Lansing — Legislative efforts to cut funding from Michigan's art and cultural groups are crippling the state's economy, activists argued Wednesday during a rally outside the Capitol Building in Lansing.
About 200 people attended the rally, which was organized to protest Gov. Jennifer Granholm's executive directive to freeze $7.5 million in promised grants to arts and cultural organizations throughout the state and the Senate's recently proposed $3.6 million cut in arts funding for the current fiscal year.
Holding signs and listening to speakers, rally-goers braved the cold morning to take a stand.
Hopefully, the rally will spur a legislative effort to stop disinvestment in the arts, said Debra Polich, president and CEO of Artrain USA, a nonprofit traveling art museum.
"It's very important for the state of Michigan to invest in arts and cultural programs so that Michigan can make this turn around," Polich said.
Before the rally, activists gathered inside the Capitol Rotunda, where business leaders spoke about the importance of reinventing the state's economy through arts and cultural investment.
Neeta Delaney, president and CEO of the advocacy group ArtServe Michigan, spoke along with two high school students.
Making cuts are an unfortunate, yet necessary part of balancing a budget deficit, said Matt Marsden, spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, R-Rochester.
"No cuts are ever easy, but we have a constitutional obligation to balance the budget," Marsden said. "Cuts are painful and not wanted, but are a necessity given Michigan's economic situation."
Granholm's executive directive is unlike an executive order because it didn't need to be approved by the legislature. It freezes about $750,000 to nearly 30 arts and cultural groups in the tri-county region, said Leslie Donaldson, executive director of the Arts Culture of Greater Lansing.
The MSU Museum, the East Lansing Art Festival and the East Lansing Film Festival all will have their payments delayed.
The executive directive was fueled by an effort to put the breaks on nonessential state spending, said Granholm spokeswoman Liz Boyd.
"This is the direct result of the budget crisis we are facing," Boyd said. "Even with the executive order that the governor issued (in March) and that lawmakers have approved, we are facing a minimum shortfall of $686 million in the current fiscal year.
"We certainly appreciate the concern of all agencies that rely on state spending, but the governor is doing the prudent thing by putting nonessential expenditures on hold."
The moratorium has left arts and cultural groups across the state scrambling for ways to make ends meet, Polich said.
"A lot of these dollars were promised to these agencies, and many of the dollars have been spent based on the contracts that they had with the state of Michigan," she said. "It puts them in a hole for the year."
