To the editor:

I am still confused, as many must be, by the seeming existence of sitting boards for both the dissolved Kansas Arts Commission and the new Kansas Arts Foundation. The current status and activities of both in the support of the arts in Kansas remain confused and unpublicized. Does either really exist in anything other than name?  What are these two politically appointed boards doing for the arts in Kansas?  Must the public wait in a progress report vacuum?  No news is bad news?

The foundation does not yet exist as a working organization. I can find little or no published information other than newspaper listings of “appointed” board members. There is a Facebook page with virtually no content, and there is nothing on the State of Kansas website, no published contact information anywhere. If a real statewide nonprofit arts foundation is to be created, it must not be by governmental appointment, but organized and openly publicized by Kansas artists, arts professionals and arts patrons. 

What IS the matter with Kansas, and where is the ongoing public outcry over the defunding of the arts by our state government? Perhaps the next step in Gov. Brownback’s openly religious fundamentalism will be to appoint a proper commissioner of arts and culture at $100K per year to explore “faith-based initiatives in the arts!”  Ha!