Supporting the Arts in the Eighties: The View from the National Endowment for the Arts

Abstract

The federal government's direct involvement in funding the arts has come relatively recently in our nation's history. The National Endowment for the Arts was established to this end in 1965. Local private giving to support the arts preceded the Endowment and continues as the principal factor. The federal government's role, intended to complement the highly active role of private citizens, provides national recognition that the arts are vital to the nation. Within the context of America's private giving, the National Endowment for the Arts has a number of specific tasks in support of the arts, which will be particularly important in this decade—a time of major economic and demographic change. The Endowment's six-part strategy for the 1980s encourages (1) longer-term institutional support for arts organizations; (2) projects that advance the art forms or bring a diversity of arts to broader audiences; (3) better management and planning by arts institutions; (4) development of partnership among public arts agencies; (5) greater private support; and (6) linkages among systems of arts information.