News

Arts Council facing cutbacks

Search for director suspended due to economy

By John Mason

COLUMBIA COUNTY — All rumors to the contrary, the Columbia County Council on the Arts is alive and — pretty — well. Like many other beings in this area, it’s hibernating, partly.

“The economy’s taken a hit on us,” Acting Interim Executive Director Sue Chiafullo said Wednesday. “We’re going to a reduced winter schedule: The office will be open a couple of days a week.”

In the meantime, “the board of directors will take stock, examine how we do business, and come up with strategizing decisions about how to survive in a prolonged recession economy,” she said. “People are feeling the pinch ...”

The rumor mill has been getting its digs in as well. Supervisor William C. Hughes Jr., D-Hudson4, said at Tuesday’s Board of Supervisors Tourism Committee meeting that he had heard the CCCA would be closing.

County Tourism Director Ann Cooper said she didn’t know the answer.

The county, she said, provides the council $15,000 in overhead and $5,000 for other needs annually.

The CCCA’s board of directors includes Chiafullo, president, Paula Forman, vice president, Nancy Rutter, treasurer, Marilyn Barry, secretary, Susan B. Anthony, Linda Arnaud, Pierre Boulee, Tomm Eaton, Patrick Harbron, Karen Hummel and Benedetto Puccio.

The board appointed Chiafullo interim director in June after Jan Hanvik’s resignation. She had to hit the ground running, with the “Best in Show” dogs of Warren Street starting up the following week, followed by preparations for Arts Walk.

One omen of the shrinking CCCA was the compressing of Arts Walk into a single weekend instead of two.

On Nov. 21, Chiafullo told the Register-Star the search for Hanvik’s successor had been temporarily tabled.

“As with all non-profits, the [CCCA] has taken a hit,” she said.

Wednesday, Chiafullo said the board hopes to have new leadership and a fully operating schedule in place by March 2009.

One area the council has been hurting in this year has been grants.

“We were the recipients of grants for a couple of years,” she said. “Now it’s time for it to go to another region. Grants are like that.”

The council still has its donor base, but they’ve cut back as well, she said.

“The dollar amount of charitable contributions is down,” Chiafullo said, with the average donation plummeting from $100 to $30 or $40.

She predicted the cutback in office hours would not have a large effect.

“This is our slow period,” she said. “We usually are pretty dormant in the winter months. We’ll still service our membership.”

Chiafullo will continue to work as a volunteer, along with three core board members, over the winter, she said. Carline Murphy, who was running the Arts-in-Education program, is no longer working for the CCCA, since that program was grant-funded.

“We didn’t lose Arts-in-Education because it was a failure,” Chiafullo said. The granting organization didn’t fund that category this year. “We will be looking at Arts-in-Education again; I just got two grant applications.”

Although the economy has hit the council hard, it has not dealt it a death blow, she said.

“We do have plans,” she said. “I’m optimistic that we’ll be successful. We’re going to try to position ourselves to be successful. We do tons of exhibitions; we have sold work in every one of our exhibitions.”

Arts Walk, she said, occurred after the Dow took a 900-point dive, “the worst weekend to be holding an arts, and dog, auction.” The dogs reportedly took in about $45,000.

“This has been brewing quite a while,” Chiafullo said. “Any kind of economic slowdown affects not-for-profits. We’re not out of the running: I’m going to die trying. The arts council needs to exist. We’re going to do everything we can to ensure it continues to exist.”

Hughes was happy to hear the council would continue to be open part-time.

“I just don’t want it to be closed for an extended period of time,” he said. “If they need financial help, that’s something to be considered by us in the future. We’re looking at the arts to be one of our economic drivers, and they’re supposed to be out here doing the groundwork for us.”

Alderwoman Ellen Thurston, D-3rd Ward, member and former chairwoman of the Common Council’s Arts and Entertainment Committee, said, “I think it’s important for the county to have an arts council: We need an advocate for the arts.”

The CCCA has a hard row to hoe, being both an advocate for the arts and serving its members at the same time, she said.

The CCCA’s offices are 209 Warren St., Hudson. Its phone number is 518-671-6213.

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