The three-person Yellowstone County Commission voted Tuesday to decrease county funding for the Yellowstone Art Museum to $50,000, down from around $200,000 in years past.
Yellowstone Art Museum Spokesperson Luke Ashmore says Tuesday’s decision comes during a time when many museums in Montana are feeling grant losses at the national level.
“We’re saddened to see that cut,” said Ashmore. “I mean, it is going to impact the museum, but for us too, we’re very community-minded, and we’ve always looked at it where a cut to our museum is actually a cut to our community.”
The commission’s decision comes after a couple of weeks of campaigning from the museum and its supporters to keep their funding intact.
Around a dozen of those supporters stepped up to the podium at a tense public hearing Tuesday, where commissioner Mark Morse said funding will go towards public safety and addressing the county’s overcrowded jail.
According to a letter from the Yellowstone County Attorney’s Office, the funding for museums is flexible and commissioners can choose to obligate it elsewhere.
In a statement, Commissioner Mike Waters said the commission has had to make other difficult cuts:
“Decisions to cut funding are never easy. With our general fund supplementing the public safety budget $4M in our FY 26 budget, we are facing an unsustainable path going forward. The Board of County Commissioners has been examining all the discretionary levies to help shore up our general fund.
The cut made to Big Sky Economic Development is another example of making a tough choice to cut funding with a discretionary levy. We have also cut funding in areas like travel and training within the county departments.
While we do appreciate the value of the Yellowstone Art Museum, we have had to make painful adjustments to budgets in order to support our priority of public safety in Yellowstone County.”
The Yellowstone Art Museum says it’s deliberating next steps to address the funding loss.
