Jasper Arts: Budget down, Chalk Walk on, fundraising up

The Jasper Community Arts Commission heard the department’s 2017 budget would be $30,000 less than the 2016 budget.

Arts Director Kit Miracle explained the reduction is due to lower expenses, but lower revenue is also making an impact.

Miracle added that she is tasked with cutting as much as she can, but she is also attempting to increase the department’s income.

To that end, the topic of raising ticket prices came up. Miracle told the commission that the Jasper Arts Department is “just unnaturally low compared to our contemporaries on our ticket pricing structure”

She asked the board to consider raising the per-student cost of the educational arts presentations to the local schools to help bring in more income.

“Currently, we charge $2.50 a head per child for schools programs and I would recommend raising that to $3.00,” she said.

Arts Education Coordinator Donna Schepers added that the schools had been alerted to the potential for a cost increase in the past.

The commission unanimously decided to forward the recommendation for a 50 cent increase to student prices to the Jasper Common Council. If approved the rate increase would go into effect on July 1.

The board also voted to approve the Arts Commission budget that contains the increase. It now goes on to the Jasper Common Council for their approval as well.

Chalk Walk

[quote]Arts Director Kit Miracle told the board that in the Chalk Walk’s 13 years, this is only the third time it has had to be rescheduled due to weather.[/quote]

Program Coordinator Corina Mack told the board that this Saturday’s Chalk Walk in downtown Jasper will take place as scheduled, after having to postpone it last week due to inclement weather.

Arts Director Kit Miracle told the board that out of the 13 years of the event, this is only the third time that the event has had to be moved due to weather.

Mack added, “It’s going to be a beautiful day to chalk the sidewalks – great weather for it.”

She said they are pleased that all of the vendors will participate, even though the event was postponed last Saturday.

“That always is a challenge whenever you have to postpone something. Sometimes people don’t have two Saturday’s in a row free. But, we’ve gotten lucky because it seems like people can accommodate us and it seems like they’re ready and excited to come out to enjoy the day’s events. And we’ll still have the readers chair there from Indianapolis and all of our hands-on activities that we always have,” she said.

In other actions the board:

-Approved $17,800 contract for Hedinger Roofing to repair the Arts Center roof. The commission received bids from Hedinger Roofing ($17,800) and Schmidt Contracting ($21,500). The line item amount for the repair of the Arts Center roof was $15,000. Jasper Attorney Renee Kabrick told Lechner that the city cannot enter into a contract until funds are available. The board approved the $17,800 for Hedinger Roofing contingent on the movement of funds from another line item to cover the overage.

-Heard from commission member Linda Kahle that an additional $425,000 has been raised so far in the Jasper LEADs fundraising effort. The total now stands at $2.215 million, which includes the $1.7 million donated by Jasper residents Jim and Pat Thyen. Information about the fundraising effort is at www.jasperleads.org.