Man in tuxedo conducting an orchestra in front of large crowd in front of US Capitol.

The National Symphony Orchestra perform in front of the Capitol for A Capitol Fourth, an annual concert series celebrating the nation’s Independence Day. Photo courtesy of Capitol Concerts

A band of Latino men with instruments performing while sitting on a short wall outdoors..

2021 NEA National Heritage Fellows Los Lobos in a still from the tribute film The Culture of America, available for free viewing on the NEA YouTube channel. Photo courtesy of Hypothetical Films

Tents and crowds gathered in front of the Capitol.

2008 National Book Festival on the National Mall. Photo by Tom Roster

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

Woman in flowing white dress dancing against side of cliff.

National Endowment for the Arts grantee BANDALOOP’s film Crossing. Photo by Braden Mayfield

Three elderly Black men in suits playing drums, bass, and sax on stage with purple background.

2022 NEA Jazz Masters Stanley Clarke, Billy Hart, and Donald Harrison, Jr. playing Ellington's "Take the Coltrane" at the tribute concert at SFJAZZ. See the full concert at arts.gov/honors/jazz. Photo by Scott Chernis

A stage production photo of two people ornately dressed in a boat with the moon behind them.

A 2016 production of Cerise Lim Jacobs’ first opera libretto, Madame White Snake. Photo by James Matthew Daniel

What’s Happening at the NEA

Collage of 2021 Heritage Fellows

Celebrate the Culture of America on July 4!

A film on the 2021 NEA National Heritage Fellows

NEA logo: square with black text on clear background

FY 2023 Grants for Arts Projects Media Arts Applicant Q&A

July 12, 2022
12:00 pm ~ 01:00 pm ET

Cover of American Artscape magazine with a photo of a Native American woman in a red and black outfit and her hands painted red.

Check out the latest issue of the NEA magazine American Artscape

A look at equity and access in the arts for Native American communities...

Featured News

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Collage of Photos of the 2022 NEA National Heritage Fellows

National Endowment for the Arts Announces 2022 NEA National Heritage Fellows

2022-2023 NEA Big Read Books stack and NEA logo

Announcing the 2022-2023 National Endowment for the Arts Big Read Communities

Group of military troops sitting in an outdoor pavilion listening to a talk

Blue Star Museums Launches Another Summer of Free Admission for Military Families

Featured Stories

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Two white people, one with short cropped brown hair and the other with long curly brown hair, look directly at the camera, their intertwined pose both protective and relaxed.
Blog

The Artful Life: A Conversation with Photographer Jess T. Dugan

Headshot of a woman.
Podcast

Dr. Lisa Donovan

Professor, Arts Management and Co-director, Berkshire Regional Arts Integration Network
Man in blue shirt standing in front of painting in museum and gesturing while talking.
Magazine Article

Telling American History through a Native Lens

A Talk with Educator Chris Newell (Passamaquoddy)

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.

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 (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.
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.