This is how the painting I posted a few days ago started... What would have happened if it had stayed that way? If the effort I put to it was cut by 75%?
We can only imagine. Without the arts, artists, composers, dreamers, we would be left with bleak, confusing, and barren worlds.
Here is the point: The arts in Dutchess county NY are facing a budget with draconian cuts. A year ago the funding cost each tax payer .67 cents. With that low figure artists were able to partner with school teachers, performers were able to mount shows and screen films, artists were able to work with the under-served and the hopeless, to give voice and hope in the inner cities and bring music to the far reaches of the country. The current cuts proposed are 75% less than last year. The funded arts in education will be eliminated for the county and more programs, as well as the small staff at the county arts council, will be reduced. It is terribly sad. If you are a taxpayer in Dutchess county I urge you to contact your legislator and express your concern, as there may be time to restore some of the funding... lets make our beds, and color our worlds by supporting the arts at home!
I will never understand cutting the arts. It should be interwoven with everything! One great reason to homeschool. I used to, and now my kids LOVE the arts, theater, music, visual arts. My son is a highschool senior at the University of North Carolina School of the Arts for drama and my daughter wants to do her Jr & Sr year of highschool there for visual arts. The public highschools around here cut drama back... and increased sports, go figure. I just hope they pursue their dreams and are successful... it is a tough road to go down. But if one is going to go for it, now is the time. When they are young.
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