Art Advocacy Has Never Been More Crucial

Supporting the arts has always been a key objective for NAMTA members but never has Art Advocacy been more crucial than it is today. Study after study has shown that including art-related activities in a child’s education will produce a smarter, more creative and successful student.

Advocating for the arts enhances communities and makes good business sense.

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Fact of the Weeksee all

Art helps us understand the past through analysis of artworks. www.metmuseum.org

Art helps children cope with anxiety from traumatic experiences. www.upbring.org

Service members, veterans, and military families benefit from creative arts therapies and community arts activities. www.arts.gov

Art in the News see all

What Can Art Teach Us About the History of Plant Cultivation?

A Lot, It Turns Out-Via Something Called #Art Genetics. Art history offers a snapshot of what fruits and vegetables used to look like. news.art.com

House Proposes Budget Increase to the NEA for FY 2021

Earlier today, the U.S House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee strongly rejected President Trump's fourth consecutive annual budget request to eliminate both the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) by instead appropriating $170 million in funding for each for fiscal year FY 2021! This represents an increase for both agencies of $7.75 million each over the current FY 2020 funding level of $162.25 million and it is the same amount that we recommended to Congress.

 

Americans for the Arts and Arts Action Fund President and CEO Robert Lynch and ArtsVote 2020 Chair and Arts Action Fund Board Member Ben Folds testify before the U.S. House Interior Subcommittee on February 6, 2020.

As you will recall, Americans for the Arts and Arts Action Fund president and CEO Robert Lynch and our ArtsVote 2020 Chairman and musician Ben Folds testified in support of the $170 million budget request on February 6, 2020. (Watch Ben's testimony here.)

Additionally, we are very pleased to share that the House bill includes specific language requested by Americans for the Arts and the Arts Action Fund to enable the NEA to waive financial matching grant requirements and to allow grantees to use the federal funds for general operating support as a result of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.  These new funds would not limit eligibility to only recent NEA grantees and would apply to FY 2021 grants as well as any outstanding FY 2020 and 2019 grant funds.

Stay tuned. This bill will proceed next to the full U.S. House Appropriations Committee, then the House floor before moving to the Senate chamber for consideration over the coming weeks and months.

Artists helped lift America out of the Great Depression. Could that happen again?

As unemployment soars, the WPA's emphais on artists shows a path toward recovery.  In the 1930s a part of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal and its Works Progess Administration effort, the federal government hired more than 10,000 artists to...vox.com

Member News see all

There is unprecedented enthusiasm among young art collectors today for discovering local artists. www.artworkarvhive.com

Namta recently received some photos from one of our 2019 Grant Recipients and wanted to share them with all of our members to remind all of you, at this difficult time, the importance to continue to keep the arts alive and thriving.  As Peter Kelly who works in Foundation Relations at Mercy Home for Boys & Girls comments – “it’s so awesome to see moments like these when our kids are having fun and expressing themselves.”  Thank you Namta members for helping to make this possible.  

 

Faber-Castell USA, known for its high -quality professional art supplies and materials, has announced a new collaborative effort with ...

NAMTA's Partners in Art