Arlington County officials are preparing to drop the guillotine on taxpayer funding for the county’s prized arts programs.
The county plans to chop arts grants by 36 percent next year, or about $100,000. Officials also expect to eliminate all county contributions to arts education programs and reduce the funding for supplies for public arts programs.
“On a good day, we’d never cut any of these programs, but we’ve got a deficit here,” said Susan Kalish, a spokeswoman for the county’s parks and recreation department.
Arlington leaders have long touted their community as a bastion for the arts. But tough budget times have refocused the county’s fiscal priorities.
“Arts or cops? The county’s got to make a tough decision,” Kalish said.
Arlington still would offer some grant money for local arts programs, but most of it would go to larger venues like the Synetic and Signature theaters. Kalish also said the county would fund programs associated with the Artisphere — Arlington’s new $7 million cultural center in Rosslyn.
Smaller, independent arts groups would be hit the hardest.
“When it comes to the smaller programs — little concerts and shows — basically, with this cut the county is out of the business of getting to do things likes that,” Kalish said.
More than 25 arts groups would see a drop in county funding next year. And for some organizations, those reductions could be insurmountable.
“That funding is a lifeline for a large number of nonprofit arts groups,” said John Seal, chairman of the county’s arts commission.
One of those nonprofits is the Arlington Artists Alliance, which works with local schools and youth centers on arts education programs.
Alliance President Bryan Jernigan said his group would suffer immeasurably from the cutbacks, and the county’s funding reductions would have a negative “ripple effect” throughout the community.
“[We] will have far less room to fund scholarships for at-risk youth and we’ll likely not be able to offer volunteer guest teachers in classrooms in Arlington County Public Schools,” Jernigan said.
Arlington officials plan to finalize the budget later this month.
