The Museum of American Glass at Wheaton Arts in Millville, New Jersey.
It wasn’t just a severe winter blizzard that has made December a bitterly cold month for Wheaton Arts in Millville, New Jersey, which is home to a museum housing the most complete collection of historic American glass, plays host to galleries and collectors through its biannual Glass Weekend, and directly supports contemporary artists working with glass through its Creative Glass Center of America fellowship. Facing an enormous budget deficit, the outgoing New Jersey governor Jon Corzine, at the request of incoming Republican governor Chris Christie, has imposed a state-wide freeze on all discretionary funding accounts, and that includes grants to cultural organizations already approved last July but not yet disbursed.
“Our contracts had been submitted, reviewed by the New Jersey State Council on the Arts, and were being processed in Treasury when the order came down,” writes Susan Gogan, executive director of Wheaton Arts, in response to emailed questions from the GLASS Quarterly Hot Sheet. “These grants were awarded last July, and we were expecting the first payments any day when we got the news a little over a week ago. We’ve basically been fronting the state on this commitment, for almost six months. While there are some positive indications of the funds being released…. we don’t know for sure whether they will be for sure… or if they are, when.”
Gogan finds the situation particularly frustrating because the funding in question is in her view not discretionary but comes from a hotel and motel tax that is earmarked for arts funding in the state.
“The entire arts community in New Jersey was blindsided by the governor’s recent decision to freeze all accounts with discretionary funds within, including arts funding,” Gogan continues. “While arts funding shouldn’t be considered discretionary since it comes from a dedicated revenue source, 92 percent of arts organization grants have been halted.”
A New Jersey newspaper states, in an opinion piece decrying the move, that $10 million in arts funding has been frozen by the state’s unprecedented move.
New Jersey residents can get the latest updates and connect with others protesting the freeze in arts funding through a website called Art Pride NJ that is organizing letter-writing campaigns and providing news bulletins and quick links to write to your local legislators.
Those out-of-state can contact key legislators in the Millville area via email:
- Senator Jeff Van Drew: SenVanDrew@njleg.org
- Assemblyman Nelson Albano: AsmAlbano@njleg.org
- Assemblyman Matt Milam: AsmMilam@njleg.org
According to Gogan, the funding freeze is manageable in the short term. “We’ll be okay for a while,” she writes. “But if we hear they are renegging on the committed funds, it will be a different story. This action clearly added insult to injury considering how the recession has impacted nonprofits over the past year.”
Those looking to help Wheaton continue with its leading role in the glass community can donate directly to the organization via its easy-to-use website that is set up to accept donations as small as $5 with the click of a mouse. It’s an easy way to make this extremely difficult Christmas just a little bit brighter for this important arts institution.