#RighttoBearArts: Celebrities slam Trump’s proposed budget cuts

Furthermore, the NEA’s effects are regressive, funding programs that are, as Paul Ryan’s House Budget Committee said, “generally enjoyed by people of higher income levels, making them a wealth transfer from poorer to wealthier”.

Hollywood stars have also spoken out against the proposed cuts, with actor Mark Ruffalo denouncing it as “ripped from [Steve] Bannon’s nationalistic playbook” and Julie Andrews calling it “mind-boggling” in an open letter published on CNN.

President Trump’s proposal to slash funding for federal arts endowments may have consequences for video games. While the agency doesn’t fund individual artists directly, it supports local arts councils that distribute grants for entities such as Project Step, which gives lessons in classical string instruments to minority students. In other words, if the federal budget were a dollar, the NEA funding would be a bit less than half a penny.

“Can we really continue to ask a coal miner in West Virginia or a single mom in Detroit to pay for these programs?” he asked. Trump’s budget however, is the president’s recommendation for what our senators and representatives ought to do.

In the case of Springboard in Fergus Falls, this funding system has helped the group attain an additional $1,155,000 investment on top of its $145,000 grant from the NEA between 2011 and 2016, says Zabel. “Across Wisconsin nearly half a million people listen to WPR a week”.

“To keep the lights on and to have a space, literally to do what we do, we need that funding”, he said.

“We’re waiting right now to hear on our current application. with our fingers crossed that the (NEA) still exists“.

In the past, the University of Southern Carolina has received around $65,000 to fund two educational video games.

According to Americans for the Arts, NEA’s annual appropriation supports a $730 billion arts and culture industry, 4.8 million jobs and a $26 billion trade surplus for the nation.

Madison Opera also has received $72,500 from the NEA since 2013 to support specific productions. Ironically – and perhaps symbolically – the former headquarters of the NEA and NEH, the Old Post Office on Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington, are now a hotel. An NEA report issued under Bill Clinton said “art includes the expressive behaviors of ordinary people”, including “dinner-table arrangements” and “piecrust designs”. “Everything is dependent on the incredible grants that we get from these institutions“. In order to dramatically beef up defense spending, the president is asking Congress to slash funding for programs like the Environmental Protection Agency and out-and-out eliminate vital services like Meals on Wheels.

“The National Endowment for the Arts gives grants to organizations that very often make the difference in whether or not they will stay above water”, said Dr. David A. Smith, Baylor professor in the department of history. “The value of the humanities far outweighs the cost, particularly in these divided times“.