4/15/2010 - House Appropriations Eliminates Budget for Georgia Council for the Arts

The House Appropriations Committee voted yesterday to eliminate the budget for Georgia Council for the Arts in FY 2011. GCA will not exist. Georgia will be the only state and territory that will have no state arts agency.

The Georgia Council for the Arts had roughly $2..6 in State funds; combined with federal dollars it was $3.2 million.  The House zeroed it out. This means that many rural and regional arts programs will loose critical funding during a period of severe organizational stress.  For example, Heather Heath, Executive Director of the Golden Isles Arts and Humanities Association reported,  "GCA has funded the Grassroots Arts Program in our region for 15 years. For FY2010, this program in eleven coastal Georgia counties had benefited 30+ organizations, 400+ artists, and 71,000 individuals with over half of those individuals being young people.The House zeroed out the GCA budget by voting to eliminate the program and has proposed designating only $200,000 for arts to be distributed through the Department of Community Affairs.  With 159 counties in Georgia, the House proposed arts budget averages out to $1260 per county." 
 
If the Grassroots Arts Program is eliminated as proposed, rural arts programs will suffer.  With no arts council, the state of Georgia loses federal arts funds.  The state will also lose over 1 million dollars in Federal funds for the arts (that has to be matched.) 
 
Support from GCA has served many of our local organizations and by doing so, served our communities.  Please make your voice heard today. Write to your representatives.