Dirge Sounds for Arts Funding

When musicians went to the state Capitol building to strike up the band this week it was not a happy tune they were playing, but a sad song that Colorado was about to eliminate arts funding.

Colorado, like many other U.S. states, faces a budget deficit because of economic hard times. Lawmakers have chopped about $800 million from the next fiscal year’s $13.8-billion budget and one of the items that got the ax was the arts.

“There’s a fair amount of ideological opposition to public funding of the arts and combined with the economic crisis the state is going through it creates a perfect storm. This is devastating,” Fran Holden, executive director of the Colorado Council on the Arts, said Wednesday.

The arts council, established by state lawmakers in 1967, offers grants to help teachers develop art courses and to help stage cowboy poetry festivals.

Supporters of the arts are hoping a last-minute parliamentary move will save the day and restore at least enough money so the state can qualify for a matching grant of $613,600 from the National Endowment for the Arts, Holden said.

Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.), a professional jewelry designer, sent an open letter to the Colorado General Assembly on Monday, asking lawmakers to reconsider.

“More than 9 million visitors attended Denver area cultural venues in 2001 as compared to 7.5 million visitors to Front Range ski resorts and 5.3 million attending Denver’s professional sports events. Investment in the arts is an investment in the future financial health of our state,” he wrote.

The arts council in Colorado had been receiving nearly $2 million a year until this year, when its budget was cut to $963,863, Holden said.

In March, the state allocated $830,353 for the fiscal year beginning July 1, but the Joint Budget Committee then vetoed to eliminate all the council’s funding.