CAA News Today

In September, Senator Norm Coleman (R-MN) circulated a “Dear Colleague” memo, asking his fellow senators to cosign a letter in support of increased funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Senator Coleman urged the chairman and the ranking member of the Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee to consider funding increases of $5 to $10 million for each agency during fiscal year 2007. As of November 13, 2006, forty-three senators had signed this letter, including nine Republicans.

Currently, the NEA is funded at $124.4 million, and the NEH receives $141 million–figures significantly lower than their mid-1990s highs of about $167 million and $177 million, respectively. The House of Representatives approved a budget of $129.4 million for the NEA in June 2006.

To read Senator Coleman’s letter, please see www.americanartsalliance.org/img/an2/nonstandard_files/americanartsalliance/
nea-funding-dear-colleague91906.pdf.

In December, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced that it will award $19.4 million for 848 grants during fiscal year 2007. This will include more than $18 million in funding for Access to Artistic Excellence grants, supporting 798 projects in disciplines including the visual arts, museums, and media arts, as well as in literature, theater, and opera.

Applications for the Institute of Museum and Library Services and the National Endowment for the Humanities grant program, “Advancing Knowledge: The IMLS/NEH Digital Partnership” are now available on www.neh.gov. This program “seeks applications for innovative, collaborative humanities projects using the latest digital technologies for the benefit of the American public, humanities scholarship, and the nation’s cultural community.”