B-Lo Living: Giambra steals the Studio Arena's lunch money

Remember the Erie County "budget crisis"? Ya know, the governmental meltdown that keeps on giving? Well, municipal ineptitude has claimed yet another victim: the Studio Arena Theatre.

The Buffalo News reports that Buffalo's acclaimed professional theatre company has been taken off the list of county subsidized cultural institutions in next year’s budget. The theatre received $200,000 in county funds this year. The Buffalo Zoo, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, the Albright-Knox Art Gallery, the Buffalo Museum of Science, and the Buffalo and Erie County Historical Society round out the list of institutions that will keep their funding.

The justification: the area’s 15 other theatre companies survive without funding. Giambra’s Advisory Board explains…

"The general feeling was that although Studio Arena has a fine product and tries to provide quality theater, it is not stunningly different from the others," Skerker said. "There is plenty of quality theater here."

Be that as it may, we still consider any decrease in funding for the arts a direct blow to our quality of life. In fact, we’d make the counterpoint that more of the remaining 15 should be funded.

But, alas, it seems Ken Neufeld - the Studio Arena’s Executive Director – may have actually shot himself in the foot this time. How? Simple... last summer Neufeld told the Advisory Board that his theatre company could survive without county support.

Neufeld said he made the remark about Studio Arena being able to get by without money only after the Advisory Board asked cultural leaders to come up with what-if budget scenarios. "I thought it was an academic exercise. It never occurred to me that they would cut our funding," he said.

Of course it didn’t! Why would it be anything other than "academic"? Its not like the county was about to experiance a complete fiscal meltdown or anything. Clearly the Advisory Board should have known Ken was 'just kidding'...

Brilliant!

SOURCE >>
Studio Arena taken off county's funding list [Buffalo News]