By ROBERT BAXTER
Courier-Post Staff

The South Jersey Summit on Arts Funding at the Ritz Theatre a week ago addressed the problems arts groups face as they search for support.

The summit, sponsored by the Courier-Post, gave legislators and gubernatorial candidates a forum to demand the New Jersey State Council on the Arts provide South Jersey its fair share of funding.

Even if the arts council honors the Legislature's stipulation that South Jersey groups receive 25 percent of grant money, the region still needs a big increase in corporate, foundation and individual support.

Panelists suggested imaginative solutions to the funding crisis. Several cited the Delaware River Port Authority and the Casino Reinvestment Development Association as new sources for arts funding.

Barry Taylor, president of Wheaton Village in Millville, pointed to the high-rise parking garages in Atlantic City casinos as a possible source of arts funds. He also came up with another useful idea.

Taylor noted that arts groups devote much of their resources to educational outreach programs for schools. He asked why the New Jersey Department of Education shouldn't provide funds for these programs.

After the arts were cut out of the curriculum in a budget crisis 20 years ago, orchestras, theater companies and arts centers took up the responsibility of educating school children in music and art.

The Haddonfield Symphony, Stedman Gallery at Rutgers- Camden and the Perkins Center for the Arts in Moorestown have all won recognition for their ambitious educational programs.

The Haddonfield Symphony performs a series of children's concerts at the South Jersey Performing Arts Center and brings music education programs to 10 different schools.

The symphony's staff and musicians devote much time to these educational programs. Who pays? The Haddonfield Symphony.

These programs account for a large part of the symphony' s budget. To pay the bill, development director Eileen Myers spends a lot of time applying for educational grants from foundations and businesses.

Foundations and businesses now make education one of their top priorities. Funds that used to be given to support an arts group's general operating expenses today underwrite educational programs.

The importance of arts education has been validated in recent years. Students who study dance or learn an instrument score higher on tests. New Jersey has even added the arts to the core curriculum.

New Jersey ranks at the top in national studies of per capita spending on schools. But somehow the state cannot find a way to fund arts education.

Perhaps the time has come to question why non-profit arts groups should shoulder the burden of providing the programs taxpayers refuse to fund.

be reached by telephone at (856) 486-2436 or by fax at (856) 663-2831 and by e-mail at rbaxter@courierpostonline.com.