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Happy 55th Birthday to the National Endowment for the Arts

September 29, 2020
In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into the law the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 (P.L. 89-209) "to provide for the establishment of the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities to promote progress and scholarship in the humanities and the arts in...
collage of photos of Poetry Out Loud competitors

Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with Poetry

September 23, 2020
Around 1802, poet William Wordsworth penned a sonnet with the opening line, "The world is too much with us; late and soon...." Wordsworth was basically bewailing what he saw as the noise of the world, by way of materialism and industrialization, which was rupturing human connection with the peace...
screen shot from 2020 NEA Jazz Masters Virtual Tribute Concert with three squares tinted in different colors

What a Night for Jazz! Watch the 2020 NEA Jazz Masters Virtual Tribute Concert

August 21, 2020
Last night we celebrated the 2020 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters, including musicians Bobby McFerrin, Roscoe Mitchell, and Reggie Workman, and Dorthaan Kirk, who recived the A.B. Spellman NEA Jazz Master Award for Jazz Advocacy. Learn more about the honorees here . Have someone in...
Poetry Out Loud logo

This is How You Do It: Poetry OUT LOUD

August 4, 2020
Life is full of big questions--What does it mean to love? How do we develop a sense of self worth? What happens when we die?-- and even bigger emotions. And the older we get, the more we start to understand just how much we don't actually know. Perhaps our first inkling of this aspect of the human...
photo of four trophies presented to the 2019 NEA Jazz Masters

Celebrate #JazzAppreciation Month with the 2019 #NEAJazz Masters!

April 9, 2020
Visit the National Endowment for the Arts YouTube channel to watch the 2019 NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert and browse our complete library of Jazz Master videos. 2019 National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Master Abdullah Ibrahim. Photo by Marina Umari "This is what jazz music does: it gives you...
two older Latina women wearing embroidered capes sing while a mariachi band plays in the background

Celebrate Women's History Month with National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellows

March 19, 2020
At a time when social distancing, quarantine, and isolation are the guidewords for our daily lives, it feels even more important to focus on the ways in which we can connect. In that spirit—and in the spirit of Women's History Month—we'd like to celebrate five extraordinary women who have been...
a group of diverse people on a lit stage

#FlashbackFriday: 2019 NEA National Heritage Concert

October 18, 2019
On Friday, September 20, 2019, the National Endowment for the Arts honored the 2019 NEA National Heritage Fellows at a free concert, featuring music, demonstrations, and conversations with the honorees and other special guests. For #FlashbackFriday, here's a look back at the concert. Video of 2019...
a group of diverse people on a lit stage

#ThrowbackThursday: 2019 NEA National Heritage Fellowships Concert

September 26, 2019
"To witness the diversity of our nation brought to life through the arts is nothing short of magical. It serves as a reminder of the power the arts have, to bridge our differences + to connect us as neighbors, as humans + as Americans." — Tony Chauveaux, National Endowment for the Arts Deputy...
collage of photos of nine 2019 NEA National Heritage Fellows

Celebrate the 2019 NEA National Heritage Fellows!

September 20, 2019
We're excited to celebrate the 2019 NEA National Heritage Fellows tonight with a concert event featuring music, demonstrations, and conversations with the National Heritage Fellows and other special guests. The evening will be hosted by Queen Nur, storyteller, teaching artist, and director of the...
author Ray Bradbury posing with a cat

#FlashbackFriday: For the NEA Big Read, Ray Bradbury Ruminates on the Power of Libraries and Becoming a Writer

August 9, 2019
Did you know that Ray Bradbury's Fahrenheit 451 was one of the original books for the NEA Big Read ? In this short film— created expressly for the program—Bradbury, who received the National Medal of Arts in 2004, enthuses about his enduring love of libraries, reveals how an encounter with a...

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