NEA Chairwoman Says She’s Not Concerned By Power Shift In Congress

The chairwoman of the National Endowment for the Arts says she’s not concerned about a power shift in Washington, D.C. threatening arts funding.

The NEA annual budget is $146 million, about $1 million of which was spent in direct grants to Wisconsin this year.

NEA chair Jane Chu visited a Sheboygan arts center on Thursday to announce a $60,000 grant for the facilities. Afterward, she said Republicans taking control of the U.S. Senate shouldn’t to lead to the NEA budget being cut. Chu said the arts are a public good, can be part of treatment programs for wounded veterans and often spark local grants that easily top the federal money.

“One plus one is no longer two in the arts. One plus one equals nine and 10,” said Chu. “That’s a great way to make an impact.”

While Chu praised the state-run Wisconsin Arts Board, the state ranks 48th nationally in arts funding per capita, with just $0.14 spent per resident every year. The board’s executive director George Tzougros said he’s waiting for budget instructions from Gov. Scott Walker, but hopes his board of directors convinces Walker to put more money into arts.

“We’d certainly like to see a bump in the general revenue just so that we could continue to increase the dollars given to the arts organization,” said Tzougros.

Meanwhile, an advocacy group called Arts Wisconsin says it will go back to the Legislature with an initiative to allow state investment in so-called “creative communities.” The group’s Anne Katz said the measure didn’t become law last year, but is still alive.

“We have not been sitting around saying, ‘Oh dear, what do we do?’ We’ve been talking to candidates. We’ve been talking to legislators,” said Katz.

Katz said the initiative could be part of the state budget debate, or be separate legislation.