Colorfully decorated bus in the middle of the plains.

First Peoples Fund’s Rolling Rez Arts bus, supported by Arts Endowment grants, brings workshops and training in the arts, business, and finance to remote areas of the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. Photo courtesy of First Peoples Fund

Woman in uniform and her son look at artwork in museum.

A military family tours the Gibbes Museum of Art in Charleston, South Carolina, as part of Blue Star Museums initiative. Photo by Scott Henderson

Black man in foreground dancing in room with man at wall behind him in front of projection on wall.

Thaddeus Davis and Michael McManus of Wideman Davis Dance performing Migratuse Ataraxia at the Klein-Wallace House in Harpersville, Alabama, in January 2020. Photo by Clark Scott, courtesy of Wideman Davis Dance

Man and woman wearing colorful clothing sitting on stage with black and white floor.

Ariel Texidó and Soraya Padrao in GALA Hispanic Theatre’s production of El perro del hortelano, supported by the National Endowment for the Arts. Photo by Daniel Martinez

Woman in middle section of video singing with band members in small squares on each side of her.

2017 NEA Jazz Master Dee Dee Bridgewater performing with the SFJAZZ High School All Stars Big Band during the virtual 2021 NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert. Image courtesy of Elephant Quilt

Woman in African garb dancing in dance studio.

2020 National Heritage Fellow Naomi Diouf in the film celebrating the honorees, The Culture of America, available for viewing at arts.gov/honors/heritage. Photo courtesy of Hypothetical Films

Three dances, one spread out with legs on dancers on each side of him sitting in wheelchairs

The Dancing Wheels dance company, a National Endowment for the Arts grantee in FY 2019. Photo by Dale Dong

Supporting the Arts in Your Community

The National Endowment for the Arts supports exemplary arts projects in communities nationwide through grantmaking, initiatives, partnerships, and events.
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American Rescue Plan Guidelines Now Available

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Read the new research report Tech as Art on artists who engage with technologies.

Vaccine.gov FInd COVID-19 Vaccines Near You

Find a location near you, then call or visit their website to make an appointment.

Rahele Megosha reciting

Congrats to 2021 Poetry Out Loud National Champion Rahele Megosha from South Dakota!

Men, women, and children standing together in an outdoor garden

Blue Star Museums Nationwide Offer Free Admission to Military Families, May 15-September 6, 2021

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New BEA/NEA report shows arts & culture add 4.3 percent/$919.7 billion to nation's GDP.

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General Operating Support Waivers for FY2019-2021 Grantees

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Visit the Creative Forces: Healing the Invisible Wounds of War online exhibition.

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 »

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Photos of the 2022 NEA Jazz Masters

National Endowment for the Arts Announces 2022 NEA Jazz Masters

The nation’s highest honor in jazz.

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NEA Offers Relief Funds to Help Arts & Culture Sector Recover from Pandemic

Opens doors wide to applications for American Rescue Plan funding.

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National Endowment for the Arts Announces 2021 NEA National Heritage Fellows

The nation’s highest honor in the folk and traditional arts.

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.
40 Percent

Percentage of Arts Endowment funding is awarded directly to the states through their state and regional agencies, reaching millions more people in thousands of communities.

$9

Amount leveraged by private and other public funds for every $1 of direct Arts Endowment funding.

$500 Million

Direct grant-matching support for Arts Endowment projects each year.

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.

43 Percent

Percentage of Arts Endowment grants take place in high-poverty neighborhoods.

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 (2019) 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.
$919.7 Billion

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

4.3 Percent

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

5.2 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.
48 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 45 Million Americans

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

More than 39,000

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.

77.6 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.