March 30, 2018
Arts Funding in Tompkins County
Dear Constituents,
The Legislature has been receiving lots of emails about funding the arts in Tompkins County. I share everyone’s appreciation of and support for our arts and culture. And, as is the case with everything else the County must support, I know that there are never enough resources to fully fund our arts and cultural organizations.
Given the timing and content of these emails, I would guess that it was prompted by Legislator Klein’s recently posted website, his communications to and through various arts and cultural organizations, and/or his 3/29 letter to the Ithaca Journal. Mr. Klein’s concerns about arts funding levels are focused on the level of funding certain organizations receive through the Arts/Cultural Organizational Development grant program (ACOD). Unfortunately, as is so often the case, a tight focus on one aspect of an issue excludes the larger context in which the issue must be viewed in order to gain a complete and accurate understanding of what is actually going on. Please, bear with me as I try to clarify this particular issue in context.
