Funding for NEA

The National Endowment for the Arts gets 126.3 million dollars in funding this year.

Recently The National Endowment for the Arts was under review by congress for funding this year. Many were concerned that the much needed funding would not occur. For those of you not familiar with this organization let me provide you with some details.

The National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, both new and established; bringing the arts to all Americans; and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Endowment is the nation's largest annual funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases. Since its creation The Arts Endowment has helped create regional theater, opera, ballet, symphony orchestras, museums and other art organizations that Americans now enjoy. In addition the National Endowment for the Arts has awarded more than 120,000 grants that have brought art to Americans in large and small communities.

Now back to our story. The organization was getting some pressure from the government about making cuts. The House of Representative wanted a 10 million dollar increase and but the House and Senate were able to agree on just 5 million more for this year. The total budget for the NEA this year is 126.3 million dollars. President Bush is expected to sign the new funding into law. This is good news for the photography community and other art mediums.

If you would like to apply for funding from the NEA click here.

Further details about the issue are below in a backstage.com news article.

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Conference on NEA Budget Reaches Deal
President Expected to Sign Interior Appropriations Bill

By Leonard Jacobs

Conferees from the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have reconciled the differences between their respective versions of the Interior Appropriations Bill for the 2006 fiscal year, which includes the budget for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA).

While the Senate's version of the bill, passed in June, increased the NEA's budget by $5 million, bringing it to $126.3 million from $121.3 million, the House's version was twice as generous, with an increase of $10 million setting the endowment's funding at $131.3 million.

In the end, the Senate-House conference committee agreed to raise the NEA budget by what the Senate had recommended, but not without applying additional cuts. According to a statement from Americans for the Arts, a Washington, D.C.-based arts advocacy group, a $5 million increase in the NEA budget was approved, but there followed "an across-the-board rescission of 0.476% to all programs within the Interior bill." Viewed as a cost-cutting measure in the deficit-plagued capital, the action still leaves the NEA better off than it was a year ago, with a net budget increase of $4.4 million, to $125.7 million, for the 2006 fiscal year.

Americans for the Arts noted that $3 million of the increase "will restore funding to the popular Challenge America program," an initiative designed to make the arts more widely available in the nation's underserved communities; it includes a program that tours the plays of Shakespeare throughout the nation. The remainder of the increase will fund the NEA's American Masterpieces program, which carries the nation's most respected works of art -- including dance -- to cultural facilities nationwide.

Meanwhile, another organization focused on funding for the NEA, the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA), notes on its website that the funding increase should still be viewed as something of an unexpected victory: "At the beginning of the current legislative session, NASAA and other arts advocates had been warned by congressional staff that this would be a difficult year to achieve a funding increase for the NEA, given the determination of legislators to reduce the size of the federal budget deficit through spending cuts, and the president's flat funding proposal for the NEA as a starting point."

At the same time, the smaller increase must have been a disappointment to more than 100 members of the House who signed a letter to House conferees urging their support for the $10 million increase in NEA funding.

Following the release of the conference committee's report, the House voted to pass the final appropriations measure on July 28 and the Senate passed it the following day. Americans for the Arts noted that while President Bush originally proposed cutting the Challenge America program by $6.5 million, "the president has indicated that he will sign the bill into law."

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