Big cuts for the Bainbridge Island Arts and Humanities Council last night, leading the organization to layoff its director. Social service groups were also not spared the budget ax, but the impact is less clear.
See my coverage of last night’s council meeting below….
A few weeks ago, the City Council voted for big cuts in city financial support for the Bainbridge Island Arts and Humanities Council. Then, last night, the council voted against those cuts, putting thousands of dollars back in the nonprofit’s pockets.
Rethinking past decisions tends to happen when death is discussed.
“Kill,” “death,” and “death-knell” were a few of the words arts advocates used to describe the consequences of the cuts.
The council did a bit of a flip-flop, but who wants to be known as the executioner of an organization that breathes a lot of art into the island’s life.
You might not be acquainted with BIAHC, but you’ve probably enjoyed the Celluloid Bainbridge Film Festival at the Lynwood Theatre, or sat in on one of the Great Decisions lectures at the library, or toured the gardens during Bainbridge In Bloom, or pondered the meaning of the spidery steel legs creeping from behind the wall outside City Hall. (One islander has postulated that it’s a statement about the lurking, predatory nature of municipalities toward the free market. Crawling from the web of bureaucracy, the spider (the city) means to strike the unwitting world of commerce (San Carlos restaurant, across the street) and paralyze it with the venom of taxation.*)
All of these community-fueled projects (including the alien eggs hatching to the east of the spider legs) are partially or wholly the doing of BIAHC.
For my coverage of the council’s move to put money back into the BIAHC budget, read on…
*(I made that up)
