National Endowmentfor the Arts
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National Endowment for the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts [NBA] was implemented on
September 29, 1965, by President Lyndon B. Johnson. It was
originally designed to federally fund and promote artistic projects
including music, museums, theater, dance, media arts, and visual
arts. The funds increased from $7.8 million in fiscal 1969 to $171
million at the end of fiscal 1990. However, this was only a portion
of total art spending which included sums directed to museum
development, to the Smithsonian Institution, and to some projects
of the National Park System. Compared with the spending of other
industrialized capitalist nations, the sums spent on art agencies
by the American government have always been small. Actually the
United Stated indulged its culture-mongers with a 71 cents per
capita which amounted to less than 0.1 percent of the federal
budget. Congress sought to keep politics out the endowment's
grant-selection process and called for the establishment of a panel
to screen grant applications...