The Roanoke Times | File 2002

The Roanoke Symphony performs at the Roanoke Civic Center.

Ed. Note: Corrections to article below A House of Delegates measure that would eliminate the Virginia Commission for the Arts in two years would take effect only if both General Assembly houses agree to make it part of the completed state budget. A headline in the printed Roanoke Times on Thursday was incorrect on this point. Also, several figures in the story and accompanying graphics were incorrect or given unclear context. The Taubman Museum of Art received $84,000 from the commission in the 2008-09 fiscal year and $96,000 in the 2009-10 fiscal year. The Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, with an operating budget of $2 million, received $96,000 in 2009-10 and anticipated receiving $84,000 in 2010-11. Opera Roanoke's $9,000 in grants amounted to about 2.3 percent of its $390,000 budget. The $65,285 that Jefferson Center received in 2009 is 11 percent of the $551,167 contributed to the center that year, according to Jefferson Center Foundation’s chief operating officer, Kathryn Vanness. Vanness added that Jefferson Center Foundation is "not in imminent danger of going out of business."

Roanoke arts and cultural organizations are cringing at the potential effects of a House of Delegates budget-slashing proposal that would eliminate the Virginia Commission for the Arts within two years.

The Roanoke Symphony Orchestra, the Taubman Museum of Art, Opera Roanoke and other regional nonprofits all say the loss of funds would be difficult to recoup and damaging, even devastating, to their operations. The Jefferson Center says there is "a possibility" it would be forced to close its doors if the cut is approved.

The proposal, scheduled to be voted on today, would cut the commission's $4.4 million budget in half in 2010-11, and then eliminate the agency entirely as of July 1, 2011. Virginia would become the only state without such a body.

The inclusion of the measure in the state's final budget is not a certain thing. The Virginia Senate's version simply freezes funding to the arts commission at its current level. Both houses vote today on the different versions of the 2010-12 budget. The versions will then go to a committee to be reconciled.

On Wednesday, cultural organization boards kept legislators' phones ringing all day.

"We've been burning the telephone wires and e-mails to everyone we can talk with so this legislature can realize this is not a wise move," said David Mickenberg, executive director for the Taubman.

Funds support operations

Roanoke's new art museum received $96,000 from the commission to help with operating expenses last year, and making up that money in the current economic climate would be extremely difficult, Mickenberg said.

Open since late 2008 and operating on a $4 million budget, the museum has already cut staff, shed programs and consolidated departments.

Jefferson Center, with a cash operating budget of $1.7 million, received $65,285 from the arts commission in 2009, the center's marketing director, Kim Bratic, said. So far this year, it has received $48,782, about $8,000 less than expected after the commission made cuts in its grants.

It's possible that "the centerpiece of our building -- Shaftman Performance Hall -- would sit empty," she said. The loss of funding would also likely lead to the shuttering of Music Lab at Jefferson Center, an after-school program.

Roanoke Symphony Orchestra Executive Director Beth Pline said the symphony anticipated using an estimated $84,000 in funds as leverage to get matching grants from private foundations, and if those grants went away it could amount to an effective loss of $250,000. The nonprofit would be forced to cut jobs and reduce programming.

"This isn't about just making people feel good," Pline said. "We're a small business. We pay state payroll taxes."

The proposal sends a message that musicians don't deserve economic incentives, she said. "I challenge you to find somebody in this town who wants to eliminate 77 jobs."

Roanoke arts coordinator Susan Jennings estimated the potential loss in grants to the city's arts organizations to total $340,000. The consequences range from job losses to fewer school programs, she said.

Outside the Roanoke Valley, the consequences could be just as dire.

"If they go down, I might go down," said Tammy Scruggs, executive director of the Alleghany Highlands Arts Council in Covington. "They give me money for things like salaries."

In a story Wednesday in The Virginian-Pilot newspaper of Norfolk, arts commission Executive Director Peggy Baggett said this year the agency is handing out about $3.9 million in state grant money plus $1 million in federal money to 700 recipients. The federal money would also be lost if the commission disbands.

Tough choices

The Appropriations Committee of the House of Delegates voted 15-7 on Sunday to eliminate the commission. Del. Onzlee Ware, D-Roanoke, an appropriations member, voted against the measure, but Wednesday said keeping the commission alive might be a tough fight.

In a session where lawmakers also are looking at deep cuts to public schools and Medicaid, "I could make the argument that funding for the arts should be protected," he said, but "I wouldn't say that we should fund the arts before Medicaid and I wouldn't say we should fund the arts before schools. ... I certainly have a passion for the arts, but I also have to decide what my battle is."

House Majority Leader Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, and appropriation committee Chairman Lacey Putney, I-Bedford, could not be reached.

In 2001 the General Assembly cut line-item state funding to cultural organizations all over Virginia. Center in the Square Director Jim Sears said this ultimately resulted in a $3.2 million loss of state funds in Roanoke and the subsequent elimination of 100 jobs.

Cutting out the commission funding on top of that would amount to a devastating "double impact," Sears said.

mike.allen@roanoke.com 981-3236

tad.dickens@roanoke.com 777-6474

Staff writers Kevin Kittredge and Michael Sluss contributed to this report.