.
The value of learning about culture, history and arts through programs like the VCA's Artist in Residency can't be quantified, Hunter said. But the net gain is an enhanced education experience for the county's youngsters.
"You can see the results in our culture," Hunter said.
Arts Center in Orange director Laura Thompson said Lightfoot and Unionville Elementary School students' "Faces of Orange" banner and tile project was made possible through VCA funding. And at the Arts Center in Orange Thompson said she relies on VCA grants to help support the center's day-to-day operation. Other grants help bring arts education and exhibits to the community. In all, Thompson said, what it would boil down to tax-wise to maintain VCA funding is a close to a mere half a dollar annually for each Virginian.
The General Assembly will continue work on the overall state government budget bill between now and the scheduled adjournment of the General Assembly of March 13.