Cover: Choreographer and dancer Kyle Abraham in his piece When the Wolves Came In, which was showcased at the 2015 Alabama Dance Festival to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the 1965 civil rights marches. The festival was supported by an NEA grant.

Photo by Carrie Schneider

Director Kim Mordaunt (right) with Sitthiphon Disamoe and Loungnam Kaosainam, both actors from his film The Rocket, featured in the initiative Film Forward—a partnership of the Sundance Institute, National Endowment for the Humanities, President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities, and NEA—which shares U.S. and foreign films with new audiences here and abroad.

Photo by Tom Greenwood, Red Lamp Films

INTRODUCTION

Photo by Strauss Peyton Studios

It is my pleasure to introduce you to the 2015 Guide to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). Since becoming chairman in June 2014, I have been traveling around the country to see how the arts are making an impact on communities. And I have come to a crucial realization: The arts are an essential component of our everyday lives.

Whether the art is a painting in a museum or a mural on a building wall, whether it is a performance on a stage or in a neighborhood, the arts are all around us, touching every aspect of our world. The arts are one of the most powerful unifying forces. They have the power to honor differing perspectives and create a common language for people from different cultures, backgrounds, and worldviews. And, with each community the arts touch, we’re creating new avenues for economic health and physical vibrancy, and for people to feel a sense of identity to where they live.

We want people to experience these moments of value, connection, and creativity, because these moments give life meaning and make our country a richer and more rewarding place to live.

Art works by enhancing the value of individuals and communities, by connecting us to each other and to something greater than ourselves, and by empowering creativity and innovation in our society and economy. The arts exist for beauty itself, but they also are an inexhaustible source of meaning and inspiration.

You will find in these pages an overview of the work that the NEA is doing—through its grants, programs, and partnerships—to bring these meaningful arts experiences to all Americans. As the NEA celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2015, we will be sharing stories that will show how the arts have the power to change us, our communities, and our country for the better. Visit our website, arts.gov, in September as we begin to share these stories of success with you.

Jane Chu

Chair, National Endowment for the Arts

The American Ballet Theatre performing Swan Lake. The dance company was the recipient of the first NEA grant in 1965, presented by Vice President Hubert Humphrey. The NEA celebrates its 50th anniversary in 2015.

Photo by Martha Swope

ABOUT US

The NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS was established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government. To date, the NEA has awarded more than $5 billion to strengthen the creative capacity of our communities by providing all Americans with diverse opportunities for arts participation. The NEA extends its work through partnerships with state arts agencies, local leaders, other federal agencies, and the philanthropic sector.

Since its inception, the NEA has awarded more than 145,000 grants, including early support for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial design competition, the Sundance Film Festival, Spoleto Festival USA, PBS’s Great Performances series, and the American Film Institute. For five decades, the Arts Endowment has encouraged creativity through support of performances, exhibitions, festivals, artist residencies, and other arts projects throughout the country.

The goals of the agency, as stated in the Strategic Plan, FY 2014–2018 (which is available at arts.gov), include the creation of art meeting the highest standards of excellence, engaging the public with diverse and excellent art, and promoting public knowledge and understanding about the contributions of the arts. These elements help shape the guidelines and objectives for the NEA funding categories that you will find in this guide.

Students perform during a spring concert through San Diego Youth Symphony’s Community Opus Project, supported by the NEA.

Photo by Ken Jacques

NEA FUNDING

The National Endowment for the Arts awards matching grants to nonprofit organizations. Forty percent of the Arts Endowment’s funds go to the state and jurisdictional arts agencies and the regional arts organizations in support of arts projects in thousands of communities across the country.

All applications to the Arts Endowment are reviewed on the basis of artistic excellence and artistic merit. Applications generally receive three levels of review. First, they are reviewed by independent, national panels of artists and other arts experts. Panels make recommendations that are forwarded to the National Council on the Arts.

