Cost cutting by state governments in America could result in publicly-financed arts organisations facing a potential drop in funding of $100m, says BBC News Online.

Jonathan Katz, chief executive of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA) said the cuts were the result of a "national crisis in state budgets, which in some states has had a devastating effect on arts agency funding".

In the past year, 42 states have cut arts funding, the total amount of funds available having dropped by 13 per cent.

Next year could be even more difficult, with both New Jersey and Arizona proposing to axe their arts budgets entirely and other states considering cuts of between 15 and 75 per cent.

However, Doug McLennan, editor of Arts Journal.com, is quoted as saying the amount of arts funding is still higher than it was ten years ago and there is a view that this is a "course correction" after over-inflated funding for the past decade.

He continued: "The government cuts are not catastrophic in themselves but with endowments and corporate donations being down it is more serious. What the government is saying right now is that culture is not important for us to fund." Details: www.news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/arts