Now More than Ever: Applying to the NEA is a Political Act

About two weeks ago I had the pleasure of engaging with Sarah Cunningham, the Director of Education at the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA), as she spoke with the students in the Arts in Education graduate program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education. I first met Sarah a few years ago when she was speaking at an Arts Education Partnership forum in Dallas. I didn’t expect her to remember our brief meeting over boxed lunches from back in the day (and indeed she didn’t), but I was very excited to hear that the 20UNDER40 anthology was on her radar, and that she felt the anthology was an important contribution to the dialogue on the future of the arts.

All this being said, what really struck me about Sarah’s visit to Harvard was one simple message she left with the graduate students: think of applying to the NEA as a political act.

At a time when the NEA is at risk of experiencing massive budget cuts, Sarah makes a great point. As an advocate and policy maker for the arts, and specifically for the NEA’s funding for arts education, the more applications that come rolling across her desk seeking funding for arts education, the better Sarah can make an argument that there is an actual need for federal support for such services in the US.

Applying for an NEA grant is a difficult endeavor, not without its flaws, but the process of putting in an application can be a great experience for anyone who takes their work in the arts and arts education seriously. I know from my experience working on the 20UNDER40 anthology that many people who submitted chapter proposals—whether they were accepted for publication or not—said the process of just submitting an application was incredibly rewarding in that it helped folks to really solidify their visions and find the language to express abstract ideas they’ve long held important to them.

In addition, as Sarah notes, applying to the NEA is indeed a political act. Applications received are data. They express a need for certain services, as well as a need for support of the arts across the country. Again, to connect Sarah’s expression to my own experience with 20UNDER40, the overwhelming response we had to the call for chapter proposals served as data for me to fall back on when making my case for the importance of raising the voices of young and emerging arts leaders throughout the cultural sector. Essentially, the response to the 20UNDER40 call for chapter proposals, in and of itself, yielded an important work of advocacy. Every chapter proposal served as a political act. In aggregate, each of these solitary acts combined to form what Eric Booth has referred to as a new movement in the field of the arts and arts education.

I’m grateful to Sarah Cunningham for giving this concept language. And I agree with her: applying to the NEA is indeed both a process of personal growth and a political act. However you feel about the NEA, Rocco Landesman, #SupplyDemand, the recent proposals from Obama and others to cut the agency’s funding (or eliminate the Endowment altogether), if you want to make some noise about the importance of the arts in America, then apply to the NEA. While you’re at it, apply to any number of state, local, and foundation opportunities for funding in the arts. Applications received articulate need. It’s important data for people like me, Sarah, and many other advocates of the arts and arts education to have.

And it’s good for you.

It’s good for the arts.

It’s good for all of us.

Thanks Sarah…

Advertisement