2003-10-10

State arts spending in the U.S. will fall another 23 percent in FY 2004, to around $274 million, having dropped from $409 million in 2002 to $355 million in 2003, says Jason Edward Kaufman in The Art Newspaper (9/26/03). At least 36 states are slashing funding, with some funds nearly eliminated. California's arts budget, cut from $32 million to $18 million last year, got $1 million this year, putting it in last place (three cents per capita). Florida Governor Jeb Bush cut his state's arts budget from $28 million to $5.9 million, and Michigan trimmed half of its $22-million budget, with the Detroit Institute of Arts getting $2.24 million, cut from $4.43 million last year. Colorado left its arts agency with only $200,000.