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Seven Days

Wednesday, Jan. 30
The news of the day is that in Cocke County, a sheriff's department official made an innovative, if reportedly unauthorized, attempt to break the "cycle of violence" by allowing selected inmates, including violent offenders, out of the jail to participate in a prize fighting contest...as a reward for good behavior.
Knox County Commissioner Wanda Moody's poking around in the local sheriff's records of large cash transactions has turned up a bank account in the name of the "board of directors of the Knox County Sheriff's Department." Just because there is no such board obviously doesn't mean there shouldn't be.
Thursday, Jan. 31
Bearden High School buildings and grounds are defaced by racist, sexist, anti-Semitic scrawlings overnight. And you thought the Klan mentality was confined to redneck settings.

Friday, Feb. 1
The University of Alabama's football program is very nearly shut down by the NCAA, which imposes heavy sanctions as a result of payments by boosters for recruits. Included is an indefinite suspension of the third Saturday in October...

Saturday, Feb. 2
TBI and local law enforcement agents raid a bunch of clubs in Loudon and Roane Counties and confiscate lots and lots of evidence of gambling on the premises, despite the fact that the clubs were warned formally little more than a month ago that such raids were coming soon. But who would have thought that such an attack on gambling might take place the evening before the Super Bowl? Have these lawmen and women no sense of the sanctity of the occasion?

Monday, Feb. 4
Donte Stallworth, the wide receiver who decided to leave UT for the NFL, only to change his mind, then decided to appeal the NCAA decision to deny him reinstatement, decides instead to drop his appeal. To those who insist on reminding us that these college football players are just kids playing games, we say: Hear, hear.

Tuesday, Feb. 5
Tim Burchett, the state senator from Knoxville who was called down by everyone from the ACLU to police officials for advocating that all foreign students be required to register with law enforcement agencies and regularly report their whereabouts, has moved on to propose a similar registry for sex offenders. Observers believe he's just trying to divert attention from other proposals he's made to register bird-watchers and soccer fans.

Knoxville Found

(Click photo for larger image)

What is this? Every week in "Knoxville Found," we'll print the photo of a local curiosity. If you're the first person to correctly identify this oddity, you'll win a special prize plucked from the desk of the editor (keep in mind that the editor hasn't cleaned his desk in five years). E-mail your guesses, or send 'em to "Knoxville Found" c/o Metro Pulse, 505 Market St., Suite 300, Knoxville, TN 37902.

Last Week's Photo:
It's the world according to....well, there's some confusion about that, actually. While a great many respondents correctly identified the structure as the globe that sits outside the UT Conference Center on Henley Street, we didn't get any definitive answers about exactly where it came from. Some Knoxville newbies assumed it dated from our own 1982 World's Fair, but they were set straight by a passel of people who remember it from much farther back. The consensus is that it was placed there by one of the department stores that previously occupied the site—Rich's or Miller's—and that it was modeled on a similar globe at another, earlier World's Fair. The most specific identification came from James Newbill, who asserts, "This globe was first located on Locust Street as part of the 'Celanese World Fair,' a fabric promotion by Miller's Department Store around 1971 or 1972." A fabric promotion? Well, of such things are landmarks made. Anyway, in determining the winner, we have something of a conundrum—the first two correct responses came from Scott Williams of Seymour and City Councilman Rob Frost, who each have two Knoxville Found wins in their households already. While we don't want to discourage Mssrs. Williams and Frost from continued participation (and we are impressed our new 4th District councilman demonstrates such a comprehensive knowledge of the city he represents), we feel we must spread the joy of victory around from time to time. So the winner is Susan Scarbrough Lauver of Knoxville. As a prize, we're happy to award her Gary Hardwick's suspense novel Supreme Justice.

Meet Your City
A calendar of upcoming public meetings you should attend

DARWIN DAY 2002 PROGRAMS
Tuesday Feb. 12
University Center
UT Campus
1502 W. Cumberland Ave.
Documentaries, discussions, lectures under the sponsorship of the UT Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology. An information center will be open in the University Center lobby the day of the event.

METROPOLITAN PLANNING COMMISSION
Thursday Feb. 14
1:30 p.m.
City County Bldg., Large Assembly Room
400 Main Ave.
Regular monthly meeting.

