Thanks to New York State politics, the cuts to NYSCA as proposed by Governor Patterson will not be taking place. Phew….

With state budget deficits growing, what happened here may be worth noting carefully, very carefully.

It raises the question of exactly how prepared we all are to advocate during a period of budget reductions. In this instance, had the New York State Legislature had a different make-up in terms of the Senate majority, we might have seen a harsh and unfair cut to the NYSCA budget occur on a mid-year basis with barely a week for the arts community to mobilize.

My observation is that the NYSCA constituency was scrambling to address this matter. I believe that we will all need to become much more organized and coordinated, in local communities across the country, in order to provide an adequate and appropriate voice as expected cutbacks are announced, debated, and implemented.

Another interesting observation is that NYSCA’s importance varies greatly depending on the size of your budget. For larger institutions, the NYSCA grant is relatively small and may not necessarily get the wheels turning in response. Mid-sized and smaller organizations depend much more heavily on funds from the New York State Council, but don’t have the same clout, don’t often retain lobbyists, and haven’t carved out capacity in the area of advocacy.

Add to this, that many organizations had already received their grants in panels held before October and December, and as I understand it, a large part of the remaining grants which would have been zeroed out were to arts education, it further illustrates the need to connect the dots of the various arts disciplines, size organizations, etc. In other words, the arts field needs to be ready.

Budget cuts will come, but how the cuts are made and what voice the arts field has in the debate will be important for not only the financial health of the field, but in advancing this sector’s capacity to influence policy. Word is that the budget process coming up will be bloody…

Are we ready? Are you ready?

A final note: The total NYSCA budget last year was approximately $49 million. When the NYCDOE eliminated the categorical funding line for arts education, known as Project Arts, that funding line, viewed by many as a critical safety net for the arts in schools, was approximately $67 million.