The Dexter Leader
A Heritage Newspaper
Weekly Publication
State slashes arts funding
PUBLISHED: April 19, 2007
The Chelsea Center for the Arts has lost $35,100 in 2007 grant funding awarded by the Michigan Council for the Arts and Cultural Affairs as a result of an executive order issued on March 30 by Gov. Jennifer Granholm. This order placed a moratorium on all remaining grant payments through September 2007 and impacts projects across all state departments including funding for arts and culture.
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Specifically, the CCA will lose $22,200 of a $35,000 Capital Improvements Program grant that was to fund replacement of its deteriorated boiler with an energy-efficient heating and cooling system. This project was to address ongoing maintenance issues, provide safer conditions for students at the Center, and reduce utility billing for this local non-profit arts organization. Bids were opened for this project on April 2 with three area contractors vying for the contract award - Chelsea Mechanical, CMR Mechanical of Dexter and John E. Green of Ann Arbor.
"Not only does this funding cut impact our ability to address a critical building improvement at the Center," said Jennifer Goulet, CCA Executive Director, "It also means a loss of jobs for local contractors so there is a bigger economic impact."
The CCA received a first payment of $12,800 for this project and will allocate these funds to costs of bidding the project, interim improvements to the boiler system or to improvements that position the Center to upgrade the HVAC at a later date - such as electrical upgrades. Some of this funding will also support efforts to reconstruct the Center's garage studio thanks to a generous donation by Bloom Roofing Systems of Whitmore Lake.
More significant to internal operations and programming is a loss of $11,900 for the CCA's community planning project that was designed to seek community input on its mission and program priorities as part of re-evaluating its strategic plan. An important part of this project was to evaluate the possible role for the CCA in serving and nurturing local artists and arts and cultural organizations in the greater Chelsea area.
The cuts for this program impact funds for CCA staffing to manage this project as well as the ability to fully utilize the outside expertise of ArtServe Michigan staff for the strategic planning phase of the project.
"We intend to move forward with plans to solicit community input this month as it is so important that we develop strategies to respond to the revenue cuts with the knowledge of what's important to the people and groups that we serve," Goulet said. "We hope that people will take time to complete our online survey and take part in a focus group to share ideas on how we can best serve the community."
The CCA also lost a $1,000 mini-grant that would have served as seed money for this year's community public art project. The proposed project was to celebrate Chelsea's rural heritage and would have included an opportunity for the CCA to promote arts in Chelsea at the Ann Arbor Street Art Fair. Goulet noted that efforts were underway to evaluate options for doing this project with minimal costs but that the Center's first priority had to focus on the basics of local programming and services.
Local arts and cultural supporters are encouraged to let their legislators know how important arts and culture is to Chelsea and Michigan.
"The arts and cultural community needs to let its representatives in Lansing understand how important our creative resources are to our communities," said Goulet. "Like education, libraries, and parks, the arts and culture are an important part of why companies choose to locate or stay in Michigan and are important in attracting talent to Michigan. It's a unique resource that helps to fuel economic activity and it will be an important part of the strategy to rebuild Michigan's economy."
More information about the moratorium and the importance of funding arts and culture in Michigan is available at www.ArtServeMichigan.org.
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