CULTURE

The crisis facing the Massachusetts Council on the Arts and Humanities has been tempered slightly by a compromise in the state Legislature that will give the group half of its expected $19.5 million budget. The council was facing extinction, hit not only with a budget deficit but also word that the Legislature might kill its budget entirely. But the legislators voted a comprise $9.5 million for the council and the final budget will be worked out between the state’s House and Senate. Angered supporters regard the cut as a tragedy, the New York Times reported. The council disperses grant money to cultural institutions and artists.