As the Family Planning clinic here faces the threat of possible closure due to severe state budget cuts, the Vineyard community turned out in large numbers for the annual Friends of Family Planning Art Show this past weekend.

“I think the artists and the public embraced us, they were extremely concerned about us losing our site,” art show founder and longtime organizer Liza Coogan said yesterday. “It was huge that all of this was happening at the same time as the show. The need for the public to help, for them to say we’re an Island, I felt that was there.”

Painting, sculpture, jewelry, quilts and pottery filled Martha’s Vineyard Agricultural Hall where at least 40 per cent of the price for each piece sold benefited the Vineyard Haven clinic. The money raised in the art show pays for supplemental needs for the clinic, including rent for the State Road building, staff education and a vasectomy reimbursement program.

The clinic offers confidential reproductive health care to men and women, free testing for HIV and sexually transmitted diseases, pregnancy tests, birth control and pap smears. All services are offered on a sliding scale fee.

The art show coincided with the announcement last week that the clinic may be forced to close if proposed state budget cuts go through. Gov. Deval Patrick has yet to approve next year’s budget but is requesting a $1 million cut from this year’s $4.65 million designated for Family Planning statewide, a 22 per cent decrease. The state house of representatives has similarly endorsed a cut of 21 per cent, or $977,000, but the state senate voted to keep the budget level funded.

A joint conference committee is now charged with forging a compromise. Sheldon Barr, president of Health Imperatives Inc., the group that manages the Vineyard clinic and eight other clinics on Cape Cod, said it’s hard to predict the outcome.

“We’re really looking for the senate [budget] to prevail,” Mr. Barr said yesterday. “It depends a lot on how many line items they have differences on and what other things are going on in outside sections that have nothing to do with money but with the language of the programs.”

At the federal level, $17 million of Title X money has already been slashed nationwide, and Mr. Barr said he expects a 5.5 per cent cut to the organization over the first six months, which translates to $80,000.

The art show this year carried markings of the political turmoil; petitions to the state legislature asking the conference committee to restore level funding to family planning were very much in evidence.

The total amount raised will not be known for few more weeks, but Mrs. Coogan said she thought sales were on par with last year. But she said the show is about more than raising money.

“I feel that the show first of all gives the chance to young and new artists to emerge . . . and we reach out to a whole diverse population which is great fun for the outcome,” she said. “For the more established artists it not only shows their loyalty by coming back to us even though they’re doing well in their respective galleries, but it also shows their development to a lot of people that don’t see their art in other places.”

As there is every year, there was a wide variety of art. Sheila Fane’s block prints of sheep grazing in the mountains, Lisa Vanderhoop’s painting of the Aquinnah cliffs, Sylvia Farrington’s pillows, Candy Shweder’s daffodil-themed pottery and Jay Lagemann’s large spindly sculptures were just a few of the offerings.

Mrs. Coogan said there was also more affordable art this year, including matted photographs and paintings.

The art was hung on Thursday afternoon by volunteers before the Friends’ gala, many of whom were fresh young faces.

“I’m seeing a whole lot of giving from the 30-year-olds, it’s starting to emerge,” Mrs. Coogan said. “It just makes it feel like we from the 1970s did that. We all ran for office or signed up for committees, not because we were getting rich doing it, but we thought that’s the way you do things, if you want to make a community better you become a part of the process and I see that happening again. I think that’s just wonderful.”