The National Council on the Arts, the Arts Endowment’s advisory body, comprises nationally and internationally renowned artists, distinguished scholars, and arts patrons appointed by the President, and members of Congress. The council reviews and makes recommendations on the applications. Those recommendations for funding are sent to the NEA chairman. The chairman reviews those applications and makes the final decision on all grant awards.

The following information provides an overview of our funding categories and other activities. Deadlines for funding opportunities are found in the back of this guide. For our application guidelines, please visit our website at arts.gov.

A Voices Inside writing class, conducted by NEA grantee Pioneer Playhouse, teaches prisoners at the Northpoint Training Center in Kentucky the art of playwriting and performing.

Photo courtesy of Voices Inside

GRANTS FOR ORGANIZATIONS

Grants for organizations support exemplary projects in artist communities, arts education, dance, design, folk and traditional arts, literature, local arts agencies, media arts, museums, music, opera, presenting and multidisciplinary works, theater and musical theater, and visual arts.

Nonprofit, tax-exempt 501(c)(3) organizations; units of state or local government; and federally recognized tribal communities or tribes may apply. Applicants may be arts organizations, local arts agencies, arts service organizations, local education agencies (school districts), and other organizations that can help advance the goals of the Arts Endowment.

TO BE ELIGIBLE, AN APPLICANT ORGANIZATION MUST:

• Be nonprofit, tax-exempt.

• Have a three-year history of programming.

• Meet reporting requirements on any previous Arts Endowment awards.

Generally, an organization is limited to one application per year under certain categories. There are limited exceptions for parent organizations, such as universities or cultural complexes that apply on behalf of separately identifiable and independent components, and certain Media Arts applicants.

Assistance is not available for general operating or seasonal support; the creation of new organizations; the construction, purchase, or renovation of facilities; or directly for individual elementary or secondary schools—charter, private, or public.

ART WORKS

This category supports the creation of art that meets the highest standards of excellence, public engagement with diverse and excellent art, lifelong learning in the arts, and the strengthening of communities through the arts. Within these areas, projects that foster new connections and exemplify creativity and innovation are welcomed. Typical projects include the commissioning and development of new work, the presentation of performances or exhibitions at home or on tour, arts education projects for pre-kindergarten through 12th-grade students, the documentation and preservation of significant artworks or cultural traditions, the publication and dissemination of work important to the field, innovative uses of new models or technology to create work or engage audiences, and the professional training of artists.

GRANTS GENERALLY RANGE FROM $10,000 TO $100,000.

Visitors at the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art in Charleston, South Carolina, take in the exhibition Return to the Sea: Saltworks by artist-in-residence Motoi Yamanoto, supported by an NEA Challenge America grant.

Photo courtesy of the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art

CHALLENGE AMERICA

These grants enable organizations, particularly those that are small or mid-sized, to extend the reach of the arts to underserved populations—those whose opportunities to experience the arts are limited by geography, ethnicity, economics, or disability.

In this category the focus is on simple, straightforward local projects that involve experienced professional artists and arts professionals. Projects may include festivals, exhibits, readings, performances, screenings, or broadcasts that feature guest artists in community settings; the development of professionally directed public arts projects such as murals, sculptures, or environmental art; cultural district revitalization; cultural tourism; and design activities for new or existing cultural facilities or civic spaces.

ALL GRANTS ARE FOR $10,000.

The research report Artful Living by Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tennessee, was supported by an NEA Research: Art Works grant.

Courtesy of Vanderbilt University

RESEARCH: ART WORKS

With these grants, the NEA supports research that investigates the value and/or impact of the arts, either as individual components within the U.S. arts ecology or as they interact with each other and/or with other domains of American life. The NEA anticipates that this program will spur growth in the number of people experienced in and knowledgeable about arts-related research in the U.S, increase the diversity of fields of expertise that contribute to arts-related research, and heighten the relevance and significance of arts-related research to policy and practice.

