{"id":263857,"date":"2026-08-12T10:50:29","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T10:50:29","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/263857\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T10:50:29","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T10:50:29","slug":"letter-arts-council-closure-demands-transparency-from-its-leaders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/263857\/","title":{"rendered":"Letter: Arts council closure demands transparency from its leaders"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.readingeagle.com\/2026\/07\/27\/berks-arts-council-ceases-operations\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Berks Arts Council is closing its door<\/a>s after 55 years. I led the council through its renaissance in the late 1980s and early \u201990s and see this as a very sad occasion for not only arts in Berks County but our community as a whole.<\/p>\n<p>The impact from the federal government\u2019s decimation of arts and cultural support has been devastating for organizations like the National Endowment for the Arts, PBS and NPR. It is understandable that smaller organizations like Berks Arts are even more affected by these cuts.<\/p>\n<p>However, the organization\u2019s official announcement of the closure was inadequate in providing an explanation for this decision or what else might be possible. It said the decision was not made \u201clightly\u201d but it doesn\u2019t seem it was made transparently.<\/p>\n<p>This is particularly troubling given that Berks Jazz Fest, the council\u2019s centerpiece event and arguably a commercial success, will continue. I\u2019m glad it is \u2014 don\u2019t misconstrue raising this concern as a lack of support for the festival.<\/p>\n<p>The Arts Council leadership needs to have a conversation with the community. Share with us what happened and what would be needed to move forward, as the Arts Council or with other arts organizations stepping in to absorb its roles and responsibilities; or, a combination of both.<\/p>\n<p>Now, more than ever, our vibrant and exceptional arts community needs leadership and voice \u2014 for all of us will be the beneficiaries.<\/p>\n<p>Santo Marabella<\/p>\n<p>Reading<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Berks Arts Council is closing its doors after 55 years. I led the council through its renaissance&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":255322,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[349,5037,1559,28,128,130,129],"class_list":["post-263857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-reading","tag-berks-county","tag-letters-to-the-editor","tag-opinion","tag-pennsylvania","tag-reading-city","tag-reading-city-headlines","tag-reading-city-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=263857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/263857\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/255322"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=263857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=263857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=263857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}