Latest Updates & Issues
A persuasive advocate should be up to date on the key issues affecting the opera sector.
Read the latest news on advocacy efforts prepared by OPERA America's Director of Government Affairs — and check back for regular updates.
Review the key issues affecting opera and the arts with downloadable briefs prepared by the Cultural Action Group.
Advocacy Update
Issued February 21, 2025
Executive Orders and Impact to the Arts
Since his inauguration, President Trump has signed dozens of Executive Orders covering a broad range of issues, including diversity, equity, and inclusion programs; government grants, contract, and agencies; and immigration. To help track the rapidly developing new executive orders, the National Council of Nonprofits (NCN) has created the following chart, which is being updated with overviews of each executive order and related action:
National Endowment for the Arts FY26 Grant Guidelines Updates
On February 18, 2025, the National Endowment for the Arts hosted a webinar to speak about the updated grant guidelines. Updates include:
- The NEA has canceled the Challenge America grant for FY26, stating a staff-resource challenge. Perspective applicants must now apply for the Grants for Arts Project (GAP) program.
- The NEA has updated its Assurance of Compliance, a required declaration for all applicants, incorporating new language related to the Executive Order’s on diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) initiatives and gender-related programming:
- The applicant will comply with all applicable Executive Orders while the award is being administered. Executive orders are posted at: whitehouse.gov/presidential-actions.
- The applicant’s compliance in all respects with all applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws is material to the U.S. Government’s payment decisions for purposes of section 3729(b)(4) of title 31, United States Code, pursuant to Executive Order No. 14173, Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity, dated January 21, 2025.
- The applicant will not operate any programs promoting “diversity, equity, and inclusion” (DEI) that violate any applicable Federal anti-discrimination laws, in accordance with Executive Order No. 14173.
- The applicant understands that federal funds shall not be used to promote gender ideology, pursuant to Executive Order No. 14168, Defending Women From Gender Ideology Extremism and Restoring Biological Truth to the Federal Government.
- The NEA has increased its emphasis on funding projects that align with America250, the U.S. semiquincentennial celebration.
- Applicants must cite at least 5 years of arts programming before the application deadline.
More information can be found at the National Endowment for the Arts’ website here.
Multi-State Guidance Concerning Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Employment Initiatives
On February 13, a coalition of state attorneys general issued Multi-State Guidance Concerning Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility Employment Initiatives, affirming that DEIA best practices remain legal and that the federal government lacks authority to ban lawful private-sector activities through executive orders. Read the Multi-State Guidance here.
Continued Tax Reform Discussions
Two tax provisions long supported by OPERA America and our coalition partners. Senators James Lankford (R-OK) and Chris Coons (D-DE) reintroduced The Charitable Act (S.317), to provide a charitable deduction for gifts by taxpayers who do not itemize their returns, which is proven to increase giving. The House counterpart, H.R. 801, has been introduced by Blake Moore (R-UT) joined by Carol Miller (R-WV), Danny Davis (D-IL), and Chris Pappas (D-NH). The Performing Arts Tax Parity Act has been reintroduced by Reps. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) and Judy Chu (D-CA) which would update the salary threshold for the Qualified Performing Artist Tax Deduction and support essential work-related expenses.
FY25 Appropriations
With the March 14 stopgap deadline rapidly approaching, appropriators are considering a stopgap extension to finalize full-year bills. Despite this, Senate Appropriations ranking member Patty Murray, D-Wash., acknowledged Thursday that the two sides are “very close” on landing on a fiscal 2025 topline figure in time to avoid a government shutdown before the March 14 deadline.
Congressional Arts Caucus
On February 18, OPERA America, as a member of the Cultural Advocacy Group attended a meeting with office representatives from Rep. Pingree (D-ME) and Rep. Turner (R-OH), co-chairs of the Congressional Arts Caucus. The Caucus, which advocates for arts-related legislation, including NEA funding, will seek to expand its bipartisan membership this spring.
The representatives emphasized the value of sharing specific constituent stories that speak to how the new Administration’s orders are impacting your funding, programs, and activities. Please email Megan Carpenter, senior manager of government affairs and civic practice, at MCarpenter@operaamerica.org if you are interested in sharing your stories.
