The
National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) has flourished over the past 50 years,
serving as an independent agency of the United States federal government,
offering much needed support and funding for projects exhibiting artistic
excellence. It was created by President
Lyndon B. Johnson under an act of Congress in 1965. The NEA is the largest grant maker to arts
organizations in the country. However, it has been under repeated attack and is
under threat with a Republican Congress and president who makes open statements
about eliminating it or severely cutting its funding.
Here
are some problems the NEA has confronted:
·
In
1981, upon entering office, President Ronald Reagan pushed for a three-year
plan to phase out the NEA. This from
someone who came from the arts, who was a famous actor. However, his plan was
foiled when his special task force on the arts and humanities talked him out of
it.
·
In
1989 there was a huge controversy over the NEA-funded exhibition of photographs
by Robert Mapplethorpe. His work
included a photo called Piss Christ, where a crucifix is depicted as being
submerged in the artist’s own urine. Though the controversy yielded
congressional debate and protests, efforts to defund the NEA failed again.
·
In
1990, NEA grants for artists were vetoed by President Bush appointee, John
Frohnmayer. A court overruled this three
years later and they were awarded their grant money.
·
In
the mid-1990s House Speaker Newt Gingrich called for the NEA to be dumped,
along with the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for
Public Broadcasting. There were massive
budget cutbacks and an end to grants to individual artists, but Newt ultimately
failed to eliminate the NEA.
“An
initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts, the NEA Big Read broadens
our understanding of our world, our communities, and ourselves through the joy
of sharing a good book. Showcasing a
diverse range of contemporary titles that reflect many different voices and
perspectives, the NEA Big Read aims to inspire conversation and discovery. The main feature of the initiative is a
grants program, managed by Arts Midwest, which annually supports approximately
75 dynamic community reading programs, each designed around a single NEA Big
Read selection.
“Since
2006, the National Endowment for the Arts has funded more than 1,300 NEA Big
Read community programs providing more than $18 million in grants to
organizations in every district in the country.
In turn, these organizations have leveraged more than $42 million in
local funding to support their NEA Big Read programs. More than 4.8 million Americans have attended
an NEA Big Read event, approximately 79,000 volunteers have participated at the
local level, and 37,000 community organizations have partnered to make NEA Big
Read activities possible.
“To
learn more about the books or to apply for an NEA Big Read grant, go to www.neabigread.org.
“Literature
inspires, enriches, educates, and entertains.
It reminds us that there is beauty and joy in language, that others have
insights worth paying attention to, that in our struggles we are not
alone. By helping writers and
translators create new work and connect with audiences through publishers and
other literary organizations and programs, the National endowment for the Arts
celebrates literature as an essential reflection of our nation’s rich diversity
of voices.
“The
National Endowment for the Arts supports writers of all levels in developing
their creative abilities.
“The
NEA supports craft workshops, retreats, and educational tools for both emerging
and established writers allowing them to receive the mentorship and community
support they need to create their best work.
“The
NEA is instrumental in bringing a diversity of literary programming to such
venues as senior centers, prisons, hospitals, libraries, grocery stores, and
parks across the country, providing opportunities for a variety of audiences to
engage with, and learn from contemporary writers.
“By
engaging high school students across the country in the public recitation of
poetry, the National Endowment for the Arts’ Poetry Out Loud program builds
students’ self-confidence and encourages a lasting love of poetry.
“Since
2005, the Poetry Out Loud program has grown to reach more than 3 million
students and 45,000 teachers from 10,000 schools nationwide.
“Through
its creative writing fellowships program, the National Endowment for the Arts
gives writers the time and space to create, revise, conduct research and
connect with readers.
“Since
1967, the creative writing fellowships program has awarded more than $45
million and more than 3,400 fellowships to a diverse group of nearly 3,000
writers, many of them emerging writers at the start of their careers.
“Since
1990, 95 of the 164 American recipients of the National Book Award, National Book
Critics Circle Award and Pulitzer Prize in Poetry and Fiction were recipients
of NEA Fellowships earlier in their careers.
“The
NEA’s support of local book festivals, literary centers, reading series, and
online endeavors allows readers to engage with the written word more deeply and
directly, and for writers and readers to meaningfully connect.
“The
NEA’s investment in nonprofit journals and presses fosters an environment in
which a diversity of literary work – in many cases, work overlooked by
mainstream publishers – is realized on the page and screen, and widely
available to American readers.
“The
NEA strengthens the network of literary organizations by facilitating
conversations about challenges and opportunities within the field of literature,
as well as across all arts disciplines”
SUPPORT THE NEA NOW !!
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