The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), was established by the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities act of 1965, Title 20, United States Code 951. The NEA’s function is to award federal grants to support the arts.

In the Section 951 "Declaration of Findings and Purpose", Congress finds and declares the following:

(1) The arts and the humanities belong to all the people of the United States.

(2) The encouragement and support of national progress and scholarship in the humanities and the arts, while primarily a matter for private and local initiative, are also appropriate matters of concern to the Federal Government.

(3) An advanced civilization must not limit its efforts to science and technology alone, but must give full value and support to the other great branches of scholarly and cultural activity in order to achieve a better understanding of the past, a better analysis of the present, and a better view of the future.

(4) Democracy demands wisdom and vision in its citizens. It must therefore foster and support a form of education, and access to the arts and the humanities, designed to make people of all backgrounds and wherever located masters of their technology and not its unthinking servants.

(5) It is necessary and appropriate for the Federal Government to complement, assist, and add to programs for the advancement of the humanities and the arts by local, State, regional, and private agencies and their organizations. In doing so, the Government must be sensitive to the nature of public sponsorship. Public funding of the arts and humanities is subject to the conditions that traditionally govern the use of public money. Such funding should contribute to public support and confidence in the use of taxpayer funds. Public funds provided by the Federal Government must ultimately serve public purposes the Congress defines.

(6) The arts and the humanities reflect the high place accorded by the American people to the nation's rich cultural heritage and to the fostering of mutual respect for the diverse beliefs and values of all persons and groups.

(7) The practice of art and the study of the humanities require constant dedication and devotion. While no government can call a great artist or scholar into existence, it is necessary and appropriate for the Federal Government to help create and sustain not only a climate encouraging freedom of thought, imagination, and inquiry but also the material conditions facilitating the release of this creative talent.

(8) The world leadership which has come to the United States cannot rest solely upon superior power, wealth, and technology, but must be solidly founded upon worldwide respect and admiration for the Nation's high qualities as a leader in the realm of ideas and of the spirit.

(9) Americans should receive in school, background and preparation in the arts and humanities to enable them to recognize and appreciate the aesthetic dimensions of our lives, the diversity of excellence that comprises our cultural heritage, and artistic and scholarly expression.

(10) It is vital to a democracy to honor and preserve its multicultural artistic heritage as well as support new ideas, and therefore it is essential to provide financial assistance to its artists and the organizations that support their work.

(11) To fulfill its educational mission, achieve an orderly continuation of free society, and provide models of excellence to the American people, the Federal Government must transmit the achievement and values of civilization from the past via the present to the future, and make widely available the greatest achievements of art.

(12) In order to implement these findings and purposes, it is desirable to establish a National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities.

Mission
The National Endowment of the Arts mission is to "nurture the expression of human creativity, support the cultivation of community spirit, and foster the recognition and appreciation of the excellence and diversity of our nation’s artistic accomplishments." Federal funded arts range from sculptures to dances, and from murals to orchestras. Federal money is used for many purposes in order to support the arts. There are many agendas that the funding helps serve in the arts.

Art Education
The NEA supports art education. Studies have shown that engagement and persistence in students improve with an arts-based curriculum. The arts have been shown to help understanding of different cultures, and can aid students for finding jobs. Research shows that visual imagery in the study of art helps students understanding of mathematical concepts. Learning strategies through those who learn the arts can be applied to other subjects. School music programs have seen results such as students increased self-discipline, self-esteem, teamwork, pride of accomplishment, creative thinking and leadership. The NEA funds programs that teach art and art education.

Communities Large and Small
The endowment brings art to those who would not have readable access to it. The NEA set a minimum of 400,000 dollars to be allocated to each state. The NEA wants to increase access to the arts for communities outside the major art centers. One third of the NEA’s direct grants go to New York, Boston, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles and Washington. The NEA also provides grants to small and medium-size cities that would not have enough money to fund projects and programs on their own. Public art agencies in both small towns and cities have increased to 3,800.

Diversity
Grants made by the NEA back programs that stress the value of art as both national and international cultural exchanges. The arts are important in cultural exchanges. "Art conveys information about ourselves and our universe which can be found nowhere else," said Walter Cutler, president of the Meridian International Center in Washington D.C. Art helps people communicate and increases intercultural understanding. According to the NEA, more than 170 different ethnic groups in the United States, learned about their and others unique cultures from expanded access to international activities.

The Power of Leverage
The National Endowment for the Arts grants prove to be catalysts for private donations. According to the American Arts Alliance, "Last year (1994), $123 million in NEA grants leveraged more than $1.3 billion." Every NEA dollar is matched at least 100 percent from local and state agencies, corporations foundations and individuals. The NEA’s approval is seen to be a stamp of excellence and increases private support. "An NEA grant is like giving an artist the Good Housekeeping seal of approval," says William Nolan, chairman of the Florida Arts Council. Grants from the government can get an artist or organization attention it needs to be funded from other sources.

Politics and the Budget
Tying down federal funds for the arts has been under scrutiny for a long time. In the middle of the debate are the issues of obscenity and government censorship over federally funded artwork. Some people believe that the obscenity issue is just a smoke screen by those who would like to end funding altogether.

The National Endowment for the Arts has seen a significant drop in its budget. Prior to 1996, the NEA’s budget was around $160 million. In 1996 to now, the budget has been under $100 million. In the past year, all initiatives to raise and lower the current $98 million dollar budget have failed. The United States spends about thirty-six cents per capita to fund the NEA. The NEA budget is one one-hundredths of one percent of the federal government’s budget. Our major allies including England, France and Germany have a budget for the arts fifty times ours. Nationally, non-profit arts create $37 billion in economic activity and support over one million jobs. The NEA has been reprimanded for giving a fifth of its grants to organizations and museums that already have multibillion-dollar budgets, and for using nineteen percent of its budget for administration.

"Americans for the most part are moral, decent people and they have a right not to be denigrated, offended, or mocked with their own tax dollars," Senator Jesse Helms said on a speech on the floor of the Senate, July 26, 1989. His objections came then for allowing federal funding of a Robert Mapplethorne exhibition he said was homoerotic. Funding art that some deem obscene has been under constant analysis. The NEA itself deems whether or not something is obscene. The most current battle over federal funding for works said to be obscene is the Brooklyn Museum of Art’s exhibit "Sensation: Young British Artists from the Saatchi Collection." This collection features a painting of the Virgin Mary smeared with elephant dung, a maggot-ridden cow’s head, and a sliced pig. New York mayor Rudy Giuliani hated the exhibition so much that he doesn’t want anyone else to see it. Giuliani has inspired a lawsuit to cut funding against the Brooklyn Museum. The museum received over $200,000 from the federal government and $7 million in city funding in 1999. The Brooklyn Museum has made its case against Giuliani by saying that the first amendment, the freedom of speech, protects art against political retaliation.

The Arts and Democracy
"If you study the history of the NEA, the effectiveness of its matching formulas, the resultant increase in the numbers of orchestras, opera companies, theatres, community art centers, museums and all the rest, you will reach the inescapable conclusion that the endowment has been, and is, essential to our cultural growth—and to democracy, one of whose hallmarks stems from the variety and potential of it creative expression," wrote Livingston Biddie, a former chairman of the NEA. A 1996 poll said sixty-one percent of Americans said they would pay five dollars more in taxes to fund the arts. The NEA’s grants support America's arts. The endowment has helped develop arts in America as well as making them available to a wider audience.

Notwithstanding the politics and controversies, the NEA has shown itself to be essential for cultural growth, democracy and creative expression in America.

© 1999-2006, Luke Hetherman  

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