Whatever fears you had that the Smithsonian would be punished for mounting Hide/Seek at the National Portrait Gallery should be allayed by the recently released report by the House Appropriations Committee that handles its budget (among many others). It’s impossible to tell what would have happened had G. Wayne Clough (pictured), the secretary, not caved in and removed the bowdlerized version of David Wojnarowicz’s A Fire in My Belly, but…
The committee report proposes $626,971,000 for the Smithsonian’s operating budget, which is $7,918,000 below the fiscal year 2011 enacted level and $9,559,000 below the budget request. That’s less than a 2% drop vs. last year’s enacted budget — which is a very small drop versus other agencies.
Further, the committee had some nice things to say about the Smithsonian, and ignored completely the Hide/Seek contretemps. For example:
The Committee commends the Smithsonian Institution, the largest museum and research complex in the world, for reaching new audiences and broadening access to a diverse array of educational activities and resources to nearly 5,000 school classrooms and millions of people worldwide….
The Committee strongly supports efforts to create virtual natural history collections utilizing advanced information technologies to make regional and rural museum collections more accessible.
The Committee also supports the joint venture between the Library of Congress and the Smithsonian Institution creating a comprehensive compilation of audio and video recordings of personal histories and testimonials of individuals who participated in the Civil Rights movement.
The Committee remains committed to the preservation of Smithsonian Institution collections, including the priceless military uniform collection, at the National Museum of American History. The Committee urges the Smithsonian to continue placing a high priority on the preservation of these irreplaceable historical collections.
There’s nary a word about art, though, which I don’t like — but then again, that’s pretty consistent with Clough’s stance on the Smithsonian’s art museums. He tends to ignore them.
Where the Smithsonian did take a hit was the capital budget, which came in a separate request for $225 million, including $125 million for the construction of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. (Here’s a link to the budget request press release.)
Rather, the Committee proposed $124,750,000 for facilities capital, “equal to the fiscal year 2011 enacted level,” and says additional funding is not feasible at the moment.
Accordingly, the Committee recommends $50,000,000 for construction of the National Museum of African American History and Culture. These funds, which will ensure that construction begins on time, complement $45,000,000 provided by the Committee in prior years for pre-construction planning and design.
All in all, considering what’s going on in DC, not a bad result. Of course, the full House and the Senate have to weigh in, but so far, so good.
Photo Credit: Courtesy of the Smithsonian