Projects may include, but are not limited to, primary and/or secondary data analyses; psychological studies that take place in clinical or non-clinical settings; third-party evaluations of an arts program’s effectiveness and impact; statistically driven meta-analyses of existing research so as to provide a fresh understanding of the value and/or impact of the arts; as well as translational research that moves scientific evidence toward the development, testing, and standardization of new arts-related programs, practices, models, or tools that can be used easily by other practitioners and researchers. Primary data collection is an allowable activity under these grants, as long as a proposed project also includes analysis of that data.

GRANTS GENERALLY RANGE FROM $10,000 TO $30,000.

The Sioux Falls Arts Council in South Dakota used their NEA Our Town grant to revitalize the city’s Whittier neighborhood by bringing renowned muralist Dave Loewenstein (near center, wearing hat) to work with more than 250 community members to create The World Comes to Whittier, a 150-foot-long mural of the history and culture of the neighborhood.

Photo by Nicholas Ward, courtesy of Sioux Falls Arts Council

OUR TOWN

The NEA Our Town grant program supports creative placemaking projects that help to transform communities into lively, beautiful, and sustainable places with the arts at their core. Creative placemaking is when artists, arts organizations, and community development practitioners deliberately integrate arts and culture into community revitalization work such as land-use, transportation, economic development, and housing. This funding supports local efforts to enhance quality of life and opportunity for existing residents, increase creative activity, and create a distinct sense of place.

Communities of all sizes in all 50 states and DC have been funded through the program, and many interesting partnerships between arts organizations and government, private, and other nonprofit organizations have occurred. We encourage you to read Exploring Our Town—an online case study database of 70 Our Town projects and insights into doing creative placemaking work at arts.gov/exploring-our-town/.

Two types of funding are available:

1. Projects that include arts engagement, cultural planning, and design activities. These projects require a partnership between a local government and an arts or design organization.

2. Projects that build knowledge about creative placemaking. These projects invest in arts- and place-based membership institutions to develop and spread the practice of arts-based community development.

GRANTS GENERALLY RANGE FROM $25,000 TO $200,000.

LITERATURE FELLOWS

Through NEA Literature Fellowships awarded to published creative writers and translators, the Arts Endowment advances its goals of creating art that meets the highest standards of excellence and engaging the public with diverse and excellent art. NEA Literature Fellowships in creative writing enable recipients to set aside time for writing, research, travel, and general career advancement. These non-matching grants are for $25,000. This program operates on a two-year cycle with fellowships in prose available one year and fellowships in poetry available the next.

NEA Literature Fellowship applications for creative writing are evaluated through a process of anonymous manuscript review under the sole criteria of artistic excellence and merit. Panelists do not know the identities of the writers, their publishing histories, academic achievements, or previous awards.

NEA Literature Fellowships also are given for translation projects, enabling recipients to translate works of prose, poetry, or drama from other languages into English. The art of literary translation has made available to the American public some of the most important writing in the world, from Homer to Roberto Bolaño. Non-matching grants are awarded in the amounts of $12,500 or $25,000.

The NEA Literature Fellowships are the only competitive, non-nominated awards that the Arts Endowment gives to individual artists.

NEA Literature Fellow Elizabeth McCracken, a National Book Award finalist, participated in the 2014 National Book Festival at the NEA Poetry & Prose Pavilion. Listen to a podcast interview with Elizabeth McCracken.

Photo by Edward Carey

Watch 2014 NEA Jazz Master Richard Davis performing at the awards ceremony and concert at Jazz at Lincoln Center in New York City.

Photo by Michael G. Stewart

LIFETIME HONORS

On behalf of the American people, the federal government recognizes outstanding achievement in the arts through the NEA Jazz Masters Fellowships; NEA National Heritage Fellowships; and National Medal of Arts, a Presidential award.

NEA Jazz Masters Fellowships

NEA Jazz Masters Fellowships are the highest honors that our government bestows upon jazz musicians. These fellowships are given in recognition of those individuals who have made significant contributions to the art of jazz. Non-matching fellowships of $25,000 each are awarded annually on the basis of nominations.

The Arts Endowment honors a wide range of styles in the jazz field. In addition, the A. B. Spellman NEA Jazz Masters Award for Jazz Advocacy is given to an individual who has made a major contribution to the appreciation, knowledge, and advancement of jazz, such as a writer, patron, or presenter.

