Arts Funding

In the haunting Cast Studio at the Museum of American Art (nee: The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts), the walls and floor are lined with replicas of the most enduring sculpture of the ages, the better for art students to sketch and draw and observe. And towering over them all, imposing, majestic, his form as familiar as that of Venus di Milo, is Michelangelo's David. He is, as they say, anatomically correct - a condition that it is impossible to overlook, given that he is twice life-size.

If you are a president, vice president, executive vice president or an upper- or middle-level manager with at least five years' experience, and if you want to understand local culture and heritage, the Business Volunteers for the Arts (BVA) can provide that opportunity. The BVA, a program of the Greater Philadelphia Chamber of Commerce's Arts and Culture Council, recruits, trains and places qualified managers in consulting positions with local arts and cultural groups. The arts groups benefit from the volunteers' expertise in financial planning, media relations, marketing or what have you. In return, volunteers are culturally enriched in a way not available to everyone.

It was Gov. Casey's turn last week to give a boost to Philadelphia's dream of transforming South Broad Street into an arts and entertainment mecca. If this were springtime, we'd say the governor batted clean-up, drove home a pair of runs and took third base without a slide. Mr. Casey's clutch hit came in the form of approval for nearly $90 million in funding for a host of arts-related and community projects on South Broad Street - the so-called Avenue of the Arts - and in various North Philadelphia neighborhoods.

The Delaware River Port Authority is in charge of bridges, ports and rivers. So why is it giving a major chunk of change to the Philadelphia Orchestra and the Freedom Theatre? Why is people's bridge toll money being used to support the arts? Because it's a smart economic growth strategy, authority officials say. We strongly agree and we hope other major Philadelphia industries will follow. As this page has argued in the past, strong community support of the arts is critical not just for starving painters or musicians.

Margie Salvante is executive director of the Theatre Alliance of Greater Philadelphia The headwinds of a bad economy blow hard and no more so than when it comes to the arts, which even in the best of times maintain a tenuous grip on reliable funding. Thankfully, Gov. Corbett has called for arts funding to stay level in his proposed budget for next year. Regrettably, however, the Republican-controlled legislature seeks to cut funding for the arts 70 percent. There is no better example than the vibrant theater scene in the Philadelphia area to illustrate why this funding is so crucially important to our region as both an economic driver and as a quality-of-life enhancement.

If the crepes, mimes, and erection of a presumably expensive and possibly ephemeral 81-foot homage to the Eiffel Tower made you doubt that a serious artistic thread could be discerned in the Kimmel Center's Francophilia festival, reassurance could be found Saturday morning at the Perelman - in a children's concert. For the last performance of its season, Astral Artists took on the French theme - and some Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts funding - to produce three works.

Suzanne Cloud is executive director of Jazz Bridge When the Pennsylvania state House passed the penny-wise, pound-foolish House Bill 1485, I wasn't too surprised, but it didn't keep me from being existentially floored by the stupidity of the effort. Now the budget bill goes to the Senate, and all of us have to wince as they decide if 70 percent of arts funding goes into the big wood chipper of political expediency this month. But I think a small snapshot of what the loss of this funding would mean might tell a compelling story that the legislators would do well to hear.

Individual contributions had already dropped because of the nation's economic crisis. And once-hefty grants from foundations and corporations had fallen off as well. Adding to the storm of financial problems, New Jersey's arts, history, and tourism industries now face a state funding reduction of up to 25 percent in the budget proposed by Gov. Corzine this month. Arts officials say the decrease - about $9 million, if approved by lawmakers - might close some organizations and cut operations at others.

Last week, with very little fanfare, the National Endowment for the Arts took some first small steps into new territory. Whether that territory will open up into new opportunities remains to be seen. But the landscape has unmistakably changed. On Wednesday, the NEA announced its first grants for "artistically underserved areas" - rural and urban communities that have been largely overlooked when federal dollars have been handed out in the past. Of the $6.2 million in announced grants, Pennsylvania organizations received about $312,000.

Five decades ago, I was a Narberth-born diehard Phillies fan growing up east of the Main Line. My career as an exploration geologist eventually brought me to Denver, where the oil bust of the mid-'80s left me with a healthy severance check and an entrepreneurial spirit. In 1988, I opened the first brewpub in the Rocky Mountain West and began a career involving multiple restaurants, downtown real estate development, and service on many civic boards. With absolutely no political experience, I was deemed the unlikeliest of candidates in 2003, when I threw my hat in the Denver mayoral race against six seasoned political veterans.