Key Advocacy Issues
Prepare to take action by reviewing the key issues with downloadable briefs prepared by the Cultural Action Group.
National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)
Promoting Creativity and Public Access to the Arts
Download the following issue brief as a printable PDF. Updated 2024.
ACTION NEEDED
We urge Congress to:
- Continue bipartisan support and robust funding for the National Endowment for the Arts in the FY 2025 Interior Appropriations bill for at least $211 million to broaden access to the cultural, educational, and economic benefits of the arts and to advance creativity and innovation in communities across the United States.
- We support continued parity between NEA and NEH funding. We encourage the Subcommittee to build a specific path to index funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities at $1 per capita. Each agency is currently funded at about 61 cents per capita.
The NEA: America's Lead Supporter of the Arts
The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) plays a unique role in broadening access to and participation in the arts in every congressional district and should be fully supported to expand and deepen its impact on our communities and our democracy. The arts sector is an economic engine which brings people together and helps to uplift, engage, educate, and innovate. The NEA can help leverage the arts sector to play a key role in the work to imagine and build a new American economy that reflects the diversity of our communities and art forms.
The Endowment fulfills its goals through awarding 60% of its grantmaking budget to arts organizations while awarding 40% to state and regional arts agencies, an extraordinary example of federal/state partnership. Key facts about the NEA:
- It annually recommends about 2,300 grants, reaching every Congressional District. The majority of grants go to small and medium-sized organizations (budgets less than $2 million) and support projects that increase audience access to arts programming.
- 35% of Arts Endowment grants take place in high-poverty neighborhoods.
- 35% of grants reach low-income audiences of under-resourced populations such as people with disabilities, people in institutions, and Veterans.
- Federal agencies and nonprofit organizations partner with the Arts Endowment on national initiatives, using the arts as a platform for enhancing the quality of life for all. Such partnership examples include: Creative Forces, Poetry Out Loud, Musical Theater Songwriting Challenge, NEA Big Read, Blue Star Museums, and the Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design.
- Approximately 4,000 communities are served each year through NEA grants, with many grant programs designed to tour to surrounding areas as well. Around 41 million Americans annually attend a live arts event supported by the NEA, including approximately 36,000 concerts, readings, and performances, and 6,000 exhibitions. Millions more attend these events and access other artistic and educational experiences online.
- In 2021, the NEA managed a recovery fund of $135 million provided through the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act. The first $52 million (40%) was granted through the state arts agencies. The remaining $80 million was allocated to 633 arts organizations and local arts agencies to help the arts and cultural sector recover from the pandemic. The NEA received more than 7,500 eligible applications requesting $695 million in total assistance. Of those that were awarded NEA ARP funding, 18% were new NEA applicants; 27% percent are new NEA grantees; 28% had annual budgets less than $250,000; 42% were in high‐poverty areas; and 70% had not received any other type of federal grant in the last ten years.
- In 2024, the NEA partnered with the White House Domestic Policy Council to co-host “Healing, Bridging, Thriving: A Summit on Arts and Culture in our Communities” a first-of-its-kind national convening which brought together leaders from across sectors, including government officials, policymakers, artists, arts advocates, academics, philanthropic, labor, and community leaders, and the public. This leadership and whole of government convening began an effort to use the arts and humanities to improve efforts to address a wide range of issues confronting society.
Provides a High Return on Investment
- The NEA’s FY 2024 budget is $207 million and the Administration has proposed an FY25 budget of $210.1 million. The ratio of private and other public funds matching every NEA grant dollar will approach 9:1, far surpassing the required non-federal match of at least 1:1. This generated more than $500 million in matching support and illustrates why federal support for the arts is uniquely valuable.
