Although the Trump administration may consider the arts and humanities as nothing but waste, it appears Congress doesn’t share such a dim view. On Monday, May 1 congress reached a budget agreement that matins existing funding and proposes modest increases for 2017 (h/t @Americans4Arts).
PROGRAMS |
2016 Appropriations (in millions) |
Proposed funding through 9/30/17 |
National Endowment for the Arts |
$148 |
$150 |
National Endowment for Humanities |
$148 |
$150 |
Assistance for Arts Education through U.S. Dept. of Education |
$27 |
$27 |
New ESSA Well-Rounded Education grants |
NA |
$400 |
Corp for Public Broadcasting |
$445 |
$445 |
Office of Museum Services |
$31 |
$32 |
Smithsonian Institution |
$840 |
$836 |
U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum |
$54 |
$57 |
Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts |
$36 |
$36 |
U.S. Commission of Fine Arts |
$2.65 |
$2.8 |
National Capital Arts & Cultural Affairs Program |
$2 |
$2 |
National Gallery of Art |
$148 |
$155.5 |
According to the Americans4Arts, any attempt to veto the spending bill is unlikely they warn arts supporters that funding past that point is, at best, uncertain. As a result, continuing existing efforts should continue unabated.
[The Americans4Arts] #SAVEtheNEA campaign continues to go strong to advance the FY2018 message to Congress and the White House. Please consider sending a #SAVEtheNEA message to your Congressional delegation…
If you’re curious to learn more about what arts funding accomplishes on the micro level (you didn’t think they only funneled money into large budget performing arts institutions, did you?), there’s an excellent article by Douglas Rosenthal at Who’s your Audience? that profiles four of the thousands of community arts grants distributed by the National Endowment for the Arts.
Not only do you get a useful overview of each program, but Rosenthal draws a straight line between the funding and how the grant benefits each respective community.