Budgets are about numbers. Budget cuts are about people. Not just the people who could stand to lose income, but those of us who stand to lose the benefit of what these people do. When money’s tight, it’s tight, and we can’t spend on everything we want. But it also should be understood that not spending comes with a price. As the General Assembly and localities wrestle with a lack of resources, I’ve thought about a lot of people who have been targeted for proposed cuts, including those in the arts community and those who coach school sports.

Arts advocates from across Virginia are descending on the State Capitol today, pressing legislators to save public funding for arts and cultural organizations.

Starting this fall, students at nine Richmond-area schools will listen to the jazz improvisation of pianist Cecil Taylor and others to learn about the civil-rights movement and how strong, individual voices planted the seeds of social change. At four other elementary schools, language-arts lessons will be reinforced through dance, puppetry, theater and other art forms.

Now, it’s the kids’ turn to take CenterStage. On the heels of September’s grand opening, the Richmond CenterStage performing-arts center will shift the spotlight this weekend to the educational programs of local arts groups and the talents of young dancers, musicians and actors. The Lights Up festival will feature 35 workshops Saturday afternoon, giving infants to 18-year-olds—regardless of arts experience—a chance to dance, act, try an instrument, engage in theatrical combat or simply watch.

Yes, we know it has been only six days since Halloween, but Christmas is up and running today at the Richmond Raceway Complex. The Craftsmen’s Christmas Classic celebrates its 30th anniversary through Sunday with the usual showcase of art, pottery, jewelry, toys, foods, clothing and more from about 450 artists and craftsmen. Craftsmen’s Classics are staged throughout the year in Virginia, North Carolina and South Carolina by Gilmore Shows.

The 30th annual show featuring pottery, jewelry, toys, furniture, clothing, fine art, food and more.
  When: Today, 10 a.m. to 9 p.m.; tomorrow, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.; Sunday, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
  Where: Richmond Raceway Complex, 602 E. Laburnum Ave.
  Tickets: $7 for adults, $1 for ages 6 through 12; under 6, free; admission good all three days with a free return pass from the show desk. Free parking.

Thousands of people will step back in time this weekend as they converge on downtown Richmond for one of the mid-Atlantic’s largest street festivals.  The Second Street Festival returns for the 21st year Saturday and Sunday in historic Jackson Ward, the neighborhood bounded by Interstate 95 to the north, East Broad Street to the south, Fourth Street to the east and Belvidere Street to the west.

ABINGDON—This little town might be the next Asheville, at least according to the buzz downtown. It has been a sudden, subtle change, but seemingly overnight, the same sort of art galleries and crafty, eclectic shops that define that North Carolina tourist center are popping up in Abingdon—another artsy mountain town that some say is on the verge of discovering its creative economy.

BEAUTY AND THE BEAST—Creative Arts Ministries is seeking actors for this Disney musical to be presented at its summer camp for youths ages 8 to 21.

Valentine history center: Pay what you can         Times are tough. A couple of local museums do not think they should be any tougher.  So through Labor Day, the Valentine Richmond History Center is instituting Give What You Can Sundays. On Sundays, the regular admission will be waived ($8 adults, $7 seniors, students and children), and patrons will be encouraged to give whatever they can—all the way down to nothing.

Let’s take a straw poll: All those in favor of putting Dick Cheney in charge of the nation’s arts and culture, please raise your hand. Anybody? Okay, how about Mike Huckabee? Pat Robertson? Rick Santorum? Thought so. The ascension of Barack Obama to the Oval Office has been accompanied by a growing chorus clamoring for the creation of a Cabinet-level arts overseer.

Anew building can be a blank canvas for an academic program. Henrico County’s new visual arts building in the Center for the Arts opened this month already embellished—with a reputation for producing noted works by teachers, students and alumni. Center director Lee Hanchey, who guided the program and the construction of the facility, says there is much more to come.

You can take the boys out of Danville, but the Page Bond Gallery’s current exhibition suggests you can’t take Danville out of the artists the boys become. “Maggie” presents 27 silver-gelatin prints and one color print that illuminate the indomitable spirit of a Danville woman, Margaret Ennis Booher Cooper, who will turn 100 this year.

Two musical performances by the Modlin Center for the Arts and Swift Creek Mill Theatre have been postponed. The Modlin Center’s “Winterreise” by baritone James Weaver and pianist Joanne Kong, scheduled for tomorrow at 7:30 p.m. at the Booker Hall of Music, will be rescheduled for a later date. The James River Harp Ensemble, slated to appear in “Dancing with the Harps,“ at Swift Creek Mill Theatre, has been postponed until June 5 and 6.