Woman in purple outfit dancing with hoops on stage while man to her right bangs and drum and sings.

Chris Newell and two-time world champion hoop dancer Lisa Odjig (Ojibwe) perform at the inaugural Indigenous People's Day celebration at the Museum of Fine Art Boston in 2019. Photo by Michael Mermelstein

Native woman with glasses weaving on a loom.

Navajo/Diné textile artist and weaver TahNibaa Naataanii of New Mexico is the 2022 Bess Lomax Hawes National Heritage Fellow. Photo courtesy of the artist

a view of the National Native American Veterans Memorial, which is a large circle on its side on top of a drum shape. The exterior of the National Museum of the American Indian is visible in the background

The National Native American Veterans Memorial. November 2020. On the grounds of the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C.. Designed by Harvey Pratt (Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes). Photo by Alan Karchmer for the National Museum of the American Indian

Native man with hair in braid, wearing colorful traditional clothes, at a microphone on stage.

Musician and storyteller Frank Waln (Sicangu Lakota) participated in the first-of-its-kind national convening, Native Arts and Culture: Resilience, Reclamation, and Relevance, hosted by the NEA, NEH, and Native Arts and Cultures Foundation in February 2020. Photo by Barbara Soulé (Diné [Navajo]), courtesy of Native Arts and Cultures Foundation

A man with white hair wearing an apron taking the skin off a tree with a saw while another man holds it and a woman instructs him.

Elder Arnold Herrera (Cochiti Pueblo) leads a traditional drum-making workshop during the 2019 Indigenous Healing Festival. Photo by Elena Higgins

Two Native men in red sweatshirts painting a totem pole.

In Hydaburg, Alaska, seat of the Haida Nation, the NEA supported the inclusion of interior totem poles in the construction of a new cultural center there in 2018, overseen by head carver TJ Young (left). Photo by TJ Young

What’s Happening at the NEA

Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson

Statement by NEA Chair Jackson on National Native American Heritage Month

A collage of ten people highlighted in boxes representing different art forms promoting Roots of American Culture, a film premiering November 17, 2022 at 8pm Eastern time on arts.gov.

Roots of American Culture: A Cross-Country Visit with Living Treasures of the Folk and Traditional Arts

Now available to stream on-demand!

Vanessa Sanchez, who is a Latina woman, holds a large piece of orange fabric while she dances

Original Threads: Equity and Access in the Arts for Hispanic/Latinx Communities

Read our latest issue of American Artscape!

Featured News

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Collage of Photos of the 2022 NEA National Heritage Fellows

Celebrate the 2022 NEA National Heritage Fellows in a Documentary Film

Two men stand outside under an awning holding a frame horizontally over a shallow box

Applications Open for Creative Forces Community Engagement Grants

Photos of books that are a part of the NEA Big Read with text reading Applications Now Open. Intent to Apply Due 1/18/2023

Applications Now Open for NEA Big Read Grants

Featured Stories

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Thanksgiving 2022-Photo Option2
Blog

Thanksgiving 2022: Poem Roundup

Headshot of a woman.
Podcast

Kelli Jo Ford (Cherokee)

Author and NEA Literature Fellow
Two women in front of artwork, one dressed in black with long black hair and not smiling, the other dressed in purple and laughing.
Magazine Article

Arts as a Healing Element

Tash Terry (Diné [Navajo])/Elena Higgins (Maori/Samoan) of IndigenousWays

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 »

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 2,300 Grants

Recommended for grant awards annually in all 50 states, DC, and U.S. territories.

More than 60 Percent

Percentage of Arts Endowment grants that go to small and medium-sized organizations (budgets up to $2 million).

35 Percent

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

Some Facts from the National Endowment for the Arts

These facts are based on the most recent data (2020) 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.
$876.7 billion

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

4.2 Percent

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

4.6 Million

Americans work in the arts and cultural industries on payroll.

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.
54 Cents

The Arts Endowment’s annual cost to each American.

0.003 Percent

The Arts Endowment’s percentage of the federal budget.

$5.6 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 41 Million Americans

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

More than 36,000

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).

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 $8 million

Amount of funding of arts education projects annually.

74.7 Percent

Arts education projects (preK-12) that directly engage with underserved populations.

3 Times More Likely

8- to. 12-grade students from low socioeconomic backgrounds who received arts education to earn a bachelor's degree than those who did not.