JOHNS CREEK, Ga. — Fulton County’s proposed 2024 budget is raising alarms to dozens of arts organizations reliant on government aid to fund their programs.
One is the Johns Creek Arts Center, whose Director of Development Amanda Jones is spreading the word via petition about a potential $1.5 million budget cut and its impact on 125 arts organizations in Fulton County. Published in mid-November, the petition has more than 210 signatures as of Dec. 4.
“Because we’re facing things like potential budget cuts, we’d like to ask the community to step up and help support the arts, just so organizations like ours can continue to exist,” Jones said.
The Arts Center is one of four “legacy” institutions in Fulton County, or those that were county-created to help ensure access to the arts in every corridor. Others are the Chattahoochee Nature Center, the Hammonds House Museum and the National Black Arts Festival.
In a long-term, private-public partnership, Jones said Fulton County funds essential program operations at the Arts Center each year, ranging from $135,000 to $200,000.
If Fulton County adopts the proposed budget in January, Jones said the Johns Creek Arts Center would lose at least 20 percent in funding that would typically go toward providing classes to youth experiencing homelessness at the Drake House in Roswell, monthly classes to students at Title I schools in the area and an arts program at Newtown Park for senior citizens.
Jones described the gratitude of those who participated in the nonprofit’s programs during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the Arts Center remained open. She said people have told the nonprofit they didn’t know how they would have coped at the time had they not had access to its programs.
“It provides a sense of normalcy, sanctuary and respite,” Jones said. “So many people will share with us…
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