Private Sources for Finance

President Reagan has suggested that private sources should increase their financial support in the American arts. Spokesmen for AT and T, IBM, Exxon and other corporations however are doubtful that this is possible. In New York, Robert Thill of At and T commented: "We're also going to be hit by the health, welfare and school people. There just isn't enough to take care of everybody."

Wilson Cronenwett of the Muskegon (Michigon) West Shore Symphony added: "Psychologically it would be wrong to go back to the people. They're being as supportive as they can."

David Stockman, the budget's director, must be challenged when he claims that artists and cultural institutions are beginning to regard the Federal government as "the financial patron of the first resort" before exploring the possibilities of individual and corporate donors. Statistics show that while Federal support for the arts endowment has gone up from an initial $2.5 million to about $159 million, private contributions have risen from $226 million to $2.7 billion. Theatres and symphonies receive only a small proportion of their funds from Federal grants, and in 1980 only 4.6% of the budgets of thirty major non-profit theatres came from the government.

Already top PBS television journalists Rovert MacNeil and Jim Lehrer are considering where they may go with their award winning news shows if funding does dry up. The consequences of the cuts will be enormous.

Some solutions must be found for the sake of the artists and the country. Obviously some reduction in spending is necessary if Reagan is determined to balance the budget. America's politicians however must reconsider where they are making these cuts and rethink the significance of their decisions.

Reference: Newsweek March 16, 1981.

Margaret Paterson