Dear Editor – Arts, Jobs and the Republicans

Light-bulb-0003-300x198According to The New York Times, “the White House budget office has drafted a hit list of programs that President Trump could eliminate to trim domestic spending, including longstanding conservative targets like the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, the Legal Services Corporation, AmeriCorps and the National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities.”

Because this is not an official White House position yet, you can still help us get a message to President Trump to say NO to these staff recommendations. Please sign our petition and stay involved with our advocacy campaign to protect federal support for the arts and culture.

We have a narrow window of time before the President officially releases his first budget in March/April. An important talking point that we have to work with is the federal government’s latest economic numbers on the arts and culture industry since the President has declared a focus on keeping and creating jobs in America.

This month, the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis released updated economic numbers on how the arts has grown to a $730 billion industry. This represents 4.2 percent of the nation’s GDP—a larger share of the economy than transportation, tourism, and agriculture—and directly employs 4.8 million people.

The National Endowments for the Arts and the Humanities are the largest and most important national funders of nonprofit arts and cultural organizations in America, leveraging up to 9 to 1 matches that help fuel a dynamic cultural economy and generate millions of American jobs.

If you’re pro-jobs, then you’re pro-arts too.

Here are some helpful resources to help you make your case:

Americans for the Arts Statement on Arts, Jobs, and the Economy

Infographic on Arts, Jobs, and the Economy

Visit the Arts Mobilization Center for tools, resources, and information to help make your case for the arts and arts education, as well as ways you can take action today.

Over 24,000 people and organizations (check out the list) have signed our national petition to President Donald Trump to continue funding the NEA. Our goal is 100,000 by March 21st. If you have not yet signed, please add your name here. If you have already signed, forward this email to 5 of your friends and urge them to sign the petition, too.

Thank you,

Nina Ozlu Tunceli
Executive Director Arts Action Fund

P.S. Want to bring your passion for arts advocacy, in person, to Washington, D.C.? Register for the Arts Advocacy Day conference on Capitol Hill on March 20-21, 2017.

The Actors' Gang

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