According to Americans for the Arts, the nonprofit arts industry (museums, theatre and dance companies, performing arts centers, orchestras, arts councils and others) generates $29.6 billion in federal, state, and local tax revenues annually. By comparison, federal, state, and other local governments combined spend less than $4 billion on support for the arts each year. The financial return on government's investment in the nonprofit arts is, therefore, more than seven times the investment - annually.
Because the National Endowment for the Arts supports artistic excellence and improves access to the arts by granting funds to nonprofit arts organizations we call on our federal officials to support an increase in funding for the NEA beyond its 1992 funding level of $176 million. That funding equals $244 million in todays dollars.
Our schools need more arts education. Despite including the arts as being one of the 10 core academic subjects, the No Child Left Behind law has helped to push arts classes to the side. Schools, especially those struggling, can retain their best teachers by becoming incubators for creativity and innovation; places where students want to learn and teachers want to teach. Students with an education rich in the arts have better grade point averages, score better on standardized tests in reading and math, and have lower dropout rates - findings that cut across all socio-economic catagories. Congress should support an expansion of the federal arts education program to provide the best models for schools to include the arts in their curriculum.
We still need your help on the state of Illinois budget cuts for the ARTS.
Please let your state officials know your feelings on these cuts. Contact information is as follows:
Representative Jil Tracy, Capitol Office: 209N Stratton Building, Springfield, IL 62706, 217-223-0833, jiltracy@jiltracy.com
Senator John M Sullivan, 417 Capitol Building, Springfield, IL 62706, 217-782-2479, jsullivan@senatedem.ilga.gov
Governor Pat Quinn, 207 State House, Springfield, IL 62706, 217-782-0244, www.illinois.gov.executivebranch, Governor, Pat Quinn, contact us, e-mail.