NEA National Heritage Fellowships

NEA National Heritage Fellowships recognize the recipients’ artistic excellence and accomplishments, and support their continuing contributions to America’s folk and traditional arts. As part of its efforts to honor and preserve our nation’s diverse cultural heritage, the National Endowment for the Arts annually awards non-matching fellowships of $25,000 each on the basis of nominations. In addition, the Bess Lomax Hawes NEA National Heritage Award is presented to an individual who has made a major contribution to the excellence, vitality, and public appreciation of the folk and traditional arts through teaching, collecting, advocacy, or preservation work.

National Medal of Arts

The National Medal of Arts is the highest award given to artists and arts patrons by the federal government. It is awarded by the President of the United States to individuals or groups who are deserving of special recognition by reason of their outstanding contributions to the excellence, growth, support, and availability of the arts in the United States. Annually, a vast number of nominations are submitted from citizens across the country for consideration by the National Council on the Arts, which in turn submits its recommendations to the White House.

Watch 2014 NEA National Heritage Fellows the Holmes Brothers (drummer Popsy Dixon, guitarist Wendell Holmes, and bassist Sherman Holmes) perform during the awards ceremony and concert at Lisner Auditorium in Washington, DC.

Photo by Michael G. Stewart

Brazil’s Maracatu Nação Estrela Brilhante performs with Scott Kettner’s maracatu band Nation Beat at Lincoln Center as part of Southern Exposure, a program to present Latin American performing arts groups in the U.S. through a partnership of the NEA, Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, and Robert Sterling Clark Foundation.

Photo by Kevin Yatarola for Lincoln Center

NEA PARTNERSHIPS

STATE & REGIONAL

In partnership with the state and jurisdictional arts agencies and regional arts organizations, the National Endowment for the Arts provides federal support for projects that benefit local communities. The Partnership Agreements for the state arts agencies provide funds to address priorities identified at the state level and that address NEA objectives. The regional arts organizations, each representing a geographic grouping of states, assist the Arts Endowment in distributing funds and programs nationally through touring and other activities that are responsive to the needs of the region and that address NEA objectives.

GOVERNMENT PARTNERSHIPS

The NEA works with more than 20 other federal agencies, as well as with state and local governments, on projects that provide opportunities for thousands of Americans to experience quality arts programming throughout the country. These partnerships include initiatives with such agencies as the Department of Education, Department of Housing and Urban Development, Department of Defense, Department of State, and Department of Health and Human Services.

What follows are some of the NEA initiatives that involve partnerships with state arts agencies, regional arts organizations, government entities, and nonprofit organizations.

Arts and Artifacts Indemnity Program

This program was created by the Arts and Artifacts Indemnity Act of 1975 (20 U.S.C. 971) to minimize the costs of insuring international exhibitions and was amended in 2007 to include domestic exhibitions. The program is administered by the Arts Endowment for the Federal Council on the Arts and the Humanities, which comprises agency heads throughout the government. To date, the program has indemnified more than 1,200 exhibitions, saving the organizers more than $417 million in insurance premiums. For more information, go to arts.gov.

Arts & Human Development Task Force

Beginning in 2011, the NEA has convened a Federal Interagency Task Force on the Arts and Human Development to encourage more and better research on how the arts can help people reach their full potential at all stages of life. Task force members represent multiple units across federal government, including the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, and the U.S. Department of Education, among others.

To date, the task force has met quarterly to share ideas and information about research gaps and opportunities for understanding the arts’ role in improving health and educational outcomes throughout the lifespan. The task force has conducted a series of public webinars on compelling research and practices. Additionally, the group has begun a literature review of research on the arts and human development. For more information, go to arts.gov.

The Big Read

The NEA presents the Big Read in cooperation with Arts Midwest. The initiative brings together partners across the country to encourage reading for pleasure and enlightenment, supporting innovative reading programs in selected communities. To date, more than 1,100 grants have been awarded to support local Big Read projects for one of 36 selections from American or world literature. Information about the initiative and upcoming application deadlines can be found at www.NEABigRead.org.

