Arts Funding

The media is a buzz with the Mayors new budget. There are a lot of small arts groups that got completly left out and people are more than pissed. I don't blame them either. The Leo article talked about the Juneteenth festival that has been relevantly bringing African American issues to the stage for 9 years. They went from $15,000 to ZERO in no time flat.

Some of these groups are taking it upon themselves to raise the money needed. Louisville Music News's Paul Moffit says in his blog that John Gage of Kentucky Homefront is having a fund raiser on July 25 & 26 at Iroquois Amphitheater.

The Louisville Orchestra and the Fund for the Arts is consistently Mentioned in all of these articles as they both received the lions share of the funds. None of the articles suggested that this was inappropriate accept perhaps a slight slant with Moffits blog suggesting the LO ticket sales were SO good that the LO didn't need or deserve this money. Interesting... I wonder if he has tapped the box office computers? Obviously not, if he is suggesting that ticket sales actually fund any of the arts groups. In for-profit endeavors that may be the case, but with orchestra and opera, ticket sales only account for 1/3 of the budget income.

I applaud John Gage for taking control of the situation. Go to the event, and support Kentucky Homefront!!

Here are some of the articles:
Courier Journal
Business First
PRWeb Release