A MARTÍNEZ, HOST:
Wherever you live, there's likely a theater or children's museum near you that's being supported, in part, by the federal government. Thousands of arts organizations across the country receive grants from various federal agencies. But the amount the government spends on the arts can change. NPR's Elizabeth Blair is here to talk about what arts funding might look like when President-elect Donald Trump takes office. So, Elizabeth, The Kennedy Center, The Smithsonian, National Gallery of Art - they're all institutions in the nation's capital that get federal funds. What about the rest of the country? What about places like that around the country?
ELIZABETH BLAIR, BYLINE: Well, for the rest of the country, the primary sources are the National Endowment for the Arts - the NEA - and the National Endowment for the Humanities - the NEH. And we should note here that NPR gets some funding from the NEA. Their budgets are relatively small, some would say minuscule. But it is vital financial support to thousands of small and medium-sized arts organizations in every state, in every discipline, so, like, an after-school music program in Florida to art therapy for veterans in Texas.
MARTÍNEZ: All right. So how much money are we talking about?
BLAIR: Looking at just the arts endowment, its budget is currently $207 million. So contrast that with, say, the National Science Foundation - it's also a grant-making organization - which has a budget of more than $9 billion. And I should note here that the NEA partners with lots of different government agencies, including the National Science Foundation. They do things like studying how the arts impact human development.
MARTÍNEZ: Wondering, though, how does the NEA get money to the rest of the country?
BLAIR: It's a very competitive grant application process. Thousands of organizations apply, and usually, only a fraction of them get grants. They need to make the case for how they'll spend it, what kind of reach they'll have in their communities and if they have a proven track record. About 60% of the NEA's grants go directly out to the country, out to small- and medium-sized arts organizations. The other 40% goes to state arts agencies. I talked to David Lewis, who heads the Mississippi State Arts Commission. He explained what they do with a combined budget of their state legislature money and money from the NEA.
DAVID LEWIS: We gave over, I think, 360 grants last year all across the state of Mississippi, and they range from $500 to individual artists, up to 24, $25,000 for organizations for operating support. As well as, up to half a million dollars for our building fund for the arts grant - which services building projects, construction projects - all across the state. Whether it's a library in Pickens, Mississippi or the Mississippi Museum of Art - the range is quite dynamic.
MARTÍNEZ: Elizabeth, if I remember correctly when Donald Trump was president, he tried to eliminate both the NEA and the National Endowment for the Humanities but couldn't quite get it done. How come?
BLAIR: That's right. Two reasons - there is bipartisan support for arts and cultural funding in Congress, so those calls for cuts were rejected. The other reason is data. There have been lots of studies that show the economic impact of the arts on local communities. So small theaters, museums can help boost local economies. Tooshar Swain is director of public policy at the Americans for the Arts, which is an advocacy group that studies this.
TOOSHAR SWAIN: People who go to performing arts events and how they spend on average of about $38 on things that are not part of the price of admission - so thinking about things like going to restaurants, going for drinks, the cost of hiring a babysitter.
MARTÍNEZ: Yeah, that makes sense. Arts-adjacent costs, right?
BLAIR: Exactly.
MARTÍNEZ: That's Elizabeth Blair, correspondent on NPR's culture desk. Elizabeth, thanks.
BLAIR: Thank you.
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