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National Endowment for the Arts Turns 45 Today
Forty-five years ago today, President Lyndon Johnson signed the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act, establishing the National Endowment for the Arts. More than four decades later, the Endowment continues to play a key role in enhancing American communities through the arts.
"Creativity is the source of successful, thriving American communities," said NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman. "The National Endowment for the Arts is doing its part to enhance the liveability of American communities through the arts."
The importance of imagination and creative thinking was evident in the original legislation that created the Endowment. Here, an excerpt from the Declaration of Purpose of the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act:
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.
The Arts Endowment is the largest, annual, national grantmaker in the arts, awarding more than $100 million annually, and investing in every state. The Endowment has created model programs of artistic excellence and national reach, such as The Mayor's Institute on City Design 25th Anniversary initiative and The Big Read, which puts reading back at the center of American culture. The NEA is the agency of record on arts research, producing landmark reports that provoke national debate on issues surrounding the arts and arts education. The Endowment collaborates on private and public partnerships that extend the work of the agency, such as a first-ever collaboration with Housing and Urban Development to include the arts in new community development funding opportunities. The NEA convenes thought leaders to put the arts at the center of discussions on education, the economy, technology, and creative placemaking, or how the arts make more liveable, sustainable communities.
In observance of its 45th Birthday, the National Endowment for the Arts has compiled statistics about the NEA and the arts and culture it supports.
A compendium of statistics on the National Endowment for the Arts on the occasion of its 45th Birthday.
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