The Seacoast counts on institutions like the American Independence Museum, The Music Hall, New Hampshire Art Association, New Hampshire Theatre Project, Pontine Theatre, the Portsmouth Historical Society, Prescott Park Arts Festival, Strawbery Banke Museum, Portsmouth Museum of Art, The Children’s Museum of New Hampshire, Newmarket Main Street Corporation and Rochester Main Street. They enhance our cultural community and strengthen our local economy while helping to educate and entertain our citizens.

And those institutions count on support from the N.H. State Council on the Arts. Along with many others, last year they all offered programs with help from the Arts Council.

But legislation currently before the N.H. House of Representatives threatens to get rid of the Arts Council, which could have a devastating ripple effect on dozens of valued organizations and communities across the state. House Bill 1274 would abolish the Department of Cultural Resources and eliminate the Council on the Arts.

House Bill 1285, meanwhile, would repeal the State Arts Fund, also known as the Percent for Art Program, which allocates .5 percent of the budget appropriation for any new state building project to the commission of artwork (see page 19 for an illustration of this program’s contributions).

But it’s not too late to raise your voice in support of the arts, as supporters did in 2011 (see “In Defense of the Arts” at www.wirenh.com). The House Executive Departments and Administration Committee will hold a hearing on HB 1274 on Friday, Jan. 20 at 1:15 p.m., in Legislative Office Building Room 306 at the State House in Concord. A hearing on HB 1285 will follow at 2 p.m.

Last March, thousands of residents rallied on the State House lawn against the proposed FY 2012 budget, which also would have done away with the Arts Council. Their voices were heard, and funding was restored. But the fight is not over. Advocates are now encouraged to attend the hearings on Friday and support state funding for the arts.

From 2011: http://www.wirenh.com/features-mainmenu-18/cover-stories-mainmenu-53/4886-in-defense-of-the-arts.html

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