The Suit Magazine

All over the country, local art groups are being hit hard due to diminishing state grants. Thirty-one states have cut their art budgets for the 2012 fiscal year. According to the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies, this is a continuing downturn; there has been a financial aid drop of 42 percent over the last decade. The decline is directly related to overall budget cuts due to the recession, and many local artists see it as an opposition between conservative and liberal organizations. Government officials debate whether the arts should be put on the back-burner in favor of other projects like construction or road restorations.

Established arts organizations have an easier time obtaining government aid due to their prominent place in society. The impact of these cuts is mostly affecting artists living in rural areas who rely heavily on state grants and local funding. For example, in Kansas, the proposed budget of $689,000 was vetoed by Governor Sam Brownback. The National Endowment for the Arts warned the state last month that it will not acquire the grant unless it establishes a new state arts agency.

According to Michael Kaiser, president of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, “When any form of government funding is cut, the organizations that tend to get hit the most are rural, organizations of color, avant-garde institutions — those that have a harder time raising individual and corporate money.”

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