Dancers in tutus on stage standing on pointe.

Arts Endowment grantee Mark Morris Dance Group’s performance of The Hard Nut, Morris’ reinvention of The Nutcracker. Photo by Peter DaSilva

 

Menorah on National Mall.

The National Menorah in Washington, DC. Photo by Ted Eytan/flickr.com Creative Commons

 

Men and women in black holding poles on stage.

Veterans and civilians perform in A Long Journey Home, a production created for Arts Endowment grantee DIAVOLO | Architecture in Motion's Veterans Project. Photo by George Simian

Three women on stage wearing Native Alaskan garb.

2017 National Heritage Fellow Chilkat weaver Anna Brown Ehlers (middle) with her friend Jacqueline Pata (left) and daughter Marie Ehlers (right) displaying her art form at the concert. Photo by Tom Pich

Teenage girl on stage reciting poetry

Minnesota's state champion Isabella Callery (Anishinaabe) became the 2019 Poetry Out Loud National Champion. Photo by James Kegley

Woman in flowing white dress dancing against side of cliff.

National Endowment for the Arts grantee BANDALOOP’s film Crossing. Photo by Braden Mayfield

Colorful mural on side of building facing a parking lot.

How to Turn Anything into Something Else (2012) by the Miss Rockaway Armada on 207 North Broad Street, part of the Mural Arts Philadelphia program, supported by the Arts Endowment. Photo by Steve Weinik, courtesy of Mural Arts Philadelphia

Two women in wheelchairs dancing on stage.

Regional arts organization New England Foundation for the Arts’ National Dance Project supported the first touring production of Descent by the art ensemble Kinetic Light. Photo by Robbie Sweeny

Man playing vibes and man playing piano on stage.

NEA Jazz Masters Bobby Hutcherson and Kenny Barron performing at the 2012 NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert. Photo by Michael G. Stewart

African-American women holding video camera.

The Alliance for Media Arts + Culture’s Arts2Work, an Arts Endowment grantee, is the first federally registered national apprenticeship program in media arts and creative technologies. Photo by Wide Angle Youth Media, with Sakinah Bowman

Supporting the Arts in Your Community

The National Endowment for the Arts supports exemplary arts projects in communities nationwide through grantmaking, initiatives, partnerships, and events.
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New Report on Arts Strategies for Addressing Opioid Crisis.

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National Endowment for the Arts on COVID-19.

Photos of Terri Lyne Carrington, Albert "Tootie" Heath, Henry Threadgill, and Phil Schaap

National Endowment for the Arts Announces 2021 NEA Jazz Masters.

wood carving of a wrinkled face inside a log

Find out about the Creative Forces Healing Arts Network for military and veteran populations.

Big Read logo with book covers for An American Sunrise, The Best We Could Do, The Call of the Wild, the House on Mango Street, Beloved, and The Grapes of Wrath

New NEA Big Read Guidelines Available.

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Meet the 2020 Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge Winners!

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A Look Back at the Native Arts & Culture: Resilience, Reclamation, and Relevance Convening.

Grants

The National Endowment for the Arts awards grants to nonprofit organizations, creative writers and translators, state arts agencies, and regional arts organizations in support of arts projects across the country.
Go to the Grants section »

Impact

See the impact of the Arts Endowment on your state, and how the agency's work in research, accessibility, and other areas has had a major impact in the arts and culture of the country.
Go to the Impact section »

Featured Stories

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Blog

Celebrate Hanukkah with Poetry

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Podcast

Lora Bottinelli

Executive Director of the National Council for the Traditional Arts
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Magazine Article

Ebbs and Flows

An Exhibition of Sculptor Tasha Lewis in Nashville, Tennessee

Chairman's Corner

A weekly podcast with Chairman Mary Anne Carter on issues
in the arts community. Listen

Find out more about the chairman

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Some Facts about the National Endowment for the Arts

The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent federal agency that funds, promotes, and strengthens the creative capacity of our communities by providing all Americans with diverse opportunities for arts participation.
40 Percent

Percentage of Arts Endowment funding is awarded directly to the states through their state and regional agencies, reaching millions more people in thousands of communities.

$9

Amount leveraged by private and other public funds for every $1 of direct Arts Endowment funding.

$500 Million

Direct grant-matching support for Arts Endowment projects each year.

Some Facts about the National Endowment for the Arts

The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent federal agency that funds, promotes, and strengthens the creative capacity of our communities by providing all Americans with diverse opportunities for arts participation.
Approximately 2,400 Grants

Recommended for grant awards annually.

42 Percent

Percentage of Arts Endowment grants take place in high-poverty neighborhoods.

35 Percent

Percentage of Arts Endowment grants reach low-income audiences of underserved populations.

Some Facts from the National Endowment for the Arts

These facts are based on the most recent data (2017) from the Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account (ACPSA), which is produced jointly by the National Endowment for the Arts’ Office of Research & Analysis and the Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Commerce Department. The ACPSA tracks the annual economic impact of arts and cultural production from 35 industries, both commercial and nonprofit.
$877.8 Billion

Amount the arts and cultural industries contribute to the U.S. economy.

4.5 Percent

Percentage of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product is accounted for by arts and cultural industries.

5 Million

Americans work in the arts and cultural industries.

Some Facts about the National Endowment for the Arts

The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent federal agency that funds, promotes, and strengthens the creative capacity of our communities by providing all Americans with diverse opportunities for arts participation.
48 Cents

The Arts Endowment’s annual cost to each American.

0.003 Percent

The Arts Endowment’s percentage of the federal budget.

$5.5 Billion

Amount awarded by the Arts Endowment since its beginning in 1965.

Some Facts about the National Endowment for the Arts

The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent federal agency that funds, promotes, and strengthens the creative capacity of our communities by providing all Americans with diverse opportunities for arts participation.
Around 45 Million Americans

Attend a live arts event supported by the Arts Endowment annually.

More than 40,000

Concerts, readings, and performances are supported annually.

More than 6,000

Exhibitions are supported annually as well.

Some Facts from the National Endowment for the Arts

These facts are based on the most recent data (2017) from the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA), a national survey conducted in partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau that has allowed cultural policymakers, arts managers, scholars, and journalists to obtain reliable statistics about American patterns of arts engagement.
North Dakota

The state's residents attend live performing arts events at a higher rate than U.S. adults as a whole—with 62 percent for North Dakota residents versus 48.5 percent of U.S. adults.

Montana

Outperforms the national rate of attending art exhibits, with 33.5 percent of this state’s residents doing this activity versus 23 percent of Americans overall.

Oregon and Washington

Their literary reading rates (upwards of 60 percent) far exceed the U.S. as a whole (44 percent).