Print edition: 
Gov. Sam Brownback’s promises regarding the arts are turning out to be as empty as the Kansas Arts Commission’s coffers.
One of his first acts as governor in January was to abolish the commission, tossing out its 45-year record of nurturing culture in the state with assurances that a new nonprofit Kansas Arts Foundation would raise more than enough private contributions and that $1.2 million in federal and regional matching funds wouldn’t be threatened.
Because Kansans vehemently objected, state lawmakers saved the commission from abolition and even found it funding — only to see Brownback veto the $689,000.
Then in August the NEA declared Kansas ineligible for 2011 funds, just as arts advocates had warned it would. And this month it informed the state that applying by the Oct. 31 deadline for 2012 funding was pointless as well, because federal matching dollars can’t be matched with private dollars. That seems to rule out federal arts funding for Kansas for the long term, as it leaves local arts organizations scrambling to make up the lost funding — $114,000 alone in Sedgwick County.
As undaunted as it is unorganized and unfunded, the Kansas Arts Commission voted Wednesday to advance a 2009 plan for Kansas Arts Supporters license plates and pursue other funds.
“Commissioners remain united and focused on how to expand and support the arts in Kansas by maintaining and creating relationships with other arts agencies and developing an innovative funding plan,” said Linda Browning Weis, who chairs both the commission and the foundation.
The Internal Revenue Service approved the foundation’s nonprofit status last month, enabling donations to it to be tax-deductible. That means Brownback, who donated $30,153 in leftover inaugural funds to the foundation, needs to follow through on his commitment last spring to “be working to raise private monies for the arts in this state.”
Better yet, he finally could heed the will of the Legislature regarding state arts funding and give the Kansas Arts Commission a little of the $66 million in unexpected tax revenue that’s come into the state since the fiscal year began July 1.
Meanwhile, as Joan Cole, a former Kansas Arts Commission vice chairwoman and former Wichita City Council member, recently suggested to the council, the demise of state arts funding has made the city of Wichita’s generous and rigorous cultural-funding program all the more rare — and precious, we’d add.