Children make art in the park during a craft activity based on Fahrenheit 451 as part of the Storytelling and Arts Center of the Southeast’s Big Read program in Laurinburg, North Carolina. Listen to interviews with new Big Read authors Dinaw Mengestu and Julie Otsuka.

Photo courtesy of the Storytelling and Arts Center of the Southeast

Blue Star Museums

Blue Star Museums is a collaboration among the NEA, Blue Star Families, the Department of Defense, and participating museums throughout the country as a way to thank our military personnel and their families for their service and sacrifice. The program provides free admission to active duty military personnel and their families from Memorial Day through Labor Day. More than 2,000 museums nationwide participate in the program annually. For more information, go to arts.gov.

Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design

Design can be a powerful tool for rural communities to build upon existing assets and improve the way a community looks, its quality of life, and its economic viability. Established by the NEA in 1991, the Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design (CIRD) offers funding and technical assistance to small towns and rural communities to host two-and-a-half day community design workshops. With the support of design professionals from the fields of community planning, architecture, landscape architecture, and creative placemaking, the workshops bring together local leaders from nonprofits, community organizations, and government to develop actionable solutions to pressing community design challenges. For more information on CIRD, visit www.rural-design.org.

Mayors’ Institute on City Design®

Since 1986, the Mayors’ Institute on City Design (MICD) has helped transform communities through design by preparing mayors to be the chief urban designers of their cities. A partnership of the NEA, U.S. Conference of Mayors, and American Architectural Foundation, MICD brings mayors and design experts together for two-and-a-half days to solve case studies of critical urban design challenges brought by the participating mayors. For more information on MICD, go to www.micd.org.

NEA/Walter Reed Healing Arts Partnership

In November 2011, the Department of Defense (DoD) invited the NEA to bring its acclaimed Operation Homecoming writing program to the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center and the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE), a DoD institute that researches complementary and traditional treatments for service members with traumatic brain injuries and psychological health conditions. The partnership reflects the growing use of creative arts therapy programs in healthcare settings. More than 200 active duty military and their family members have taken part in writing workshops in clinical and non-clinical settings, with programmatic support from the Writer’s Center. The Boeing Company has supported Operation Homecoming since 2004, and continues to support the writing program in non-clinical settings at Walter Reed. In November 2012, the NEA expanded its landmark arts partnership with DoD to bring music therapy to patients at NICoE. In 2014, the program expanded further to include therapy sessions at Fort Belvoir Community Hospital in Virginia. For more information, visit arts.gov.

Sgt. George J. Preen III USMC and his daughter Scarlett at the San Antonio Museum of Art in Texas during the 2014 Blue Star Museums launch.

Photo by JB Lyle/Parish Photography

Poetry Out Loud

Presented in partnership with the Poetry Foundation and the state arts agencies, Poetry Out Loud: National Recitation Contest is a national arts education program for high school students that encourages the study of great poetry by offering educational materials and a dynamic recitation competition in all 50 states, Washington, DC, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.

Each winner at the state level receives $200 and an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington, DC, to compete for the national championship. The state winner’s school receives a $500 stipend for the purchase of poetry materials. A runner-up in each state receives $100, with $200 for his or her school library. A total of $50,000 in awards and school stipends will be given out at the national finals. Any school wishing to participate should contact its state arts agency for more information on the program, or visit www.poetryoutloud.org.

2014 Poetry Out Loud National Champion Anita Norman of Arlington, Tennessee. Watch Anita Norman recite “Let the Light Enter” at the National Finals.

Photo by James Kegley

Shakespeare for a New Generation

Shakespeare for a New Generation, the offshoot initiative of Shakespeare in American Communities, provides professional Shakespeare performances and educational programs to high school and middle school students. The program is administered by Arts Midwest. Ninety-four theater companies have taken part since the program’s inception ten years ago. These companies have presented 7,700 performances and 24,000 educational activities at more than 7,200 schools in 3,100 communities in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. For more information, go to www.shakespeareinamericancommunities.org.

