In case people haven't considered what the impact would be if state legislators eliminate all funding for the arts as threatened, the Westmoreland Museum of American Art is going to demonstrate it by darkening its galleries for an hour this morning. It then will keep the lights off for one additional hour on each successive day until the stalemated budget passes, complete with $14 million for the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts.

That means the galleries will be dark for two hours on Thursday, three hours on Friday and so on until the line item is restored for the PCA, which funnels money to the state's art groups.

The galleries that will go dark are three of the Greensburg museum's most popular -- "Born of Fire: The Valley of Work," "The Art of Southwestern Pennsylvania" and the interactive KidSpace.

"We are doing this to let people know there exists a very real possibility that the current state budget process could result in the total elimination of the PCA," said museum director Judith O'Toole. That, she said, would "cripple the arts community."

"Living in a state where there's no funding for the visual arts seems prehistoric," she said. She hopes people will contact their legislators and ask them to restore PCA funding.

The museum's Web site, www.wmuseumaa.org, has a link to Citizens for the Arts in Pennsylvania, which is spearheading advocacy efforts.