In Monday’s (8/24) Star Tribune (Minneapolis), Mike Kaszuba writes, “Over the next two months, the Minnesota State Arts Board will decide whether $25,000 in federal stimulus money for the Flying Foot forum, a Minneapolis-based dance group, will in some small way help kick-start the economy. … In the larger scheme of things, where $502 million in stimulus money is coming into Minnesota for transportation projects alone, the $316,200 aimed at the arts hardly registers on most radars. But many small arts organizations applying for the money, some of which have budgets of less than $100,000, argue that a federal stimulus grant can be critical. … Beverly Everett, who conducts the Bemidji Symphony Orchestra and is its only paid staff member, said she understands those who question using federal stimulus money for the arts. ‘I can really see it both ways … there’s so many needs for the infrastructure repairs,’ she said. Her organization has applied for $25,000—the maximum stimulus grant—and she said it would be used to pay her salary. If the symphony does not get the money, she said, it will somehow survive.”
Posted August 25, 2009
