Kansas Governor Cuts All State Funding for Art Programs

There are budget cuts and then there are ultra-violent chops that effectively remove every remote sign of life. Exploding across the art world this week is the news that the latter has now happened in Kansas. This past weekend, that state’s governor, Sam Brownbeck, eliminated all state funding for arts programs there, “leaving the Kansas Arts Commission without a budget, staff or offices.” The Commission’s site spells it out as bleakly as it gets, stating briefly “All Kansas Arts Commission programs and grant operations for Fiscal Year 2012 have been terminated effective immediately.”