News from The Roanoke Times - Art of funding

Oh I shouldn't have picked up todays newspaper. No seriously, I should have left it in the box where it was.

Art jobs lost in Roanoke!! Panic ensues!

A quote from the article: "...it's a stark reminder of a troubled cultural community which by now is feeling the cumulative effect of several lean years. "The change in state giving has had an impact - that looks pretty clear," said Wayne Strickland, executive director of the commission.

"Troubled cultural community? Mmm-hmm. Change in state giving having an impact? Mmm-hmm.

Yeah - lets break this down, you have a "cultural community" that doesnt give as much as they want - hence its obviously troubled, combined with a state thats not funding their every whim. Except for the Art Museum.

$2.43 million.
Think about that.

As the Times itself shows, thats a 648% hike in funding. Are they acquiring new works? Maybe a Picasso or 2? Nope - its in anticipation of the new Art Museum, or at least thats what one is left to infer, as the article does not clearly state. But the new museum is at least 2 years off.

Now I did some number crunching - you could DOUBLE the funding (this years figures, as stated on the front page of the Roanoke Times) to all the other institutions and still have 200k left over if the art museum got a little more than 1/2 the funding its going to get. That would still leave the Art Museum with $1.26 million to play with. Which I would say is a perfectly healthy figure for a group thats staying where it is for now, is not slated to start construction on its new home for a while, and has low attendance figures. Why not ask the customers who go in and out of Gallery 108 all day on Saturday if they have been to the Art Museum. I'd venture to say the majority will answer Once. Maybe Twice.

Oh - and why are we dragging the poor Mill Mountain Zoo into this? Theyre not included in the funding figures on the front page, and yet in the article, a connection is made between the lack of funding and the resignation of Beth Poff, director of the MMZ. Well, considering the MMZ is not included on the front page funding breakdown - but Explore Park is - I think the Zoo thing might not be directly related to the funding issue. Especially when you consider Ms. Poff's outstanding efforts at private fund-raising.Turn over is fairly common in smaller museums, its only the larger museums that tend to keep staff for anything longer than a decade.

Anyway - theres my Buck Fifty on the matter - Im sure there will be more to come