CAA News Today

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, the Republican Study Committee (RSC) has called for eliminating all funding for the NEA, the NEH, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting. The RSC is a policy body that advises conservative Republican members of the U.S. House of Representatives. Though cutting this funding would not even make a dent in the need for hurricane relief, it would deprive the affected areas of much-needed help in rebuilding their vital cultural sectors.

As last year, the U.S. House of Representatives has approved a bill to eliminate FY 2006 funding for federal Arts in Education grants through the U.S. Department of Education. Last year, fourteen grants totaling about $3.9 million were made to support the development, implementation, and expansion of arts education programs and the integration of arts instruction into the core curriculum. Additionally, 23 new awards totaling $6,169,184 were made in the Professional Development for Arts Educators Grant Program, which supports the implementation of high-quality programs in elementary and secondary education for music, dance, drama, media arts, and visual arts.

The Senate, however, is expected to approve next year’s funding for the Arts in Education (AIE) program. Once the Senate passes its version of the bill, it will conduct negotiations with the House to work out a compromise. To ensure that the final bill does not zero out this important grant program, please write your U.S. Representative and Senator to express your support for the Arts in Education funding.

CAA co-sponsored Arts Advocacy Day (March 14-15, 2005), hosted by Americans for the Arts, and Humanities Advocacy Day (April 6-7, 2005), hosted by the National Humanities Alliance. Both events were held in Washington, D.C., and brought together a broad cross-section of national cultural organizations, academics, and grassroots arts leaders to promote the arts, arts education, and humanities to Congress through increased support for the federal cultural agencies.

At Arts Advocacy Day, CAA President Ellen K. Levy joined CAA staff representatives Rebecca Cederholm and Alexis Light to focus on several important arts policy matters during visits to Capitol Hill. They urged Congress to support a budget of $170 million for the National Endow-ment for the Arts (NEA) in fiscal year (FY) 2006, which is an increase of $49 million over President George W. Bush’s request for level funding. An increase would support the creation, preservation, and presentation of the arts in the United States, including Challenge America, a program that uses the arts to enhance America’s communities through grants for arts education, youth-at-risk programs, cultural preservation, and community arts partnerships, as well as to improve access to the arts for all Americans. An increase would also support the president’s request to continue funding for American Masterpieces, an initiative that combines arts presentations with educational programming to provide Americans with access to their cultural and artistic legacy.

Levy, Cederholm, and Light visited the offices of Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY), Senator Charles Schumer (D-NY), Representative Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY), and Representative Jerrold L. Nadler (D-NY), among others, on Arts Advocacy Day to urge them to continue supporting legislation that would allow artists to take a fair-market-value tax deduction for artists who donate works of art to nonprofit organizations. At present, collectors who give art to museums and cultural institutions are able to claim the full market value of the work, whereas artists can only deduct the cost of the materials used. Together with other arts advocates from across the country, Levy, Cederholm, and Light also called on Congress to require the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to adopt immediate reforms that will ensure timely processing of visa petitions related to nonprofit arts groups. Many nonprofit organizations confront untenable delays and uncertainties while gaining approval of visa requests for international guest artists and scholars.

CAA representatives Cederholm and Light joined CAA Executive Director Susan Ball for Humanities Advocacy Day, an event that focuses on increased support for the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Ball visited the offices of key members of both the Senate and House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, which deal directly with funding for the federal cultural agencies, as well as members of the Congressional Humanities Caucus. Cederholm and Light visited the offices of Representative Jos’ Serrano (D-NY), Representative Charles Rangel (D-NY), and Representative Edolphus Towns (D-NY), among others. (Because CAA’s address is in New York, the organizers asked us to visit our state’s representatives.) Ball, Cederholm, and Light joined other humanities advocates in urging Congress to support President Bush’s budget request of $153.1 million for the NEH in FY 2006. This funding will support, among other things, the We the People initiative to enhance understanding of American history and culture; education programs to strengthen teaching and learning in schools, colleges, and universities; preservation and access grants to save unique historical, cultural, and intellectual resources; and challenge grants to strengthen the institutional base of the humanities.

