Today, the
National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced their direct grants as
part of the $50 million federal economic stimulus recovery package. The
NEA will distribute $29.775 million to 631 nonprofit
arts groups nationwide. This is in addition
to the 63 state and
regional sub-grants previously awarded in April,
totaling $19.8 million. This recovery funding is a direct outcome
of the impact made by you and the 100,000 members of the Americans for
the Arts grassroots network who contacted their Members of Congress
and wrote timely letters to the editors of local news media. Your messages made a
difference and have resulted in these grants which
will help create and preserve arts jobs in your state and
throughout the country.
It is a major
victory for arts advocates that Congress included this direct support for
the arts in the economic stimulus legislation. These grants will fund
arts projects and activities preserving jobs in the nonprofit arts sector
threatened by declines in philanthropic and other support during the
current economic downturn.
Over the next few
weeks, as these grants are distributed throughout
all fifty states, we will begin to see how this stimulus funding has
helped to save and create jobs in the arts. Americans for the Arts
has set up a Media Alert for you to share the news
with your local media outlets about the impact these dollars are making
in your community.
