Southampton Arts Center Successful in Petition To Appear on Southampton Schools Ballot

For the first time in its history, the Southampton Arts Center is asking taxpayers to support a proposition on the Southampton School District’s annual budget that would levy funds for the cultural institution.

The requested $150,000 would be used to hire a part-time education director and incorporate even more programming for students, as well as the East End at large, according to Executive Director Christina Mossaides Strassfield.

“We felt like it was timely,” she said, “and so we’re hoping that the Board of Education will accept our petition and put us on the ballot, and that, May 20, people will vote positively and give us a little bit of extra money so that we can do additional programming for the community.”

Strassfield previously served on the Southampton Board of Education for nine years, she said, and recalled thinking “how wonderful that the town was willing to help arts organizations, whether it’s an educational component of it, or just to help them out.”

But at that time, she was museum director and chief curator of Guild Hall in East Hampton, where the school district ballots do not host similar propositions, she said. So when she moved to her role at the Southampton Arts Center, this was top of mind, she said.

“I said, ‘Why isn’t SAC getting funding?’” she recalled. “And it was because we did not have the proper educational charter that was needed to be put on the ballot.”

After a year and a half — and a lot of back-and-forth with the State Education Department, Strassfield said — the Southampton Arts Center received its educational charter and organized a petition to collect the required 50 signatures to appear on the school ballot. As of Monday morning, the institution had received over 70, the executive director said.

“I really would ask the community to understand that we are here for them. Our mission statement is building community through the arts,” she said, adding, “We’re part of the village, we’re part of the town. And I think that for us, having the support, I know it doesn’t seem like a lot of money, but it is a lot of money to us in terms of our budget.”

Last May, voters approved four propositions supporting local organizations:

• The Southampton African American Museum, $125,000.

• The Southampton History Museum, $285,000.

• The Parrish Art Museum, $446,189.

• The Southampton Youth Association, $445,000.

“I know that other institutions, it’s much larger,” Strassfield said of the tax levy amount, “but for us, it still will really, really help us. Funding nowadays is so difficult to get. There are so many institutions out here, so many institutions keep popping up, and everyone is going after the same dollars. So it is very difficult, and this amount will really help us out.”