In addition to increased funding for the NEH, CAA representatives encouraged members of Congress to support other humanities-related legislation in the coming year. The National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC), the grant-making arm of the National Archives and Records Administration, was targeted by President Bush’s FY 2006 budget request for zero funding both for grants and for staff to administer the NHPRC and its programs. Arts advocates asked lawmakers to support a minimum FY 2006 funding level of $10 million: $8 million for grants and $2 million for staffing and other program administration-related costs. Without grant funds, the publishing of papers and other historical materials from America’s founding era to the present will be severely curtailed or terminated, the network of state archives will collapse, and research and development in the field of preserving electronic records will end.

Advocacy alerts related to various arts and humanities issues are regularly posted to CAA’s website; for further information, see www.collegeart.org/advocacy.

The National Humanities Alliance board of directors has named Jessica Jones Irons its new executive director. She succeeds John Hammer, who retired in December 2004 after seventeen years in the position.

The National Humanities Alliance, a coalition of more than eighty nonprofit organizations including CAA, monitors and takes action on a variety of legislative, regulatory, and judicial issues, including federal funding, copyright and intellectual property, freedom of expression, and access to government information. For more details, visit www.nhalliance.org.

Senators Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.), Michael Enzi (R-Wyo.), Jim Jeffords (I-Vt.), and Norm Coleman (R-Minn.) have come together to serve as co-chairs of a new bipartisan Senate caucus. In the letter announcing its formation, the Senate Cultural Caucus seeks �to bring focus to the arts and humanities and the positive impact they have on our daily lives.� The caucus, which will likely serve as a strong base of support for pro-arts legislation in the Senate, will highlight the work of the three primary federal cultural agencies: the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

The caucus chairs aim to recruit at least forty more senators by the end of the year. If the total reaches fifty-one, the caucus would create a powerful bipartisan bloc for promoting arts legislation. The House of Representatives created the Congressional Humanities Caucus in early 2005, as well as the Arts Caucus in 1997, which currently has more than 180 members.

Contact your senators and urge them to join the Cultural Caucus today!

In early February, President George W. Bush released his fiscal year 2006 budget, which calls for level funding for both the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).

In spite of the level funding, the budget includes a proposed redistribution of $6.5 million that would result in a 30 percent cut to the NEA Challenge America program, which distributes grants for arts education and improved access to the arts, especially in underserved communities. The president’s request for a 12 percent funding boost for the Office of Museum Services, however, is encouraging.

Unfortunately, the president’s budget also proposes to eliminate funding for the Department of Education’s Arts in Education programs. This action would put at risk programs such as arts collaborations with schools, professional development for teachers, and arts programs for youths in underserved communities. In the past, funding for these programs has been restored by the Senate and accepted by the House in conference committee.

The president’s budget is the first step in the appropriations process. While his proposal serves as framework for setting the nation’s budget, Congress has the power to set its own priorities and change these funding levels. You can make your voice heard by writing to your member of Congress and urging him or her to increase funding for arts and cultures and to restore funding for arts in education programs.

Once again, CAA will be a national cosponsor of Arts Advocacy Day and Humanities Advocacy Day in 2005-we encourage our members to participate in both events.

Arts Advocacy Day takes place March 14-15, 2005. Held in Washington, D.C., this event 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 other programs within the federal government that have an impact on the visual and performing arts.

Humanities Advocacy Day takes place April 6-7, 2005. Also held in Washington, D.C., 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.

For more information on how to participate in Arts Advocacy Day and Humanities Advocacy Day, please contact Rebecca Cederholm, manager of governance and advocacy, at rcederholm@collegeart.org.

In early February, President George W. Bush’s fiscal year 2004 budget was released, which calls for increases to both the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) over their 2003 amounts.

The NEH in particular has received the largest requested increase in several years’-Bush is asking for an additional $25 million for the endowment’s We the People initiative on American history, culture, and civics. The president has also requested a total of $117 million for the NEA in the coming year, which is a very modest increase in the endowment’s budget over the previous year, and will only account for mandated cost-of-living increases.

Congress will draft its own version of the president’s budget over the next several months, with the goal of having it finalized in October 2003.