Art Ache

State cuts student art subsidies

The loss of a $327,000 ticket subsidy fund will seriously threaten children's already limited exposure to the arts, Knoxville arts administrators say.

The statewide subsidies program began in 1978 to supply performing arts tickets and museum admission to public school students who could not otherwise afford to see plays, hear concerts or visit galleries. The Tennessee Arts Commission annually distributed $150,000 each in subsidy funds to East, Middle, and West Tennessee until July 2001, when the Legislature cut the subsidy budget by 25 percent, the commission's Arts in Education director Hayden Roberts says. Last April, the General Assembly voted to change the commission's programming funds from recurring to non-recurring to cut down on state expenses, according to commission executive director Rich Boyd. Consequently, the subsidy program will disappear July 1 of this year, unless the commission can secure improvement money. That prospect is unlikely, Boyd says.

The Arts and Culture Alliance of Greater Knoxville (formerly the Arts Council), distributed commission subsidy monies to schools in the 16-county Knoxville area and other nearby towns. In 2001 the alliance allotted 40,000 subsidies worth $96,000 to students receiving free or reduced lunches. Rates of participation in a given school year varied from 5 percent to nearly 100 percent, from 11 students to more than 1,050. The most money was awarded to Spring Hill Primary in North Knoxville; the least to Bonny Kate Elementary on Martin Mill Pike.

Students used subsidies to attend the McClung Museum, Knoxville Museum of Art, Circle Modern Dance Company, Jubilee Community Arts, The Bijou, Knoxville Opera, Knoxville Symphony Orchestra, Actors Co-Op, InterAct Children's Theatre for the Deaf, and other institutions.

Student ticket prices before subsidies typically fall in the $4-5 range, too steep for the poorest children. Subsidies also cover transportation to venues. Refusing to leave a single child behind, many schools have chosen to cancel their bookings altogether. Those cancellations have turned the crank on arts organizations' tight financial vice.

Gryphon Productions first felt the impact last November when three schools canceled reservations for The Diary of Anne Frank, executive director Robert Nathan says. The loss of 500 student theater-goers reduced the play's attendance by about 20 percent and its revenue by $2,000, or 10 percent of the show's budget. Since the cancellations came two weeks before the play opened, Gryphon was unable to recoup its investment.

Several school groups have been unable to attend The Bijou's Having Our Say due to lack of funds, according to artistic associate and consultant Harry Bryce.

The Knoxville Museum of Art stands to lose $20,000 if 10,000 annual student visitors cancel their trips. KMA public relations and marketing manager Letitia Kastura says such a deficit may force KMA to scale back its Meet the Master program, which brings artists to schools, or cut smaller exhibitions such as its current "Sofa" show.

The Knoxville Symphony Orchestra sees 20,000 school children a year, 3,500 of whom use ticket subsidies. Since the KSO's total annual attendance doesn't top 200,000, education and outreach manager Anna Kimbrough says she expects to see a financial loss.

While budget cuts, the recession and dropping attendance rates have hurt arts organizations across the board, the ticket subsidy cut hasn't affected every company. Ginger Cook, executive director of The City Ballet, says her group does not charge students for performances, but uses corporate sponsorship to pay production costs. Students visiting The City Ballet therefore do not rely on subsidies.

Private donations may offer some relief to other organizations, but they are by no means the answer, Nathan says. He says donors are inundated by requests for cash, and patrons balk at donating several times what the state supplies.

But arts administrators say the damage to children's education and cultural exposure overshadows their own financial woes.

"I'm much more concerned about all this as a parent than I am as a theater producer," Nathan says, noting the U.S. Department of Education's findings that students with exposure to the arts achieve better grades, 10-15 percent higher standardized test scores and 10 percent higher attendance and are 30 percent less likely to have trouble with the law.

Knox County's own budget crisis has made it difficult for the school system to expand its arts programs.

"Essentially, they're hitting kids with a double dip," Nathan says.

Local arts organizations have begun campaigning to revive ticket subsidies. The alliance is organizing a letter-writing campaign and has collected several thousand signatures to a petition, which subsidy participants such as The Actors Co-Op distribute at shows. Knoxville arts activists also plan to lobby the General Assembly on Tennesseans for the Arts' Legislative Arts Day, March 19.

—Tamar Wilner