Lexington, Ky - LexArts, Lexington's united arts fund, today turned down an appeal by Actors Guild of Lexington (AGL) to reconsider recent denial of its application for unrestricted operating funding for the 2009-10 fiscal year.
"The decision was based on a very lengthy debate amongst our Executive Committee members," said LexArts president & CEO Jim Clark in an e-mail. "It was determined that the letter (of appeal) the AGL sent us did not provide sufficient grounds for us to grant an appeal with regard to general operating support. We will meet with AGL's leadership to determine if other options such as technical assistance and management consultancies would be viable at this time."
AGL had received $72,000 from LexArts in the previous fiscal year.
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In a recent OpEd in , Clark stated that "LexArts' concerns pre-date AGL's current artistic leadership and Board of Directors. LexArts particular concern is the loss of audience coupled with its debt load and accumulated deficit."
Clark went on to assert that "Last year, when the Allocations Committee realized that AGL's debt situation had worsened, it developed a set of conditions which were to be met in order to maintain current levels of financial support. In particular, AGL needed to hire a managing director and it had to be more aggressive with fundraising. Six months ago a managing director was hired, and AGL has had some success in raising sponsorships but it appears these actions have come too late."