CAA News Today

Americans for the Arts President and CEO Robert L. Lynch gave the following statement on the approval of $160 million in funding for the National Endowment for the Arts:

“This afternoon the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee that provides funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) approved a $35 million increase for the NEA in its FY 2008 spending bill. This increase is a strong step in the right direction, and I commend Subcommittee Chairman Norm Dicks (D-WA) for taking it.

“If this funding level is maintained by the Senate and signed into law by President Bush, it will represent the largest increase ever in NEA history. The agency, currently funded at $124.4 million, has seen increases of under 3 percent for the last several years.

“Earlier this year, Americans for the Arts called on Congress to restore full funding to the NEA at its FY 1992 level of $176 million, which spurred significant economic growth, artistic achievement, and accessibility to cultural organizations across the nation. According to Americans for the Arts’ study, “Arts & Economic Prosperity III,” the nonprofit arts industry generates $166.2 billion in economic activity annually for the US economy, supports 5.7 million full-time jobs, and returns $12.6 billion in income-tax revenue back to the federal government.

“In his first public action on arts issues as chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior, Rep. Dicks hosted a Congressional hearing, “Role of the Arts in Creativity and Innovation,” in conjunction with Arts Advocacy Day on March 13, 2007. It was the first hearing in more than twelve years held on the importance of investing in the arts.

“Rep. Dicks invited Americans for the Arts to organize witnesses to give official testimony. The six witnesses included: President and CEO of Americans for the Arts Robert Lynch; Artistic Director of Jazz at Lincoln Center Wynton Marsalis; entrepreneur and arts philanthropist Sheila C. Johnson; corporate executive and arts patron James Raisbeck; Mayor of Providence David Cicilline; and film actor and arts education advocate Chris Klein.

“Also leading this effort to restore NEA funding in the House are Congressional Arts Caucus Cochairs Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and Chris Shays (R-CT) both of whom appeared before the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee at the public-witness hearing to provide testimony supporting a budget increase.”

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.”

The change in party leadership in Congress brings hope for increased support for the arts. The Congressional Arts Report Card on the Arts, issued by the Americans for the Arts Action Fund PAC, recently gave the grade of “A” to incoming Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD). The Senate and the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittees oversee funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). The previous chairs, Representative Charles Taylor (R-NC) and Senator Conrad Burns (R-MT) were defeated in their election bids. Neither had proposed an increase in funding while serving on the subcommittee. Representative Norm Dicks (D-WA), the ranking Democrat on the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, has cosponsored amendments to increase NEA funding and has pledged to do so if he were to become chair.

In Louisiana, the statewide Amendment Number 5 passed, which exempts consigned artwork from property taxes. Prior to this amendment, which took effect January 1, 2007, Louisiana was the only state to have such a tax, which significantly affected galleries whose inventories were subject to taxation. This legislation, it is hoped, will markedly improve the ability of Louisiana galleries to attract local, national, and international artists.

In Ohio’s Cuyahoga County, voters approved Issue 18, which will provide stable public funding for the arts for the next ten years. Issue 18 will impose a 1.5 cent tax per cigarette, or 30 cents per pack, sold in the greater Cleveland area. Funds raised by these taxes will provide close to $20 million per year for Cuyahoga County arts and culture organizations such as the Cleveland Museum of Art and the Cleveland Orchestra. The money will be distributed through grants for operating support, project support, artist education residencies and research support, special initiatives and one-time emergency grants. All grants require matching funds, which will maintain support from the private sector to continue to strengthen Cuyahoga County’s arts funding.

As a national cosponsor of Arts Advocacy Day and Humanities Advocacy Day, CAA encourages its members to participate in both of these important advocacy events, held annually in Washington, DC.

Arts Advocacy Day, occurring Monday and Tuesday, March 12-13, 2007, brings together a broad cross-section of America’s national cultural organizations to underscore the importance of developing strong public policies and appropriating increased public funding for the arts, the humanities, and arts education, as well as for other programs within the federal government that have an impact on the visual and performing arts.

Humanities Advocacy Day, administered by the National Humanities Alliance, takes place Monday and Tuesday, March 26-27, 2007. This event provides a unique opportunity for concerned citizens to communicate to Congress the vital importance of federal support for research and education in the humanities.

If you are interested in joining other CAA members at either of these events, please e-mail Laurel Peterson.

As a national cosponsor of Arts Advocacy Day and Humanities Advocacy Day, CAA encourages its members to participate in both of these important advocacy events, held annually in Washington, DC.

Arts Advocacy Day, occurring Monday and Tuesday, March 12-13, 2007, brings together a broad cross-section of America’s national cultural organizations to underscore the importance of developing strong public policies and appropriating increased public funding for the arts, the humanities, and arts education, as well as for other programs within the federal government that have an impact on the visual and performing arts.

Humanities Advocacy Day, administered by the National Humanities Alliance, takes place Monday and Tuesday, March 26-27, 2007. This event provides a unique opportunity for concerned citizens to communicate to Congress the vital importance of federal support for research and education in the humanities.

If you are interested in joining other CAA members at either of these events, please e-mail Laurel Peterson.

In contrast to the House version of the Interior Appropriations bill, in which the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities received an increase of $5 million each, the Senate Appropriations Committee approved level funding for both endowments. The Senate did include an increase for the Department of Education’s Arts in Education program and for the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB). The House version, on the other hand, followed President George W. Bush’s request for severe cuts to CPB and for zeroing out Arts in Education. Historically the Senate has reversed the president’s recommendation. The full Senate has yet to vote on the bill and, at press time, it seems unlikely it will pass a separate Interior Appropriations bill. Congress is slated to recess through the November elections, which leaves little time for it to complete unfinished legislation, including the Interior Appropriations bills that fund all federal programs. Congress will most likely put off appropriations legislation and pass a continuing resolution to keep the government running at the previous fiscal year’s funding levels through November, when it returns for a lame-duck session to finish the appropriations process. Regardless of whether most spending bills are acted on separately or grouped into a large omnibus package, House and Senate Appropriations Committees need to begin conferencing on fiscal year 2007 spending before the end of the calendar year. Meaningful work on the Interior bill is not expected until after the November election.

In other legislative news, the Senate passed the Pension Protection Act of 2006, which contains a series of provisions designed to stimulate charitable giving and eliminate perceived abuses of charity laws by donors and nonprofit organizations. President Bush signed the measure into law in August. The legislation provides a provision including appraisal reform, increased penalties and fines for excess benefit transactions, and a change to the tax treatment of fractional gifts that greatly restricts donors’ abilities to stretch out gifts of art over several years, which is important for gifts of major artworks. The provision is expected to have a negative effect on museums’ ability to acquire art from private donors. The museum community is working to make recommendations to Congress to eliminate or change the fractional-gift provision as lawmakers consider introducing a bill to revise the measure. Among the charitable incentives included in the legislation is one that would allow donors age 70½ or older to make tax-free distributions of up to $100,000 directly to charitable organizations from either traditional Individual Retirement Accounts (IRA) or a Roth IRA. As enacted, the law is effective only for two years. The legislation does not include the long-sought “artist deduction” that would allow artists to claim a fair-market-value tax deduction when they donate their own works to collecting or educational institutions; nor does it include a charitable-giving provision allowing people who do not itemize deductions on their returns to write off a portion of their charitable donations, something the nonprofit community has repeatedly asked for.