Sunday, February 20, 2011
Take Action: Support the NEA and Arts Education
Actors' Equity Association: "Since the alert about the funding cuts being proposed in the U.S. House of Representatives to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) the situation has worsened. Overnight, the House Appropriations Committee made even deeper cuts to the NEA and dozens of other programs and agencies. The proposed cut to the NEA is now set at $22.5 million (yesterday it was $12 million) which would represent the largest cut to that agency in 16 years.
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3 comments:
This almost makes my blood boil. I really hope tehse cuts don't go through because the NEA is one of the most important governmental organizations to our industry and to many nation wide. It sounds like many new over-zealous republican representatives are bandwagoning this issue. Hopefully someone will bring them into check or the Senate or Obama will stop this. Assuming it goes through those channels. Either way I will use the link they post to contact my congresspeople and I hope you do the same. I will also pass this along to many of my friends to make sure we don't lose a chunk of the NEA.
I find this all pretty terrifying. If these cuts are adopted, it will be America's way of saying that the arts don't matter. I feel that art has actually taught me the most about our country, through work that questions our policies, or makes statements about the current state of society, or teaches our history from a new perspective. The fact that organizations like the NEA and NEH have survived should lead to the conclusion that they are important to society, but with the constant funding of commercials encouraging children to study math and science (not that these fields aren't also important) the value of art as a teaching tool and a legitimate career path aren't out there, and are at risk to be invalidated for a long time if this is voted through.
$22.5 million??? I can only imagine the damage that this loss could do to the arts communities of America. I'm sure there are many organizations who really on money from the NEA-what will happen to these organizations? I feel like many of them are going to have to shut down and we will have even less arts at the community level. I know that community arts programs have changed the life of many kids, especially those from tougher areas or economic backgrounds. The NEA is taking away outlets and safe havens for these kids. I truly hope that these cuts do not happen, and if they do, I hope the responsible parties get hell for it and realize that our communities need the arts.
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