Part of the governor's state budget "also calls for the elimination of the Michigan Council on Arts Grants." Governor Granholm is proposing eliminating the Department of History, Arts, and Libraries ... and cutting funding for state arts grants. So how does it affect local arts organizations here in Northern Michigan?

It could mean hundreds of thousands of dollars less for area programs. Gene Jenneman at the dennos museum in Traverse City says for each of the last three years the Dennos received $17,000 dollars in state support. And he says arts programs in the five-county region received $225,600 in 2008.  That money goes to programming, is used for exhibitions, and to bring in performances.

And Jenneman says the Dennos is facing a double whammy: at the same time as these proposed grant cuts, the museum endowments are devastated because of the stock market. 

Farther north in Petoskey, the Crooked Tree Arts Center says they could also feel the effects if the budget passes as proposed. Executive Director Liz Ahrens says "a lot of people are under the misunderstanding that the arts are a 'soft' industry." She says "the arts actually employ 17,000 working people in Michigan. These are not volunteers, this is not just a matter of closing one day a week or having one less exhibit." And she says layoffs are likely.

As for the future, Jenneman says "everybody realizes we have to tighten our belts, but we all run a lean operation. You can only do it for so long before you have to give up something. What that means here remains to be seen. "