Mission Statement   The CSA exists to offer young people and the general public, music education and music culture; to help local string musicians develop their skills and technique for a high level of performance; and to provide a variety of enrichment and performance opportunities to as many people as possible.

Message on Grant Funding   MCACA Clients:  I speak to you today as ArtServe Michigan, fellow client of the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs.  As you are all painfully aware, Governor Granholm has recommended nearly zeroing out of arts and cultural grant funding – negatively affecting each and every one of our organizations. Whether you receive a small or large amount of funding from the council, we all understand the significance of this funding. Every single one of us knows the impact that our organization has on our community/region and the importance that we as a whole offer to the future of the state of Michigan.  Now is not the time to sit back and get angry once this funding is zeroed out. I am told by John Bracey that between our 290 organizations we employ 17,000 people. As of today, only 3,000 people have sent in a letter to the Governor prompting me to think that we all need to continue to stress the importance of retaining this funding. While receiving no money from the arts council may not cause each and every one of us to close our doors, lose employees or cut programming; many of us will have to face this reality.  It has become painfully obvious that we cannot count on the high level of financial support that we’ve received from foundations, corporations and individuals in the past. Ridding the state of arts and cultural funding will only exacerbate this problem as we will see organizations plead for money to these funders for the same pot of money – further straining the sector as a whole.  I am pleading with you today, to help spread our message to your employees, members and constituents. Without your help, we will all not only lose our funding from the state but many of us will be forced to close our doors r will lose our jobs. I am asking for your support, not in the form of money, but in the form of 2-minutes of your time. It takes less than 2 minutes to email a letter to the Governor and your legislators.  Please help us get more people to send in emails to the Governor. We will continue to keep our original letter open until the end of the week and will come out with a new letter. We cannot stop with one email or one letter…we must continue to pepper our elected officials  The link that goes directly to an already drafted letter is: http://capwiz.com/artsusa/mi/issues/alert/?alertid=12673381  I hope that you all understand the importance and immediacy of what we are trying to accomplish and are able to pitch in.  Have a great rest of the day,  Mike Latvis ArtServe Michigan To find updates on the proposed arts budget cuts, the future of MCACA grants, or to become an ArtServe Michigan member, go to: www.artservemichigan.org