- The Bureau of Economic Analysis and the NEA together calculate the arts and culture sector’s contributions to the gross domestic product. In 2022, arts and culture added over $1.1 trillion, or 4.3 percent, to national GDP. Analysis shows that the total economic value added by arts and cultural industries grew by 4.8 percent from 2021-2022. Performing arts organizations saw a steep decline in value added between 2020 and 2021. Between 2021 and 2022, however, the industry made a sharp comeback (an increase of 76.5 percent). Despite this rise, the value added by performing arts organizations is still below the pre-pandemic (2019) level. Arts and cultural employment nationwide increased 6.4 percent in 2022. The total number of arts and cultural jobs for the nation was 5.2 million. Arts and cultural employment increased in 45 states and the District of Columbia. From 2021 through 2022, arts and cultural exports continued to increase; the trade surplus rose from $15.5 billion to $21.0 billion—making the arts a powerful export industry.
- Arts & Economic Prosperity 6 (AEP6) is an economic and social impact study of the nation’s nonprofit arts and culture industry. Nationally, the sector generated $151.7 billion of economic activity in 2022—$73.3 billion in spending by arts and culture organizations and an additional $78.4 billion in event-related expenditures by their audiences. What was the impact of this economic activity? It supported 2.6 million jobs, provided $101 billion in personal income to residents, and generated $29.1 billion in tax revenue to local, state, and federal governments.
Broadens Access and Equity
- The arts sector is a powerful conduit for bridging and healing deep divisions. The NEA can help redress systemic injustice—including long-time inequities in arts funding, as well as supporting a platform for audiences to experience creativity from many cultures.
- The NEA is establishing and cultivating ongoing relationships with Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), building capacity for successful applications, and has made recent grants to HBCUs, including Bennett College in Greensboro, NC and Southern University at New Orleans.
- The NEA strives to ensure that all Americans have access to the arts no matter where they live. Among the NEA’s accomplishments is the growth of arts activity in areas of the nation that have been under-resourced, especially in rural and inner-city communities. The Challenge America funding category specifically supports projects that expand access to populations whose opportunities to experience the arts are limited by geography, economics, or disability.
- A significant percentage of grants benefit those who have fewer opportunities to participate in the arts via Challenge America grants and many Grants for Arts Project grants that offer free or reduced-price performances. And, with data showing the growth of America's aging population (from 13.1% to 16.9% in the past decade), the NEA is promoting positive physical and mental health outcomes by supporting creative aging projects and programs that teach traditional arts knowledge to the next generation. NEA grants also make programming available in schools and public community gathering places.
Supports Partnerships
- The NEA funds school- and community-based programs that help children and youth acquire knowledge and skills in the arts. It also supports educational programs for adults, collaborations between state arts agencies and state education agencies, and partnerships between arts institutions and K-12 and college and university educators.
- The NEA supports military families through its Creative Forces program, a collaboration with the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs to serve the unique and special needs of military patients and Veterans diagnosed with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and psychological health conditions such as post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Last year, the Creative Forces initiative awarded Creative Forces Community Engagement grants to fund nonclinical art programs for active military members, Veterans, and family/caregivers. Grants totaling more than $760,000 were awarded to 34 US organizations, including Museum of Glass in Tacoma, WA, Cohesion Dance Project in Helena, MT, and West Nebraska Arts Center in rural Scottsbluff, NE.
Institute of Museum & Library Services: Office of Museum Services
Funding Request
Download the following issue brief as a printable PDF. Updated 2022.
ACTION NEEDED
We urge Congress to:
- Provide robust funding of at least $52 million in fiscal year (FY) 2023 for the IMLS Office of Museum Services, a much needed increase of $14 million.
- Include funding for the agency to explore establishing a roadmap to strengthen the structural support for a museum Grants to States program administered by OMS, as authorized by the Museum and Library Services Act, 20 U.S.C. Section 9173(a)(4), in addition to the agency’s current direct grants to museums.
Talking Points
- The Institute of Museum and Library Services has strong bipartisan support, and has been lauded for its peer-reviewed, highly competitive grant programs.
- By leveraging significant private, state, and local funding, OMS grants amplify a small federal investment for maximum impact in the community.
- There is high demand for funding from the IMLS Office of Museum Services. In FY 2021 OMS received 943 applications requesting more than $154 million, but current funding has allowed the agency to fund only a small fraction of the highly rated grant applications it receives.
