Music and poetry filled the County Legislature chambers Monday as speakers urged lawmakers not to scale back funding for arts and cultural groups, libraries and youth programs next year.
A county budget hearing that drew more than 50 speakers was dominated by members of local nonprofit organizations who asked lawmakers to keep the $5.5 million that County Executive Mark C. Poloncarz has proposed for local arts and cultural groups in the 2013 spending plan. “We have in this community theaters, museums, music venues, churches, etc., but these are just buildings,” said Charles T. Peszynski, president of the Polish Arts Club of Buffalo. “Without the cultural organizations that populate and enliven them, they’re empty shells. We would be a community without a soul.”
BY: Denise Jewell Gee, The Buffalo News, Posted: 11/20/2012
