TOPEKA, Kan. (AP) – Kansas legislators are getting an update on efforts by Gov. Sam Brownback’s administration to promote the arts after he vetoed state funding for them.
The Joint Committee on Arts and Cultural Resources expected to hear testimony at a Wednesday meeting from members of the Kansas Arts Commission and the nonprofit Kansas Arts Foundation.
The foundation formed in February after Brownback outlined a plan to eliminate the Arts Commission and scale back state funding for arts programs. Legislators rejected the plan, keeping the Arts Commission in place, but Brownback vetoed the commission’s $689,000 in state funding.
In turn, the federal government and a regional arts alliance cut off their funding.
Foundation chairwoman Linda Browning Weis, of Manhattan, is also the commission’s chairwoman, appointed in June by Brownback.