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VISUAL FACT SHEET

The National Endowment for is committed Funding through the to supporting activity—, , visual arts program, , , , , and 1966-2016: public —that demonstrates exceptional aesthetic investigation and meaningful community engagement. $164.5 million

ADVANCING LEARNING National Endowment for the Arts-funded visual arts • Through lectures, often raise critical issues organizations offer a wide array of public programs. facing , helping initiate dialogue about contemporary concerns. • The visual arts encompass a variety of mediums, making them accessible to a wide range of National Endowment for the Arts funding supports audiences. professional development for art teachers to enhance their skills and for non-arts teachers to incorporate • According to the NEA’s Survey of Public visual arts into the curriculum. Participation in the Arts, visual arts is the second most commonly studied art form, after , • Programs offered by visual arts organizations with nearly one-fifth of all American adults having provide flexible and focused means for teachers taken visual art classes at some point in their to gain high quality arts instruction. lifetime. • NEA-funded visual arts exhibitions can include • In the NEA Military Healing Arts Network, the resources for teachers to bring the insights medical protocol for troops suffering from post- offered by an exhibition into the classroom. traumatic stress disorder and other mental health issues includes mask-making classes.

FUELING The National Endowment for the Arts makes a The National Endowment for the Arts is one of the significant investment in the creation of new work. key funders of commissions.

• Through support of the visual arts, the NEA funds • Through its support of public art commissions, innovative arts/ and arts/technology the NEA collaborates with municipal agencies projects. and departments, arts and cultural organizations, artists, and community residents. • Visual arts fellowships were awarded to approximately 5,000 artists between 1966 and • Public art is a key activity for creative 1995, giving key support to artists often early placemaking projects, helping to bring the in their careers, support that continues today arts to the center of community development through project grants. conversations.

• In the past 10 years, the NEA awarded $12.8 million to support programs that give artists the time, space, and resources to create. CONNECTING AND CELEBRATING

The National Endowment for the Arts has supported The National Endowment for the Arts supports art thousands of exhibitions. documentation, restoration, and conservation.

• In the past 10 years, the NEA has awarded $6.5 • NEA funding helps visual arts organizations care million to support visual arts exhibitions. for their collections, including creating online digital archives that are widely accessible. • In addition to visual art organizations, exhibitions have been funded at health care facilities, local • NEA funding helps artists care for their own work, development corporations, community colleges, including the National Center for Creative Aging historic estates, school districts, and a Art Cart, where graduate students work with older parking authority. artists to prepare, preserve, and document each ’s life’s work. • The NEA funded Children’s Memorial in Chicago, IL for light-based installations on the • NEA funding helped restore artwork such inpatient care floor where children with infectious as WPA-era in Cedar Rapids, IA and diseases and cystic fibrosis are treated. Mobridge, SD.

The National Endowment for the Arts works to assure The National Endowment for the Arts makes a the greatest access to the visual arts by supporting significant investment in visual arts publications in innovative programs such as mobile art and print and online, providing learning resources for digital programming. audiences of all ages.

• Mobile art programs include the Art Mobile of • Over the past 10 years, the NEA has awarded Montana’s travelling exhibition of works by the more than $2 million to support visual arts state’s visual artists, including many Native magazines and journals, including Sculpture American artists. magazine, Public Art Review and Nueva Luz, a bilingual photography journal. • Discussion platforms and mobile apps give the public new ways to engage with art work.

BUILDING THE FIELD

The National Endowment for the Arts visual arts • Through visual arts, the NEA supports projects category works with a spectrum of nonprofit arts and dedicated to environmental issues such as cultural organizations, including those that are not Michael Singer’s project for the Palm Beach focused primarily on the arts. County Board of County Commissioners in Florida that regenerated a stretch of shoreline. • Through visual arts, the NEA supports endeavors dedicated to socially relevant public art projects • Through visual arts, the NEA supports residency such as Project Row Houses in Houston, TX, a programs across the country that provide artists community-based art and housing collaboration. the opportunity to reflect, research, and create.