After photos of music material found in a dumpster circulated on social media, Kilgore College said in a statement Monday that it is just reducing the amount of material stored on campus, not eliminating its music library.
A photo post shared on Facebook showed that several scores, LPs and CDs from the KC music library were inside of a dumpster on Sunday. The post from John Porter claimed some of the scores were over 100 years old, including a first edition conductor's score of Brahms' PC No. 1 from 1859.
In a response shared by Kilgore College online and on social media, the college said many people equated the material getting thrown away to "devaluing of music and fine arts at Kilgore College."
"This is simply not true. KC continues, and will continue to, value the importance of music and fine arts education with continued enhancements and increased funding for fine arts programs," the statement read. "The college is not eliminating its music library nor is it reducing or eliminating any of its fine arts programs. In fact, the music library is growing due to access to digital sheet music."
KC said most of the pieces that were disposed of had been in storage for several years with many of them left over from the old radio station or KC library. The college said the pieces are no longer needed because of new technology.
"The fine arts department has been sorting through the collection this past year and has maintained a great deal of music, but from time to time, these inventories need to be reduced to allow for the addition of new materials, new technologies and new programs," KC said.
Kilgore College said the fine arts programs are continuing to grow, such as by adding $100,000 more for band scholarships, new state-of-the-art lighting for Van Cliburn Auditorium and planned improvements to the Anne Dean Turk Fine Arts Center. The KC choir also received an innovation grant in April to buy iPads for the choirs to use digital music.
"KC wants to make it clear that it’s proud of the dedicated music faculty, talented students, and generous patrons and supporters over the years that have left such an amazing legacy," the statement read.