FROM: Jonathan Katz, CEO, NASAA

NASAA members believe that broad and deep participation in the arts is best supported at the federal level by a combination of direct grant making and grant making through states. The specific allocation of $20 million to state arts agencies and their consortia verifies that Congressional leaders agree. Members of Congress demonstrated they understood that the portion of federal dollars that goes through state arts agencies can be targeted efficiently to those local places where jobs can be saved and created, can reach deeply into local communities and school systems, can assist arts organizations to make it through the recession and artists to market their products and services. Read more.