THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, February 1, 1995 TAG: 9502010034
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E8 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MARK MOBLEY, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 124 lines
IN MOST WAYS, last Wednesday was just another day at Virginia's Capitol: The House of Delegates wrestled with fledgling laws, told jokes and recognized garden club representatives.
But it conducted the people's business with ballet dancers at the doors, and to barbershop harmonies in the Rotunda.
Virginia artists were staging what might be the season's key show: Making a case for state funding of the arts.
As the Republican majority in Congress presses for cuts to the National Endowment for the Arts and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, Gov. George Allen has proposed halving funds to the equivalent state agencies.
If approved, Allen's 1995-96 budget would reduce spending on the Virginia Commission for the Arts to $1.2 million, down from the current $2.4 million and far below the $5.7 million peak of the days before Gov. L. Douglas Wilder's sweeping cuts.
After a pep rally at the Crestar bank building, 300 members and supporters of the lobbying group Virginians for the Arts fanned out to find elected officials. For many staffers of the state's arts groups, it was their first chance to meet the people who represent them. They insisted that the arts are good business, not just upper-crust entertainment.
``I thought it was a pretty positive day on the whole,'' said Virginia Symphony Executive Director Dan Hart. ``We just kinda winged it.'' His small delegation strolled from floor to floor, door to door, seeing many aides but no delegates and just one senator, Republican Frederick M. Quayle of Chesapeake.
Symphony bassist Tom Reel was enthusiastic about the aides' responses. ``They said, `Oh yeah, I've been to your concerts. I've been to the Pavilion. At least three, maybe four aides had stories like that,'' he said. ``We did pass Governor Allen in the hallway, but we didn't get a chance to say anything to him, polite or otherwise.''
However, Allen may be the man artists most need to reach. Several amendments have been proposed to restore and even increase funding to the Virginia Commission for the Arts, which disburses grants to large and small arts groups throughout the state. The amendments should be taken up by the House Appropriations and Senate Finance committees this week.
``They have to lobby every year,'' said Del. J. Paul Councill of Franklin, a Democrat on the Higher Education Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee. ``So many people, I think, are not really appreciative of what they, the arts, mean to so many people. Some people seem to think they're an elite group of people over there, very exclusive, not interested in the welfare of the average citizen. I don't think that's true.''
``We have a lot of friends in these committees. We don't worry too much about the committees,'' V.M. ``Barney'' Annas, president of Virginians for the Arts, said Saturday. ``We feel fairly confident. We feel like we've done everything we can.''
A number of prominent Hampton Roads Democrats are solidly in favor of arts funding. Del. George Heilig of Norfolk has co-sponsored an amendment to restore funding, as has Sen. Hunter Andrews of Hampton. Norfolk Sen. Stanley Walker has sponsored and co-sponsored amendments to preserve threatened grants to museums and public broadcasting.
Annas focused his attention on Republicans, saying he has convinced key legislators to approve the amendments should they reach the House and Senate. With representatives of Virginia Opera, the Virginia Stage Company and the Norfolk Commission on the Arts and Humanities, he visited Virginia Beach Del. Robert F. McDonnell.
McDonnell, a Republican, said Sunday that he could not remember having been lobbied so hard by arts groups. ``It was a pretty wide-ranging group of folks speaking with one voice,'' McDonnell said Sunday. ``I had not realized arts had been cut so drastically.'' He was also impressed with information about the economic benefits of museums and performing groups.
At the national level, arts funding is a highly charged, partisan issue. Annas, 67, a longtime Republican and former Congressional 2nd District chairman, angrily displayed a letter from Sen. John Warner advocating restrictions on the NEA.
``Wouldn't that offend you if you were me?'' asked Annas, a Virginia Opera vice president and the father of Virginian-Pilot arts reporter Teresa Annas. ``What they're trying to do is get organizations not to extend an invitation to anyone who's controversial at all. They're trying to stifle art.''
But in Virginia, the art itself is not the topic. The money is.
``I think it's unfortunate, some of the things that have happened up on the federal level regarding the arts, that have given them something of a black mark,'' Councill said. ``I don't relate that to the arts programs in Virginia.''
``I don't think it's a political issue,'' McDonnell said. ``It's a business management issue. People are telling me everywhere they want to see smaller taxes, less regulations. The difficult part of all this is that the governor has made the decision philosophically of what the proper role of government is - things that are typically funded by the state. The arts are probably pretty low on that priorities list.''
``Public education is, I think, most people's highest priority,'' Councill said. ``I think you have to consider the arts as well as higher education. They're interwoven. Anything you do to help the arts, you're helping primary education, secondary education and higher education as well.''
If the governor's cuts were enacted, Virginia would drop to 56th among all states and territories in per capita arts spending. Annas and Hart of the Virginia Symphony said the most likely effect would be a reduction in education programs.
Hart said, ``What government support is used for is all the things we can't afford to make money off of, the educational concerts for Chesapeake, Norfolk, Virginia Beach schoolkids. When that money goes, the board (of the symphony) is forced to look at things as, `We are a business.'
``I can't say that we're going to cut this or that program. I can't honestly say that it is a noticeable change. It may come through in price increases. It may come through in shifting our programs toward more profitable things.
``It's rough times. A lot of economic and artistic pressures are battering you. The needs society-wide, the social services - the private sector is having to deal with picking up a lot of pieces there. You're two steps forward, one step back all the time. How do you build an organization like that? It's very difficult.''
Councill said the fate of the arts commission and other agencies hinges on the governor's tax package. McDonnell said he would support restoration of arts funding if equivalent cuts could be found. He gave one of his own budget amendments as an example - to fund the proposed use of a decommissioned Navy ship as a drug rehabilitation center, he is specifying a cut in Virginia Lottery advertising.
With amendments being debated in committees, Annas has turned to developing a strategy for changing the governor's mind. He is encouraging business leaders to write to Allen, who has the ability to wield a line-item veto on the budget.
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