Gov. Jennifer Granholm’s proposed budget is hitting a lot of areas hard, including higher education, but few may suffer as drastically as the arts. With a potential 50 percent cut in state grants for arts and culture, statewide and community organizations are working together to maximize the money they do have, and raise awareness of the importance of the arts in people’s everyday lives.

One such organization is Arts at Michigan, a group of staff and students who promote the role of the arts in undergraduate education. A group from Arts at Michigan recently went to Lansing to discuss the budget.

In addition to offering discounted ticket packages to University Musical Society (UMS) and University Productions performances, they provide student grants and a “culture bus” that travels to Michigan art hotspots, such as the Detroit Institute of Arts.

Arts at Michigan also encourages faculty to incorporate arts-based learning in the curriculum of undergraduate courses. Through its Course Connections program, the organization has helped students organize visits such as the recent appearance of Eve Ensler, author of “The Vagina Monologues,” and workshops with independent filmmakers and deaf culture experts.

Granholm’s proposed budget cuts could cause many of these programs to suffer, says Michael Steelman, Arts at Michigan assistant program coordinator. Ticket prices could increase, he says, and fewer funding opportunities would exist for students.

“The ticket prices would go up because the presenters will still need the funds to put on shows,” Steelman says. “Either the quality of the show will go down or the cost will go up, but we hope to enhance the quality of the shows and ensure that students are able to afford them at their income level.”

Mary Craig, director of Arts at Michigan, says that the budget cuts, both to the arts and to higher education, could affect arts programming at the University significantly. Programs such as the culture bus take advantage of many state-funded arts entities. While entry fees and ticket prices may increase, Arts at Michigan will have to decrease, or eliminate altogether, the ticket subsidies currently offered to students in order to absorb budget cuts on campus, she says.

“As far as actual cuts to arts funding on the state level, I can see small, indirect effects on programs that we can offer through Arts at Michigan,” Craig says. “It’s more of a ripple effect than anything else—it won’t change the landscape.”

“Nobody fears the loss of the arts, but we do worry about how to do what we do with less money available,” she says. “We’re talking about a fragile part of our society, one that is meaningful to many different people, and it doesn’t have a good, strong basis that we can just make cuts around.”

In order to preserve the programs it offers, as well as the programs of other organizations like it, Arts at Michigan sent a delegation of staff and students to Arts Alive Day. Held March 11 in Lansing, the day provided participants an opportunity to educate themselves about the state budget crisis, and speak with Granholm and numerous state legislators.

Steelman, who attended Arts Alive Day, says Granholm cares deeply about the arts.

“She really made it clear that she was a partner in support of the arts and made sure that the 50 percent funding that we do have will stay that way,” he says. “Her speech was very comforting and very emotional, and you could tell that she wants to keep the arts alive in Michigan and make sure that it does not completely lose its funding support.”

Steelman says some of the goals of Arts Alive Day were to bring a clearer sense of the state budget crisis back to the University, and to encourage the community to get involved in preserving the arts.

“We have an educated group of students to pass on what they have learned to organize programming that will help further the support of the arts,” he says. “We (Arts at Michigan) are not just about going to see a show—we’re about keeping the arts alive and expressing the experiences that you have gone through with the arts.”