As Minnesota faces its largest fiscal deficit in history, financial cuts to state and regional arts councils are almost inevitable.

For that reason, local arts groups and people interested in the arts are invited to attend a meeting at 1 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 30, at the Albert Lea Art Center. Sheila M. Smith, executive director of Minnesota Citizens for the Arts, will speak on how local groups can work together and form an arts advocacy group.

&uot;We need to work together and partner so we can be stronger and bring in tourism,&uot; said Annette Oswald, the Albert Lea Art Center’s coordinator.

Smith has been MCA’s executive director since January 1996. Before joining MCA, Smith served as properties manager for Continental Airlines in Houston, Texas, where she represented the airline in airport affairs, advocating for Continental’s needs with local governments. Prior to joining the airline, Smith served as legislative assistant to Sen. Richard Cohen for six years in the Minnesota Senate. She received a master’s degree in arts administration from St. Mary’s University in 1998 and has a bachelor of arts degree in Shakespeare from St. Olaf College. She serves as co-chair of the Public Policy Cabinet of the Minnesota Council of Non-Profits and is treasurer of the State Arts Advocacy League of America. She was appointed by the governor in 2002 to the Capital Area Architectural Planning Board.

Minnesota Citizens for the Arts is a statewide arts advocacy organization that organizes the arts community to lobby the Minnesota State Legislature and Congress. Its mission is to ensure opportunity for all people to have access to and involvement in the arts.

MCA’s successes include increasing the state’s appropriation for the arts from no financial commitment to over $13 million annually, preventing substantial decreases in arts funding, securing and protecting the tax exemptions that benefit philanthropic and nonprofit arts organizations in Minnesota, and working on behalf of nonprofit arts organizations with Minnesota’s Congressional delegation. Last legislative session, with the help of arts advocates, Minnesota Citizens for the Arts was able to convince the Legislature to reduce the cut to the arts to 4 percent.