Cup (2010) by Jowahara AlSaud, from the series Out of Line, part of the NEA-supported FotoFest 2014 biennial View from Inside: Contemporary Arab Video, Photography and Mixed Media in Houston, Texas.

Image courtesy of the artist and Athr Gallery

DEADLINES

NOTE: Grants.gov is required for all applicants to the NEA. Before you can apply, you must be registered with grants.gov. Learn more about grants.gov by visiting our website at arts.gov and register now.

LITERATURE FELLOWSHIPS

Creative Writing Fellowships/Prose

APPLICATION DEADLINE:

March 11, 2015

EARLIEST PROJECT START DATE:

January 1, 2016

For information, contact the Literature staff at litfellowships@arts.gov or 202/682-5034.

Translation Projects

APPLICATION DEADLINE:

December 8, 2014

EARLIEST PROJECT START DATE:

November 1, 2015

For information, contact the Literature staff at litfellowships@arts.gov or 202/682-5034.

LIFETIME HONORS

NEA Jazz Masters Fellowships, NEA National Heritage Fellowships, and National Medal of Arts

Check the NEA website (arts.gov) for more information.

GRANTS FOR ORGANIZATIONS

Our Town

APPLICATION DEADLINE:

Estimated August 2015

Check the NEA website (arts.gov) for updates

For information, contact Jen Hughes at OT@arts.gov

Research: Art Works

There are two application deadlines: February 19, 2015 and July 23, 2015. The types of projects eligible under each vary according to the field/discipline of the project. The categories and contact information can be found here, or by going to the appropriate artistic field at arts.gov.

NOTE: grants.gov is required for all applicants to the NEA. Before you can apply, you must be registered with grants.gov. Learn more about grants.gov by visiting our website at arts.gov and register now.

PUBLICATIONS

In order to better communicate to the public the exemplary work the NEA supports and provides, the Public Affairs Office works with other agency offices to create publications, free to the public, that highlight successful projects and programs. Additionally, the Office of Research and Analysis issues periodic research reports and briefs on significant topics affecting artists and arts organizations. All of these publications can be ordered (or PDFs of them can be viewed) on the NEA website, arts.gov. A few of our most popular publications are listed below.

GENERAL

2013 Annual Report

Presents a summary of NEA activities during fiscal year 2013. (2014)

The Art of Empathy: Celebrating Literature in Translation

Nineteen thought-provoking essays on the art of translation and its ability to help us understand other cultures and ways of thought by award-winning translators and publishers. Includes recommendations by the essayists of translations that they enjoyed reading. (2014)

Education Leaders Institute Alumni Summit Report

This report shares the significant findings of what the NEA, its partners, and eight participating alumni states learned from the NEA’s Education Leaders Institute program, and how it informed the NEA’s arts education strategic plan. (2014)

How the United States Funds the Arts

This report provides a comprehensive overview of the diverse network of public and private funders that directly and indirectly support the arts in the U.S. (2012)

Creative Placemaking

A white paper by Ann Markusen and Anne Gadwa Nicodemus for the Mayors’ Institute on City Design that examines creative placemaking in communities throughout the United States. (2010)

NEA Arts

The Arts Endowment’s quarterly magazine, which focuses on issues in the arts community, special NEA initiatives, and arts projects and artists.

RESEARCH

When Going Gets Tough: Barriers and Motivations Affecting Arts Attendance

This report examines demographic and socio-economic characteristics of adults who attended visual and performing arts activities in 2012, offering in-depth perspectives on attitudes, motivations, and barriers concerning arts attendance. (2015)

Measuring Cultural Engagement: A Quest for New Terms, Tools, and Techniques

This report summarizes a June 2014 symposium held at the Gallup Headquarters in Washington, DC, in partnership with the UK’s Arts & Humanities Research Council. Cultural researchers, practitioners, and policymakers from the U.S., the UK, and other countries met to review common assumptions, techniques, and challenges in measuring cultural engagement. (2014)

