Older Black woman seated and playing the organ on stage.

2024 NEA Jazz Master Amina Claudine Myers performing at the Tribute Concert at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington, DC. Photo by Jati Lindsay

Man wearing baseball cap playing guitar.

2023 NEA National Heritage Fellow Hill Country blues musician R.L. Boyce. Photo courtesy of Hypothetical

a single actor on stage is photographed against a dark house

The Theater Offensive presented Queer Purgatory at the Liberty Hotel for Fashionably LATE Thursdays in October 2021.

A man with glasses performs on the trombone. In the background behind him is a musician on the bass guitar.

2024 NEA Jazz Master Terence Blanchard performs at the 2024 NEA Jazz Masters Tribute Concert at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on April 13, 2024. Photo by Jati Lindsay

Black woman wearing glasses singing into a mic.

Almeta Ingram-Miller leading the 2022 NEA National Heritage Fellows the Legendary Ingramettes performance. Photo courtesy of Hypothetical

Man with short hair and beard on crutches dancing on stage.

Toby MacNutt during the Dancing Queerly Festival 2019. Photo by Robyn Nicole Film

What’s Happening at the NEA

Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson

Celebrate Black Music Month this June!

Denise Fairchild, who is an older Black woman with short salt and pepper hair

Healing, Bridging, Thriving: A Reflection on the Climate Arts Caucus

A new blog series. 

National Endowment for the Arts Upcoming Grants Webinars for June 1-15, 2024 June 11, 2024: FY25 GAP Arts Education Office Hours, 3:00 pm ~ 4:00 pm ET June 12, 2024: FY25 GAP Arts Education Office Hours, 3:00 pm ~ 4:00 pm ET June 13, 2024: FY25 Grants for Arts Projects Office Hours for Tribes and Native-serving Organizations, 3:00 pm ~ 4:00 pm ET Our Town FY25 Grant Guidelines Session, 2:00 pm ~ 3:00 pm ET

Find upcoming webinars on our Events page!

Featured News

See All News
A group of people stand outside holding copies of The House on Mango Street

Announcing the 2024-2025 National Endowment for the Arts Big Read Communities

A small group of adults sit at a work table creating medium-sized baskets in an indoor studio setting with natural light.

Creative Forces Announces Grants for Arts Engagement Projects to Support Military-Connected People

Text reading “Congratulations to the 2024 Winners!” next to the Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge Logo. Headshots of each winner with their name, song title, school, and school location

Announcing the Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge Winners

Winning Songs to be Performed in Concert on June 17. Watch at arts.gov.

Featured Stories

See All Stories
Devesh Chandra (left) and Veena Chandra (right) play North Indian classical music for children in a Schenectady School District classroom. Photo courtesy of New York Folklore Society
Blog

Our Town Grant Spotlight: Ancient Art in New Contexts

A man cradeling a harmonica and a microphone in his hands.
Podcast

Remembering Phil Wiggins (1954-2024)

Blues Harmonica Player and 2017 National Heritage Fellow
Historic photo of buildings burned down or bombed in Tulsa.
Magazine Article

Sacred Ground

A Commissioning Project to Commemorate the Tulsa Race Massacre

Grants

The National Endowment for the Arts awards grants to nonprofit organizations, creative writers and translators, state arts agencies, and regional arts organizations in support of arts projects across the country.
Go to the Grants section »
Volunteer to be an NEA panelist »

Impact

See the impact of the Arts Endowment on your state, and how the agency's work in research, accessibility, and other areas has had a major impact in the arts and culture of the country.
Go to the Impact section »

Some Facts about the National Endowment for the Arts

The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent federal agency that funds, promotes, and strengthens the creative capacity of our communities by providing all Americans with diverse opportunities for arts participation.

Approximately 2,700 Grants

Recommended for grant awards annually in all 50 states, DC, and U.S. territories.

More than 70 Percent

Percentage of Arts Endowment grants that go to small and medium-sized organizations (budgets up to $2 million).

Approximately 33 Percent

Percentage of Arts Endowment-funded activities in high-poverty communities.

Some Facts from the National Endowment for the Arts

These facts are based on the most recent data (2022) from the Arts and Cultural Production Satellite Account (ACPSA), which is produced jointly by the National Endowment for the Arts’ Office of Research & Analysis and the Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Commerce Department. The ACPSA tracks the annual economic impact of arts and cultural production from 35 industries, both commercial and nonprofit.

$1.1 trillion

Amount the arts and cultural industries contribute to the U.S. economy.

4.3 Percent

Percentage of the nation’s Gross Domestic Product is accounted for by arts and cultural industries.

Nearly 5.2 Million

Americans work in the arts and cultural industries on payroll.

Some Facts about the National Endowment for the Arts

The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent federal agency that funds, promotes, and strengthens the creative capacity of our communities by providing all Americans with diverse opportunities for arts participation.

62 Cents

The Arts Endowment’s annual cost to each American.

0.00337 Percent

The Arts Endowment’s percentage of the federal budget.

Nearly $6 Billion

Amount awarded by the Arts Endowment since its beginning in 1965.

Some Facts from the National Endowment for the Arts

These facts are based on the most recent data (2017) from the Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA), a national survey conducted in partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau that has allowed cultural policymakers, arts managers, scholars, and journalists to obtain reliable statistics about American patterns of arts engagement.

North Dakota

The state's residents attend live performing arts events at a higher rate than U.S. adults as a whole—with 62 percent for North Dakota residents versus 48.5 percent of U.S. adults.

Montana

Outperforms the national rate of attending art exhibits, with 33.5 percent of this state’s residents doing this activity versus 23 percent of Americans overall.

Oregon and Washington

Their literary reading rates (upwards of 60 percent) far exceed the U.S. as a whole (44 percent).

Some Facts about the National Endowment for the Arts

The National Endowment for the Arts is an independent federal agency that funds, promotes, and strengthens the creative capacity of our communities by providing all Americans with diverse opportunities for arts participation.

Approximately $8 million

Amount of arts education funding for lifelong learning projects annually.

More than 24 million

Estimated number of people who attend a live arts event annually.

42

Percentage of NEA grants awarded to localities of less than a million people.