Arts funding

To the editor:

The editorial “Funding falters” (Sept. 25) focuses attention on problems associated with the governor’s new model of private funding for the Kansas Arts Foundation. One problem, however, goes unmentioned: The new foundation is now in direct competition with local art programs for the same sources of public support.

An example is our current effort to secure funding for a new building for Theatre Lawrence. Not only have we been denied access to state and federal funding (as well as national foundations that relied in the past on recommendations by the state arts commission); we find that a number of businesses and corporations that have supported Theatre Lawrence in the past are now reporting solicitation pressures from the new state arts foundation as a reason to deny local support. Local arts programs are now in competition with the state for a limited amount of funding. As things now stand, the arts in Kansas would likely be improved by the elimination of the new arts foundation.