“I’ve seen the fierce battles over these arts and cultural agencies play out before. I had a front row seat during my tenure as a program specialist at the NEA in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The critical difference is that the arts sector is in a better position now than it has ever been before in its ability to explain the value of these agencies and the work they support. Because of intentional strategies to support independent, large-scale research, the arts sector has far-reaching and deep data that we didn’t have twenty-five years ago.  Organizations such as Americans for the Arts provides arts statistics for all 435 U.S. congressional districts across our country. Because of their work, we can now point to the fact that more than 700,000 businesses were involved in the creation or distribution of the arts, and they employ 2.9 million people, representing 3.9 percent of all U.S. businesses.”

Our communities need the National Endowment for the Arts. Read the full article from The McKnight Foundation.

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