Perhaps more important to us than we care to attend to and even than the Smithsonian/Wojnarowicz thing that everybody is going gaga over. This program supports so many strands of the States quiet and uncelebrated art community, unassuming, they deserve support. Turning this over to the Commerce Department turns my stomach. Imagine bean counters knowing and caring about the State's art folk and reaching out with the sensitivity, caring and difficulty of choice that has been the hallmark of WSAC. No one's perfect but this suggested new direction is a stab in a most basic art heart. Where's the outcry about this from the local art community or from those streaming tears for A Fire in My Belly? Is SAM active in helping preserve WSAC? Or are these different art worlds? Really, who cares? I'm curious.

Certainly when budgets increase, the art community needs to push for refunding of this program. At a time when basic health services are being cut for the most vulnerable members of society, though, funding the arts seems not just frivolous but immoral.

We need a list of what exactly the WSAC funds if we're going to have an impactful discussion with the State on dealing with this situation. We need to know who exactly is losing out if the cuts occur.

From Arlington to Walla Walla - WSAC grants support arts organizations, events, and projects, and arts education efforts throughout Washington.

Grants to organizations - http://www.arts.wa.gov/grants/grants-201…

Arts in Education grants - http://www.arts.wa.gov/education/grants-…

@2, your reasoning is wrong. Let's not pit the arts against social services. The question is never about funding the arts or feeding the hungry. The arts generate tens of millions of dollars in tourism, jobs and taxes. Cutting the arts means creating unemployment, generating less revenue and attracting less people to live and spend their money here.