The Validating Arts & Livability Indicators (VALI) Study: Results and Recommendations

Commissioned from the Urban Institute, this report describes the methodology and findings of a study to validate the NEA’s proposed Arts & Livability Indicators. These metrics use national, publicly accessible data to track outcomes of interest to communities engaged in creative placemaking activities. (2014)

Valuing the Art of Industrial Design

This report explores industrial design, both as an occupation and as an industry tied to U.S. manufacturing and other sectors, drawing on data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. Census Bureau, and the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. (2013)

How a Nation Engages with Art Highlights from the 2012 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA)

This report presents results from an initial analysis of the 2012 SPPA. It contains statistics with demographic insights about U.S. adults’ participation across five modes of art activity: attending; reading books and literature; consuming through electronic media; making and sharing; and learning. (2013)

The Arts and Aging Building the Science

A summary of the proceedings and recommendations of the September 2012 National Academies workshop “Research Gaps and Opportunities for Exploring the Relationship of the Arts to Health and Well-Being in Older Adults,” made possible by the Federal Interagency Task Force on the Arts and Human Development. (2013)

How Art Works

This report describes the NEA’s five-year research agenda, framed and informed by a groundbreaking “system map” and measurement model. (2012)

The Arts and Achievement in At-Risk Youth

This report examines arts-related variables from four large datasets to understand the relationship between arts engagement and positive academic and social outcomes in children and young adults of low socioeconomic status. (2012)

The Arts and Human Development Framing a National Research Agenda for the Arts, Lifelong Learning, and Individual Well-Being

This white paper summarizes major themes from the March 2011 NEA/HHS forum on arts and human development, and highlights related studies. It also makes recommendations toward establishing a long-term federal partnership to promote research and evidence-sharing nationwide. (2011)

Live from Your Neighborhood A National Study of Outdoor Arts Festivals, Vol. 1: Summary Report

This report combines key results from two investigative efforts—an online, national survey of outdoor arts festivals and seven case studies—to examine the range and variety of arts festivals in the U.S., the artists they employ, the communities they serve, and the roles they play in our cities, towns, and neighborhoods. (2010)

Audience 2.0: How Technology Influences Arts Participation

The report examines broad categories of arts participation via Internet using data from the 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts. The report also investigates factors contributing to the likelihood of some Americans experiencing art through media. Finally, the report considers the relationship between media-based arts activities and other types of arts participation, such as live attendance and personal arts creation. (2010)

Artists in the Workforce: 1990–2005

This report is the first nationwide look at artists’ demographic and employment patterns in the 21st century, gathering new statistics from the U.S. Census Bureau to provide a comprehensive overview of this workforce segment and its maturation over the past 30 years, along with detailed information on specific artist occupations. (2008)

The Arts and Civic Engagement: Involved in Arts, Involved in Life

This research paper explores the compelling link between arts participation and broader civic and community involvement, as measured by the NEA’s Survey of Public Participation in the Arts. The report also reveals that young adults show declines in participation rates for most arts and civic categories. (2006)

Kimberly Van Woesik and Jamal Rashann Callender in Ballet Hispanico’s production of Hogar.

Photo by Paula Lobo

CREDITS

THIS PUBLICATION IS PUBLISHED BY:
NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS

Office of Public Affairs
Don Ball, Editor

Designed by:
Fuszion

Voice/TTY: 202/682-5082
For individuals who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.

Individuals who do not use conventional print may contact the Arts Endowment’s Office for Accessibility to obtain this publication in an alternate format. Telephone: 202/682-5532

NATIONAL ENDOWMENT FOR THE ARTS

Additional copies of this publication can be ordered free of charge on the NEA website: arts.gov.

Information current as of January 2015.

The Last of Their Race, 1857, by John Mix Stanley, who will be featured in an exhibition by the Buffalo Bill Center of the West in Cody, Wyoming, with support from an NEA grant.

Image courtesy of the Buffalo Bill Center of the West