Proposed cuts in Pa. grants alarm museums, historical groups

Intelligencer Journal

Jun 23, 2009 00:29 EST

By LARRY ALEXANDER, Staff Writer

With the state's budget sure to tighten, local museums are worried that Pennsylvania's commitment to preserving its past might become history.

Under Gov. Ed Rendell's proposed $61.7 billion spending plan, funding for museums and other historical groups could see drastic cuts.

Money for grant programs these groups have come to rely on would drop from $7.9 million last year to about $2.4 million under the proposed budget. Most dramatically, money for museum assistance grants and historical education grants would be eliminated.

For many historical groups already pressed to the wall financially, the news could not be worse.

Sharron Nelson, interim director of Heritage Center of Lancaster County, said loss of grant money is "to put it mildly, a struggle."

To support both its museum and the Quilt and Textile Museum, Nelson said the Heritage Center will likely tap its endowment fund for $300,000 "just to stay in business."

"We have a huge gap to fill," she said. "And we can only do this once."

Nelson said that when the quilt collection and the building that houses it were bought, there was "sustainable funding" through the state Legislature and "the generosity of local donors."

"But all that money has contracted," she said.

Now, she said, the board is "putting together a business plan" that will allow it to pay its building and loan debt and "keep our doors open" while weaning itself from public money.

She and other museum directors have had "informal" talks with local lawmakers, but she said she knows "what they are up against."

"It's not a lack of willingness," she said of elected officials. "It's a lack of money."

Tom Ryan of the Lancaster County Historical Society said the loss of state grants would have a "direct impact" on the organization. The historical society obtains between $30,000 and $50,000 annually from the state.

"I wouldn't say (the loss) would be overwhelming, but it certainly would be felt," Ryan said.

What will be felt more, Ryan said, is the potential loss of tourist dollars.

Each year, 14 million visitors come to Lancaster County, Ryan said, and many "identify history and heritage as one of the things that draws them here."

"If we start to pull back on what's available on the history menu in this community, word will get out," Ryan said.

Suddenly, he said, Pennsylvania would become a much less attractive tourist destination.

Noel B. Poirier, director of the National Watch and Clock Museum in Columbia, said his museum's state support has dropped from $40,000 per year to $19,000. However, if Rendell's budget is approved, he said, "there may not be anything there at all."

Poirier is annoyed that while grants for small historical groups may be eliminated, under Rendell's budget, state funding, though reduced, would continue for nine larger facilities, including the Franklin Institute, the Whitaker Center for Science and the Arts and the Carneigie Museum of Natural History.

"To have us zeroed out in the governor's budget and only put a 10 percent cut to these other museums is a little hard to swallow," Poirier said.

Poirier said the Watch and Clock Museum will weather the budget storm, but he worries about smaller organizations.

"While museums like ours will struggle and probably survive, the danger is to a lot of the smaller historical societies who rely on those general operating support grants and project grants," he said. "A lot of museums are pretty scared and, I think, rightly so."

Scared, maybe. Concerned, definitely.

Bea Kreiner of the Manheim Historical Society said her group received a $5,000 grant last year to put electricity into the historic Fasig House. This year, they're asking for another $5,000 to install heat and air-conditioning.

"If we don't get that, it could be a problem," she said.

Steve Loewen, president of the recently formed New Holland Area Historical Society, said his group has requested a $55,000 grant to aid in its renovation of the 230-year-old former Kauffman Hardware building.

"The budget could impact our getting approved for that," Loewen said.

Poirier said the problem is that politicians seem to feel museums are "nonessential." That, he said, is wrong.

"Later generations will judge our society by how it takes care of its cultural institutions," Poirier said.

E-mail: lalexander@lnpnews.com