More than 30 people spoke against proposed cuts in funding to a community theater group and other arts programs at a city budget workshop Saturday.
Amy Eaton, an artistic director at the Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre, tearfully asked the council not to cut funding to the organization, which gives adults and children the opportunity to produce plays about the black experience.
Many of the children Eaton directs spoke at the meeting, the third in a series of budget workshops held this year.
“If you close this program you don’t know how many people you are letting down,” said Casey Wait, one of the children in the program.
Faced with filling a $4 million deficit in the city’s budget, City Manager Roger Crum proposed cutting all funding for the Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre, which amounts to about $160,000, as well as cutting $51,600 for the arts programs. Residents upset by this proposal spoke at the budget workshop, but the council did not vote on making the cuts because Ald. Stephen Engelman (7th) and Ald. Gene Feldman (9th) were absent.
The Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre is located at the Family Focus Center, 2010 Dewey Ave. The city pays rent to the center. If the council cuts funding to the Fleetwood-Jourdain Theatre, it might have to relocate to the Levy Center or the Noyes Cultural Arts Center. Scheduling conflicts at the new venues, however, could cut the number of yearly productions from eight to six.
Ald. Joseph Kent (5th) said he was concerned the Levy Center and the Noyes Cultural Arts Center would not be able to accommodate the theater adequately.
Most residents said the theater was important because of its diversity.
“It brings together rich and poor, black and white,” said resident Wendy Miller.
Cuts to the arts programming would eliminate a program manager in the parks, forestry and recreation department as well as reduce grant funding to local artists and community groups.
Resident Sally Parsons said if a program manager was eliminated, the city might not be able to host events like Evanston’s summer Lake Shore Arts Festival.
Michelle Brodsky, chairwoman of the Arts Council, which oversees arts funding, said artists who receive grant funding work with more than 15,000 students and reach approximately 60,000 people with their art.
Brodsky said if the council allows the $10,000 cut to be made, the arts programs also will lose matching funds from the state, reducing total funding from $43,000 to $17,000.
Penelope Sachs, who is involved with the Evanston Symphony Orchestra, said the symphony recently produced a show for Evanston middle school students that would have been impossible without city grant funding.
“Arts makes a city great, not merely functional,” Sachs said.
