Director's Note: What's at Stake When We Defund and Devalue the Arts

What’s at stake when we defund and devalue the arts? 

The news has recently been full of projected budget cuts under the Trump administration and included in this discussion has been the possible elimination of funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). So, what’s at stake if this institution loses its funding?

For more than 50 years, the NEA has provided strategic leadership and an investment in the arts throughout the United States, including investments to rural communities like Martinsville-Henry County. Through the NEA, the arts have grown in communities like ours. Funding supports music, dance, folk and traditional arts, literature, theater, visual arts and much, much more.

According to Americans for the Arts, the NEA, “is a striking example of federal/state partnership” with 40 percent of its program dollars going to state arts agencies with each state “devoting its own appropriated funds to support arts programs throughout the state. These grants, combined with state legislative appropriations and other dollars are distributed widely to strengthen arts infrastructure and ensure broad access to the arts.”

In the Commonwealth, the NEA provides a level of support that brings us ballet and other dance, symphony, visual arts, arts festivals, opera, media arts, literature, and folk and traditional arts. For organizations like Piedmont Arts, funding through the NEA and the state arts agency, Virginia Commission for the Arts (VCA), is critical. Each year, the museum receives operating support from the VCA. The Commission also provides touring assistance to organizations like the Roanoke Symphony and Richmond Ballet, which enable these artists to come to our community to perform. In addition, the VCA provides additional funds to bring teaching artists into our schools, providing students with live performances and arts programming they would otherwise never see.

Currently, Piedmont Arts, in partnership with the City of Martinsville, is creating an art garden on the corner of Mulberry Road and Starling Avenue, a major gateway in the city. This project would not have happened without a $25,000 Our Town Grant from the NEA.

So, how much money are we talking about in the federal budget? It’s $148 million, or 0.02% of the federal budget of nearly $4 trillion. Beyond the fact that arts and culture organizations pump more than $60 billion into the U.S. economy each year, let’s look at the message we are sending when we eliminate funding to the arts. Arts and culture play a critical role in strengthening our communities, providing residents with high quality programming and creating a sense of place. The arts can transform communities like Martinsville and Henry County into lively, vibrant and beautiful places to live, work and play.

The NEA vision is “a nation in which every American benefits from arts engagement, and every community recognizes and celebrates its aspirations and achievements through the arts.” At Piedmont Arts, we wholly embrace this vision for our community, and hope you will support the museum and advocate for support of the arts on a national level.

Director's Note is a monthly blog by Piedmont Arts Executive Director Kathy Rogers, examining the impact of the arts in our community. Contact Kathy at kathyrogers@piedmontarts.org.