Islip may pull arts funding

The Islip Town Council is poised to eliminate $128,000 in funding to the Islip Arts Council in next year's budget, a move arts advocates say could cripple the town's arts programming.

Deputy Supervisor Trish Bergin Weichbrodt said the town's bleak financial picture has spurred the proposal to cut all funding to the Arts Council, which has run the Islip Arts Museum for two years.

Under the proposal, the town council could continue to operate the museum without the funding, which arts officials say is unlikely.

The town would halve the museum space in Brookwood Hall by relocating the Arts Council's offices to the second floor of the adjacent Joyce Fitzpatrick Center, a town senior center.

If the council declines to continue operating the museum, the Department of Parks, Recreation and Cultural Affairs would take over museum operations and other limited programming, town officials said.

"The basic line we're getting from the town is go away and die," said Nicholas Wartella, president of the board of directors of the Islip Arts Council, which also plans concerts and other cultural events in town.

Last month, town officials proposed moving the Arts Council and the museum to the Ockers House, which arts officials rejected.

Passions were further inflamed recently when an anonymous flier mocking Bergin Weichbrodt and Councilman Anthony S. Senft Jr., and their handling of the arts issue was distributed at a festival. Arts Council members deny any role in the campaign, but the attack swayed Councilman John C. Cochrane Jr., who said he was initially a "swing vote" on the issue.

"When the council people got attacked personally, we had to dig our heels in," Cochrane said. "It makes a tough decision a little easier."

Lynda A. Moran, executive director of the not-for-profit Arts Council, earns $60,000 annually, according to the organization's tax filings.

The group received more than $425,000 in funding in 2011, according to a recent audit, including $91,500 from Suffolk County. Moran declined to comment. Wartella said the group is "hanging on by the skin of our teeth."

"This is really a financial decision," said Bergin Weichbrodt. "It's one that's tough to make, but it seems that the people in the arts community will be able to rally and raise some funds."