New Hampshire House Budget Cuts Will Seriously Affect Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum

This post was excerpted from an article on Boston.com.  Read the entire story at
http://www.boston.com/news/local/new_hampshire/articles/2011/04/16/nh_arts_funding_would_be_lost_in_house_budget/

For the last several years grants from the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts have helped provide for classes at Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum, such as drum-making, pottery and beadwork. It has also kept admission prices stable for three years.  But the monthly classes may no longer be offered and the price of admission -- currently $8.50 for an adult -- would likely go up if the budget passed by the New Hampshire House takes effect.

The House has abolished New Hampshire's Department of Cultural Resources in its budget.  This action strips funding for the Arts Council, essentially cutting that program.

This is serious news for Mt. Kearsarge Indian Museum.  The museum has received grants from the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts for its operations and exhibits for several years; it received $7,100 during the last fiscal year. Losing that source of money will force the museum to make changes in the kinds of classes and activities it has offered in the past.  The fact that the council's fund is matched by dollars from the National Endowment for the Arts means the effect of cuts to the State Council for the Arts will be felt more keenly.

New Hampshire would not qualify for any federal arts money if state arts funding is cut; that money would go to other states. The absence of funds would leave New Hampshire -- one of the first states to support public funding of the arts -- the only state without an arts council, Cultural Resources Director Van McLeod said.

"Without program grant support from the New Hampshire State Council on the Arts, Mount Kearsarge Indian Museum will not be able to program the Native American arts demonstrations and performances and classes that we currently offer," said Shawn Olson, executive director of the museum in Warner. "The private sector is not doing a lot."

Olson said she recently sent in an application for a grant that would help make the museum's doors accessible to the handicapped. She said it's hard to find a grant program to fund such small-scale projects.

Looking through her guestbook, Olson noted entries from last summer from visitors as far away as Australia and the Netherlands. They see the museum's sign on Interstate 89 and stop by.

"Personally, I cannot believe that the state legislators don't see that just cutting the arts and tourism budgets, much less eliminating them, is going to severely hurt the entire state of New Hampshire and residents from loss of jobs, drop in tourism with further loss of jobs, and the decrease in our quality of life," she said.