logo
Donate
    • Magazine
    • Membership
    • Donate
  • Racial Justice
  • Economic Justice
    • Collections
    • Glossary
  • Climate Justice
  • Health Justice
  • Leadership
  • CONTENT TYPES
  • Magazine
  • Webinars
  • Membership
  • Submissions

Nonprofit Newswire | Arts Without Artists?

Rick Cohen
March 31, 2010

March 30, 2010; Philadelphia Inquirer | According to the Philadelphia Inquirer, “public funding for individual artists has virtually vanished from Pennsylvania for the first time in a half century.” In response to the Rocco Landesman, chairman of the National Endowment of the Arts, having “breezed through” Philadelphia this month, several nonprofit leaders, including Jeremy Nowak, head of the Reinvestment Fund that hosted the tour, called for eliminating the “silos” that “constrain thinking about arts funding.”

There was lots of talk about the role of the arts in neighborhood revitalization, including Landesman’s $5 million neighborhood development grant program called “Our Town.” But is the National Endowment for the Arts supporting artists themselves? There are suspicions that the funding silos give individual artists short shrift. Our Town’s budget means cutting the American Masterpieces program. While the Endowment funds individual achievement in opera, jazz, and folk arts, Landesman has no plans to provide funding for painters, sculptors, photographers, or other individual artists, and the issue of support for individual artists “isn’t at the top of my list for the next year,” he says.

Sign up for our free newsletters

Subscribe to NPQ's newsletters to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

What’s going on, arts without artists? Although the Endowment’s $167 million budget isn’t a drop of paint in the federal budget, it gets lots of scrutiny from members of Congress, including recently Republican Senators John McCain and Tom Coburn who criticized federal stimulus grants to Philadelphia’s Spiral Q puppet theater as too “socially conscious” and the Pig Iron Theatre as too “foulmouthed.” Hopefully nonprofit groups promoting the arts in neighborhoods such as Philadelphia’s will remember to promote the artists too.—Rick Cohen

About the author
Rick Cohen

Rick joined NPQ in 2006, after almost eight years as the executive director of the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy (NCRP). Before that he played various roles as a community worker and advisor to others doing community work. He also worked in government. Cohen pursued investigative and analytical articles, advocated for increased philanthropic giving and access for disenfranchised constituencies, and promoted increased philanthropic and nonprofit accountability.

More about: Nonprofit News

Our Voices Are Our Power.

Journalism, nonprofits, and multiracial democracy are under attack. At NPQ, we fight back by sharing stories and essential insights from nonprofit leaders and workers—and we pay every contributor.

Can you help us protect nonprofit voices?

Your support keeps truth alive when it matters most.
Every single dollar makes a difference.

Donate now
logo logo logo logo logo
See comments

You might also like
Amid Disappearing Federal Funds, Could New York Be a Model for City-Level Health?
Rebecca L. Root
Madeleine L’Engle’s Books Were Never Meant to Be “Safe”
Charlotte Jones Voiklis
The Human Cost of Cutting Medicaid
Rebekah Barber
As Long as Social Media Is Around, Can We Really Break Free of Overconsumption?
Anmol Irfan
Flood Insurance Is Becoming Unaffordable—Can Community-Based Catastrophe Insurance Help?
Cinnamon Janzer
Arab and Muslim Advocates Fight Back Against Federal Repression
María Constanza Costa

Upcoming Webinars

Group Created with Sketch.
May 27th, 2:00 pm ET

Ask the Nonprofit Lawyer

Register
Group Created with Sketch.
June 26th, 2:00 pm ET

From Performance Management to Mutual Commitment

Fostering a Culture of Joyful Accountability

Register

    
You might also like
US Capitol Building
Tax Provision Would Give Trump Administration Unilateral...
Rebekah Barber and Isaiah Thompson
A piggy bank wearing a graduation hat and standing on a pile of cash, symbolizing how endowments for academic institutions can be accessed in difficult times.
Endowments Aren’t Blank Checks—but Universities Can Rely...
Ellen P. Aprill
Saving AmeriCorps: What’s at Stake and Why We Must Act Now
Hillary Kane

Like what you see?

Subscribe to the NPQ newsletter to have our top stories delivered directly to your inbox.

See our newsletters

By signing up, you agree to our privacy policy and terms of use, and to receive messages from NPQ and our partners.

  • About
  • Advertise
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • Copyright
  • Donate
  • Editorial Policy
  • Funders

We are using cookies to give you the best experience on our website.

 

Non Profit News | Nonprofit Quarterly
Powered by  GDPR Cookie Compliance
Privacy Overview

This website uses cookies so that we can provide you with the best user experience possible. Cookie information is stored in your browser and performs functions such as recognising you when you return to our website and helping our team to understand which sections of the website you find most interesting and useful.

Strictly Necessary Cookies

Strictly Necessary Cookie should be enabled at all times so that we can save your preferences for cookie settings.

If you disable this cookie, we will not be able to save your preferences. This means that every time you visit this website you will need to enable or disable cookies again.