The news of the past few weeks has not been good for theMississippi School of the Arts. Budget cuts of $1.1 millionresulted in nine jobs cut this past week. With the school toeffectively double its enrollment in August, challenging days aredefinitely ahead.

The bloom has fallen from the arts education rose that took thelegislature by storm in 1999. That beautiful rose the legislaturegrabbed in those three short session months, in which the schoolmoved from an idea to reality, has found its detractors. Like arose that is quickly dropped when the thorns on the stem prickone’s hand, so has the school been dropped by some members of thelegislature and apparently some at the State Department ofEducation.

The campus of Whitworth College, which houses the school, hasseen its share of dark days over its 100-plus year history. As afounder and the second president of the Brookhaven Trust, anorganization that put its efforts in to save the historic campusback in the late 1980s, I can well remember some of the more recentdark days.

When all seemed to be lost in our attempts to save LamptonAuditorium from the ravages of time and neglect, along came thesurprise of the generous donation of the Monelle Smith estate thatpumped new life into the campus landmark. Andrew and Monelle Smithloved this community and they left it a legacy.

There was the smoldering fire from a welder’s torch that almosttook Lampton from us long before the idea of the Mississippi Schoolof the Arts was conceived.

It was a 2 a.m. decision to pick up his mail at the Brookhavenpost office that allowed a local resident to discover LamptonAuditorium consumed in smoke. One-hundred-year-old heart pine isimpossible to extinguish unless caught very, very early.

A small fire a few weeks earlier also threatened thebuilding.

There were other instances where the campus seemed to defy allodds. In this column, I wrote back in those days that the campusjust seemed destined to survive.

As I pondered the arts school layoffs announced last week, Ithought of the struggles to save Lampton as well as the efforts topass the legislation that created the art school. At every turn,there was a roadblock. At every road block there was a differentfork in the road. With what some may call divine guidance, thecampus refused to give up.

Reflecting on those struggles, I remembered a story that wasrelated to me from a local historian.

Samuel Clemens, also known as Mark Twain, had ties to theLampton family of this area – the family who originally funded theconstruction of the auditorium.

On a visit to the Lampton home here in southwest Mississippimany years ago, the several young brothers were having a dispute.The story goes that Clemens gathered them together and asked eachto go into the woods and find two sticks.

When they returned Clemens asked each to take one stick andbreak it, which they easily accomplished. He then took theremaining sticks and put them together as one.

Clemens then asked them to break the combined stick. When theycould not, he explained their unity as brothers made them just asstrong.

Back in 1999 when a group of Brookhaven community leadersbrought the vision of the Mississippi School of the Arts to thelegislature, members of both houses grasped the vision and cametogether just as Mark Twain pulled the Lampton brothers together.The result, of course, is the school we have today.

A legacy was created by that legislation, one that will affectevery county of Mississippi from the north to the south and east tothe west.

The arts are an important foundation to a strong education. Thearts school allows Mississippi to provide that foundation to ourbest and brightest high school students.

Tough economic times are again forcing the campus to strugglefor its survival.

We just pray that as in the past, the campus will defy the odds.Somehow, the arts community of this state needs to gather itssticks together and unify for the future of arts education inMississippi.

Write to Bill Jacobs at P.O. Box 551, Brookhaven, Miss.39602, or send e-mail to bjacobs@dailyleader.com.