A young woman with glasses and two long braids speaks into a microphone

2023 Poetry Out Loud National Champion Sreepadaarchana Munjuluri. Photo by James Kegley

Man in white garb with bells on his ankles dancing next to man dressed in black tap-dancing.

2009 NEA National Heritage Fellow Chitresh Das on stage with tap dancer Jason Samuel Smith at the annual tribute concert. Photo by Michael G. Stewart

Street shot of Times Square in NYC with colorful posters of Asian men displayed.

Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya's portraits in Times Square celebrating the expansive diversity and individuality of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in New York City as part of the public art series We Are More. Photo by Maria Baranova

A stage production photo of two people ornately dressed in a boat with the moon behind them.

A 2016 production of Cerise Lim Jacobs’ first opera libretto, Madame White Snake. Photo by James Matthew Daniel

What’s Happening at the NEA

Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson

Chair Jackson Celebrates Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month 2024

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2024 Poetry Out Loud Semifinals

May 01, 2024
09:00 am ~ 08:00 pm ET

Calendar of grant workshops

Find upcoming webinars on our Events page!

Featured News

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Logo of red lines for ACPSA

Arts & Cultural Sector Hit All-Time High in 2022 Value Added to U.S. Economy 

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High School Students from Across Nation to Compete in Poetry Out Loud National Finals

Watch Students Compete for $20,000 Grand Prize May 1-2, 2024

collage of 10 artists announcing the 2024 NEA National Heritage Fellowships

National Endowment for the Arts Announces 2024 NEA National Heritage Fellows

Featured Stories

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Record label president, founder and president of Hello in There Foundation, and National Council on the Arts member
Blog

The Artful Life Questionnaire: Fiona Whelan Prine (Nashville, TN)

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Podcast

Diana Abu-Jaber

Author
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Video

NEA Jazz Masters: Tribute to Terence Blanchard

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 2,300 Grants

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

More than 60 Percent

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

35 Percent

Percentage of Arts Endowment grants reach low-income audiences or underserved populations.

Some Facts from the National Endowment for the Arts

These facts are based on the most recent data (2021) 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.

Just over $1 trillion

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

4.4 Percent

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

Just under 4.9 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.

54 Cents

The Arts Endowment’s annual cost to each American.

0.003 Percent

The Arts Endowment’s percentage of the federal budget.

$5.6 Billion

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

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.

Around 41 Million Americans

Attend a live arts event supported by the Arts Endowment annually.

More than 36,000

Concerts, readings, and performances are supported annually.

More than 6,000

Exhibitions are supported annually as well.

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 funding of arts education projects annually.

74.7 Percent

Arts education projects (preK-12) that directly engage with underserved populations.

3 Times More Likely

8- to. 12-grade students from low socioeconomic backgrounds who received arts education to earn a bachelor's degree than those who did not.