Video: Kristin Chenoweth sings with MPAC Performing Arts Company in 2016. MPAC says programs like this are imperiled by proposed federal cutbacks:
President Trump’s proposed budget cuts to the arts will mean fewer world-class performances and educational programs at Morristown’s Mayo Performing Arts Center, MPAC President Allison Larena said Thursday, in a message urging patrons to press lawmakers to support the arts.
“This is not just about the arts. This is about access, creativity, equity, community, history, and heritage. That means it’s about everyone in this country, and everyone should care and speak up loudly. Your voice is important now and throughout the long budget process,” said Larena, directing the public to ArtPride NJ for ways to lobby Congress.
Morris Arts, which sponsors a wide range of programs across the Morris County, has made a similar appeal.
Last week Trump released a budget that proposes eliminating the National Endowment of the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.
Both organizations were created in 1965. The NEA has a $146.2 million budget to support “excellence in the arts,” arts education and universal access to the arts, and has awarded more than $5 billion in grants over the years, according to Rolling Stone.
With a $148 million annual budget, the NEH underwrites programs at museums, libraries, colleges, public television and radio stations, the magazine reports.
The nonprofit Mayo Center anticipates receiving slightly more than $170,000 in NEA funds, administered by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, for fiscal year 2017, which runs through June.
Presenting more than 200 shows a year by legendary performers such as Tony Bennett and Judy Collins, MPAC estimates its patrons generate more than $14 million annually for Greater Morristown restaurants and businesses.
MPAC also introduces children to arts and sciences via special presentations — astronaut Scott Kelly spoke recently about his year on the International Space Station– and offers lessons in voice and drama to hundreds of youths.
A new program at MPAC uses the arts to help children with autism achieve their potential.
Morristown-based Morris Arts receives about $103,000 in funding through the state. A $20,000 grant from the NEA Art Works program helped fund the Gateway Totem Project, public sculptures on Early Street that celebrate local diversity, said Morris Arts CEO Tom Werder.
“This funding, like all NEA grants, is a stamp of approval for organizations and leverages additional funding from the private sector. In our case, the $20,000 from the NEA resulted in an additional $40,000 of private funding towards the project,” Werder said.
According to Werder, in 2016:
- The NEA provided $872,100 in Partnership Agreement funds to the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, to support administration of the council and be redistributed through council grants.
- The NEA made 39 direct grants totaling $1,044,871 in New Jersey.
- New Jersey’s non-profit arts industry generates more than $1.5 billion each year, through direct and indirect patron spending.
- The state’s non-profit arts organizations support more than 80,000 jobs.
- Every $1 of NEA direct funding leverages up to $9 in private and other public funds, resulting in $500 million in matching support.
Please stop whining and depending on the government to give you undeserving money. Work for the money needed.
If you want something to whine about, put you efforts to the education system where unions and local and state educational leaders are not using their funds properly. The budgets contain more than enough money for the schools to provide the teachers and students with the supplies needed. It is shameful that teachers have to buy school supplies for the children.