Group of kids sitting at table painting.

Arts Corps teaching artists work with students during the 2018 Arts Liberation and Leadership Institute (ALLI). ALLI is a paid 10-week teen leadership intensive where 25 youth are trained in artistry, social justice, and organizing. Photo by Amy Piñon

Photo of three students holding trophies in the air with the Poetry Out Loud logo on a screen behind them

2023 Poetry Out Loud National Winners: (left to right) Madison Harris (3rd place), Edward Wilson Jr. (2nd place), and Sreepadaarchana Munjuluri (1st place). Photo by James Kegley

A group of women on stage holding up signs in favor of women's suffrage.

StageOne Family Theatre’s production of Lawbreakers!, one of the grants awarded by the Arts Endowment in celebration of the women’s suffrage centennial. Photo courtesy of StageOne Family Theatre

What’s Happening at the NEA

Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson

Arts Outside the Bubble

Chair's introduction to new American Artscape.

National Endowment for the Arts logo

IMAG Meeting | Investing in Regional Initiatives

August 18, 2023
11:00am - 2:30pm ET

National Medal of the Arts w/ purple ribbon

National Medal of Arts Nominations Now Open

Closes September 15, 2023

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Photos of the four honorees with text reading National Endowment for the Arts 2024 Jazz Masters

NEA Announces the 2024 Recipients of NEA Jazz Masters Honors

Three people stand in front of a brick wall painting a mural featuring an Earth and tall plants with a blue sky.

National Endowment for the Arts Funds 25 Rural Communities Through Citizens' Institute on Rural Design

A group of 6 people sit around two tables painting book covers on large pieces of posterboard

Announcing the 2023-2024 National Endowment for the Arts Big Read Communities

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Black teen female (left) with braids in her hair and wearing a grey hoodie and black pants, holds hands with a Black woman (right) wearing glasses, a neutral print top, tan cardigan, and black pants. The Black teen female (left) is pointing her fingers at a brown wall exhibition that a poem written with purple and white colors.
Blog

Back to School Grant Spotlight: Storycatchers Theatre

A man speaking into a microphone.
Podcast

Emmett Phillips

Poet, Hip-Hop Artist, Actor, and Teaching Artist
Portrait of a middle-aged Hispanic man with short dark hair and moustache wearing a blue suit.
Magazine Article

The Power of Music

José Diaz of Diaz Music Institute

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.