THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, October 13, 1994 TAG: 9410130518
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TERESA ANNAS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 66 lines
Area museum officials, concerned about possible state funding cuts, plan to speak tonight at a public hearing in Norfolk.
Gov. George F. Allen's Blue Ribbon Task Force will present its recommendations on streamlining state government at 7 p.m. at Old Dominion University's Webb Center.
The task force is expected to suggest the gradual elimination of most state funding for non-state-agency museums, and to recommend ``significantly reducing'' the number of state employees in the next three years. Besides winnowing out duplication and waste within state agencies, the task force's report indicates it has found underused state property to sell, with proceeds to go to prison construction.
Statewide, non-state-agency museums were given about $4 million for 1994-95. More than a third of that sum - about $1.4 million - went to 10 institutions in Hampton Roads.
The Chrysler Museum in Norfolk was awarded $471,816, the largest sum of any regional institution. To lose that money ``would be devastating to us,'' said Bob Frankel, the museum's director. ``I wouldn't want to characterize what would happen.'' He said state funds go to programming.
Frankel said he intended to speak at the task-force meeting.
``Museums and arts organizations in general are important to education in the community, to economic development,'' he said. ``They are important for tourism. They help attract industry.
``They are important, basically, in building a strong community.''
Tuesday in Roanoke, about 500 people attended the first of four public hearings throughout the state. Museum funding cuts lured the largest crowd and the most impassioned speeches, according to a Wednesday report in The Roanoke Times & World-News.
The Virginia Museum of Natural History in Martinsville stood to lose $2 million; 30 of its supporters signed up to speak before the task force.
In recent years, the state's cultural organizations, including art museums, have received state funding in two ways - through the Virginia Commission for the Arts and through the General Assembly in the form of budget amendments.
Arts commission money is given via a multifaceted grant review process. Line-item funds require no such review.
The task force has recommended that the state gradually stop funding non-state-agency museums, aside from ``seed money'' for new institutions.
In the meantime, state funding guidelines would be established, and organizations awarded money would be audited to ensure they used the funds properly, according to the task force report.
``This is going to come under great debate, I think, in the next session,'' said state Sen. Stanley Walker, D-Norfolk, a senior member of the Senate Finance Committee. ``I would think that the majority would oppose this recommendation.''
A longtime arts advocate, Walker is co-chairman of a separate joint legislative study commission set up two years ago to find ``more equitable'' ways to fund non-state-agency museums.
Other museums receiving line-item funding for 1994-95 include The Virginia Marine Science Museum in Virginia Beach ($225,000), the Virginia Air and Space Center in Hampton ($200,000), the Virginia Living Museum in Newport News ($246,908) and Virginia Zoological Park in Norfolk ($60,000).
Public hearings also are set for Tuesday in Springfield and next Thursday at the General Assembly Building in Richmond. by CNB