Arts commission loses its state support.

Byline: Fred Crafts The Register-Guard

Like a melodrama gone wrong, the Oregon Arts Commission has met a grim ending - and local arts officials are hissing about it.

"It's not a surprise," Willamette Repertory Theatre founding artistic director Kirk Boyd said Wednesday after state legislators axed the OAC. "But it sure takes the wind out of your sails."

Boyd was among the local arts leaders who, in sizing up the state's budget woes, feared that the worst would happen to the OAC. And it did.

The state arts commission essentially expired after five budget bailout bills totaling $500 million were passed by the Legislature and signed into law Tuesday. Technically, the action suspends state support for the commission for the remaining four months of the current budget, which concludes June 30.

Even as it limps along a bit on federal funds already in place, the commission could disappear entirely if the funding suspension is carried forward for 2003-05, resulting in a $2.1 million general fund savings. If that happens, Lane County arts groups stand to lose about $100,000 annually in state grants.

About 100 arts organizations across the state received $641,000 in Arts Industry Development Grants from the OAC in 2002-03. Locally, the Lane Arts Council was given the most, $27,500, while most others received less than $5,000 each.

Lane County arts administrators now worry over how they might replace the funds they have come to expect from the OAC.

"Even before this cut, Oregon was one of the lowest states in support of the arts. Now the situation is exacerbated even further," said Royce Saltzman, executive director of the Oregon Bach Festival. "On the other hand, it is hard to make a case for arts support when seniors are losing their medications and housing, and our children are being deprived of days in school."

Lane Arts Council executive director Douglas Beauchamp said the impact of losing the OAC's funds on his $670,000 budget won't be profound, but "it's one more leak in the dike that threatens to sweep us all away."

The OAC's grants for 2003 have already been received so no local programs will be immediately hurt, Beauchamp said. However, he pointed out the funding "provided us all an anchor on which to leverage other fund-raising, contracts and grants. That will suffer."

"It's not an independent event," he said.

Eugene Ballet's producing director Riley Grannan clung to the hope that the OAC would be spared. "As a community, it's a tremendous resource that we're losing here," he said.

Losing the OAC's ability to "re-enforce organized artistic efforts throughout the state" worried Oregon Festival of American Music executive director James Ralph.

The loss of funding wasn't as alarming to Eugene Opera artistic director Robert Ashens as was losing the OAC's "seal of approval." Noting that an average opera production costs about $150,000, he said the loss of the OAC's $4,000 grant "won't kill us. We can raise that money, but it's one more thing to do."

Taking a philosophical stance was Eugene Symphony executive director Rebekah Lambert, who wondered, "As we whittle away at support for the arts, what will the arts become? And what does it say about our society's values?"

Fred Crafts can be reached at 338-2575 or fcrafts@guardnet .com.

ARTS DEVELOPMENT GRANTS

Grants awarded to Lane County organizations by the Oregon Arts Commission for fiscal year 2003:

Actors Cabaret of Eugene, $1,978

Community Center for Performing Arts, $1,877

Eugene Ballet Company, $10,621

Eugene Opera, $4,028

Eugene Symphony Association, $8,712

Joint Forces Dance Company, $1,650

Lane Arts Council, $27,500

Lord Leebrick Theatre Co., $2,070

Maude Kerns Art Center, $2,346

Oregon Bach Festival, $9,686

Oregon Festival of American Music, $5,146

University of Oregon Museum of Art, $3,581

Willamette Repertory Theatre, $1,350

- Lane Arts Council