around town - east hampton	« life & style
Added: October 27, 2008, 11:47 am	Share    Print    Email

East Hampton - The Town of East Hampton's tentative 2009 budget proposes to cut 19 arts and cultural programs from theater and music to visual art, but it is arts in the schools that may suffer first.

The Pollack-Krasner House and Study Center in Springs will have to charge schools to keep programs running.

The school districts in East Hampton have partnerships with many of the programs likely to be cut, such as the Pollack-Krasner House and Study Center in Springs, where the famous painter Jackson Pollack worked and lived with fellow artist and wife, Lee Krasner. The town previously funded an arts curriculum that included lectures in the schools and private tours of the house and studio for students. In the event that the funding for the program, set at $3,500, is cut, the museum will have to charge schools $1 per student in order to keep the education program running.

The Pollack-Krasner House Director Helen Harrison commented she's "not happy about the budget" and that she is not sure the schools will pay to continue the program. Although Suffolk County and the New York State Council on the Arts also fund the museum as well, "it's a disappointment for a community that's centered around art," Harrison said.

Since 1996, Guild Hall has received $15,000 from the town to fund curriculum and in-school programming. According to Marketing Director Barbara Jo Howard, the Guild Hall programs in the Montauk and East Hampton school districts have had a "tremendously positive impact on the community." In addition, Howard explained Guild Hall will have to attempt to raise funds from other sources, including foundations and individuals.

Guild Hall will have to attempt to raise funds from other sources.

However, in the current economic downturn, foundations and individuals are likely to be approached by many East Hampton organizations, such as the East Hampton Historical Society. Like most arts programs, the Historical Society doesn't rely entirely on funding from the town for its survival. Executive Director Richard Barons reported that private fundraising will have to augment the $7,500 typically allotted by the town. "If we don't raise the funds, it would be our summer exhibit that would be diminished in scale," Barons commented.

The Society's summer exhibit is dedicated to the duck decoy carving tradition, and will feature 100 decoys from museums all over the Long Island area. Barons expects he will be able to recoup the lost funding from the town, yet "if we begin to have foundations cut, then it's a problem," he explained. "We definitely have to tighten our belts," Barons continued, "but we do not want to scale back on any educational programs. Restoration work on the Marine Museum would be curtailed first."

Restoration work on the Marine Museum in East Hampton would be curtailed if the budget is drastically cut.

If the tentative budget goes through, all but four programs will be cut entirely in fiscal year 2009, and The Marine Museum budget will be cut by half, from $10,000 to $5,000. Just two programs will keep their budgets in tact, the Artists Alliance of East Hampton, which will continue to receive $1,500 for its Art in Public Places Program that exhibits art in community spaces like Town Hall, and The East End Special Players, a theatre troupe for learning disabled adults, will also receive its annual funding of $29,000.

Town Supervisor William McGintee explained that he continued funding The East End Special Players because he tried to protect people with special needs. "I cut everything. The only areas that I spared were senior services and senior care and daycare and after schools services," McGintee said.

"Basically I tried to protect the young and elderly and special needs. The Special Players didn't have funding from anywhere else," McGintee continued. "I'm charged with making tough decisions at tough times. I don't want to cut anything. Hopefully the economy will turn around and we'll be able to reinstate some of these programs."

For more information, click here.