Photo by Marija Zaric
SLO Museum of Art Executive Director Leann Standish today sent an urgent message to museum supporters that bears repeating to a larger audience.
As SLO Review reported last year, SLOMA received $250,000 in grant funding from the Institute of Museum and Library Services, an independent agency of the United States federal government that is the main source of federal support for libraries and museums around the country.
According to Standish, President Trump recently issued an executive order that directed that the IMLS be eliminated along with several other agencies.
“SLOMA is a current recipient of IMLS funding and will be directly and negatively impacted by this order,” Standish writes. Affected programs are First Fridays and Second Saturdays, artist talks, school tours, workshops, and other free programs “enjoyed by tens of thousands of Central Coast residents and visitors every year.”
Take a stand for SLOMA and other arts organizations that you support.”
She requests that anyone who disagrees with this decision email or call members of Congress today, and she has posted a helpful guide on the SLOMA website.
Speaking out, voicing your support not just for SLOMA but for all our museums and libraries, couldn’t be more important right now. Letting our political representatives understand our support for any and all arts and cultural programs that we believe in couldn’t be more important right now.
Take a stand for SLOMA and other arts organizations that you support. Let your representatives and others at the federal level know that respecting our democratic institutions and processes, and supporting the arts at both local and global levels, are all important to you.
Make a call. Write a letter. Mail a postcard. Send an email. Now!