Save me from this state...

Where is this state going? The auto companies are teetering on the edge of closing up shop - this city needs to find new industry! Everyone you talk to is pretty down on the economy here and when it comes to the arts...it has really hit a low in terms of art buying and funding. Check out this sobering article in the Metro Times by Mazzei:

"...That’s why Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s freeze on $7.5 million in arts and cultural funding, promised to hundreds of agencies, seems so harsh. There’s little optomism the grants will be reinstated.

Naturally, you worry about the little grasroots guys first. “It’s bake sale time” — that’s what one staffer called it. But the big shops are in trouble too: The Detroit Institute of Arts isn’t getting its check for $1.5 million. A couple dozen cookies aren’t going to pay for that new Vermont marble.

Like the smaller groups, several institutions have received about a third, if any, of the money.

• Detroit Institute of Arts received none of its $1,485,600 grant
• Detroit Symphony Orchestra received $177,200 of $506,300
• Michigan Opera Theatre received $131,100 of $374,500
• Charles H. Wright Museum of African American History received $31,700 of $89,400
• Detroit Science Center received $23,100 of $65,000
• Detroit Historical Society received nothing of its $40,000 grant
• Music Hall received $14,200 of $40,000
• College for Creative Studies received nothing of its $39,800 grant
• Mosaic Youth Theatre received $11,900 of $32,500
• Sphinx Organization received $11,900 of $32,500
• Detroit Repertory Theatre received $7,900 of $21,500
• Arab American National Museum received $7,900 of its $21,500 grant..." Mazzei