Future of Arts Funding? NEA Invites Feedback on SurveyMonkey

CREATE EQUITY
By Ian David Moss

WASHINGTON, D.C.---The National Endowment for the Arts has shared a draft of its strategic plan for FY14-18, and in what I believe may be a first, is inviting public comment on it via SurveyMonkey. Ah, these modern times we live in. Now let’s just hope House Republicans don’t succeed in slashing its budget by 49%. [link]

According to The Los Angeles Times, House Republicans propose equal budget slashing for the National Endowment for the Humanities.

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The obsession of Republican lawmakers over the arts is borderline wacky. No, not borderline. In 2011, a Republican Study Committee, made up of about 165 GOP members of the House of Representatives announced a budget-cutting plan that called for the elimination of the NEA, NEH and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting which funds PBS. The NEA also had to fight for its survival in 1995, when Republicans gained control of the House and Senate and sought to get rid of the endowment. Back then the rationale was because of support for programs they deemed offensive. Now the rationale is budget-balancing. What will it be next time? My advice to Republican lawmakers is to go to a museum, arts center, or theater and enjoy yourselves. Watch others enjoying themselves, and then go back to congress and cut the military budget where no one is enjoying themselves.

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