Arts Win Stimulus Bill Inclusion: $50 Million for NEA; Funds Available for Museums, Theaters, Art Centers (3 UPDATES)

Robert Lynch, President of Americans for the Arts

Culture Power!

A huge effort by arts advocates, including more than 80,000 e-mails (not counting faxes and phone calls) to members of Congress generated by the Arts Action Center of Americans for the Arts, has paid off:

Although my source (not Robert Lynch, above) did not want to be identified (because nothing is final until the House votes between 1-2 p.m. this afternoon and the Senate at 7 p.m. this evening), the final conferee version of the economic stimulus bill, I'm told, DOES contain $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts. This was previously in doubt, because it was in the House's bill but not the Senate's.

What's more, Sascha Freudenheim, a spokesperson for the Association of Art Museum Directors (who was not the source for the NEA update), informs me that the infamous Coburn amendment has been edited to delete the ban on funds for museums, art centers and theaters.

The language in the conferee bill, he said, now reads:

None of the funds appropriated or otherwise made available in this Act may be used by any State or local government, or any private entity for any casino or other gambling establishment, aquarium, zoo, golf course, or swimming pool.

Those sharks and pandas really need to get organized. On this, Freudenheim wrote:

Regarding the continued ban on zoo and aquarium funding---because the House had also accepted the zoo ban to begin with and the Senate vote on Coburn was so overwhelming, I'm told it is less surprising that this piece stayed in while museums and other items were removed.

All arts advocacy groups deserve credit for a job well done.

UPDATE: Smithsonian Institution spokesperson Becky Haberacker tells me that the final conferee bill contains a mere $25 million for Smithsonian facilities improvement, down from $150 million in the House's bill and $75 million in the Senate's.

UPDATE 2: The PDF document containing the culture-related portion of the conferee bill is here. The Smithsonian passage is on p. 48; NEA on p. 49. (I can't find the slight to zoos and aquariums.)

UPDATE 3: NEA's press release on its good fortune is here. NEA states:

The agency is working to finalize guidelines and procedures based on current grant-making practices and will make awards that result in job retention.