Background
IMLS is the primary federal agency responsible for helping museums connect people to information and ideas. Its Office of Museum Services (OMS) awards grants to museums to support educating students, preserving and digitizing collections, and engaging communities. Grants are awarded in every state, but current funding has allowed the agency to fund only a small fraction of the highly rated grant applications it receives.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, OMS has provided critical leadership to the museum community through its CARES Act and American Rescue Plan grants, and the agency has been providing science-based information and recommended practices to reduce the risk of transmission of COVID-19 to staff and visitors engaging in the delivery of museum services.
Congress has regularly reauthorized IMLS with broad bipartisan support, most recently in 2018. OMS has set a strong record of congressional support during the appropriations submission process in each of the last several years, with 151 Representatives and 42 Senators signing the FY 2021 appropriations letters on its behalf.
In FY 2022, Congress provided $268 million to IMLS, of which about $47.5 million was directed to the Office of Museum Services. With this funding, OMS provided 275 grants totaling $40.5 million to museums and related organizations in 44 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
The FY 2023 Administration budget request for OMS is $52 million.
Equitable Access to Elementary and Secondary Arts Education
Helping Children Achieve in School, Work, and Life
Download the following policy brief as a printable PDF. Updated 2024.
ACTION NEEDED
We urge Congress to:
- Strengthen equitable access to arts education through the Well-Rounded Education provisions of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA).
- Co-sponsor the “Arts Education for All” bill introduced by Rep. Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), HR 5463.
- Fund the U.S. Department of Education’s Assistance for Arts Education program at $40 million.
- Provide $1.65 billion in support for the Student Support & Academic Enrichment Grants under Title IV, Part A of ESSA, to support Well-Rounded Education.
- Provide $2.09 billion in support for the Nita Lowey 21st Century Community Learning Centers (21stCCLC) after-school program.
- Require the U.S. Department of Education to issue policy memoranda promoting the eligibility under current law for the arts to be supported through Title I funds and through professional development opportunities for arts educators under Title II.
- Provide at least $4 million for the Institute of Education Science (IES) to implement a Fast Response Survey System (FRSS) study in the arts and support other external efforts to collect arts education data, and include pre-K-12 arts education in the National Teacher and Principal Survey and other data instruments.
- Through both appropriations and the reauthorization of the Education Sciences Reform Act (ESRA), require and appropriately fund the inclusion of the arts in the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), including full and robust assessments in dance, theater, media arts, music, and visual arts.
Talking Points
- The arts and music are included as part of a “Well-Rounded Education” in federal law. This designation—alongside reading, math, science, and other subjects—is confirmation that the arts are essential to a complete education and belong in the main instructional day. Senate report language described the arts as “dance, media arts, music, theater, and visual arts, and other arts disciplines as determined by the State or local educational agency.” Federal education funding (such as Title I, teacher training, and school improvement) is directed to support all aspects of a well-rounded education, including the arts. As part of its commitment to equity and justice, the White House, and Congress should affirm arts education as a right for all children and encourage state and local education authorities to use federal funding to provide arts education, as is authorized by the Elementary and Secondary Education Act.
- Students in our nation’s highest-poverty schools have the least access to arts education. Persistent disparities in access to arts education in the schools must be addressed. The 2009–2010 U.S. Department of Education’s Fast Response Statistical Survey—the most recent data collected at the federal level—found that schools with a higher concentration of students in poverty were less likely to offer arts education. A report released by the Arts Education Data Project - a nonprofit initiative - in 2022 found that more than 2 million students in U.S. public schools have no access to any arts education. The majority of these students attend schools in major urban or very rural communities; have a high percentage of students from low-income families; and represent a student population that is majority Black, Hispanic, or Native American. As Education Secretary Miguel Cardona stated in 2023, raising the bar means that we must "pursue good pedagogy and a well-rounded education that includes and embraces the arts and rejects school experiences that are narrow to only what is tested."
- Federal data that transparently and comprehensively reports on arts education is long overdue. The Fast Response Statistical Survey measuring access to arts education has not been administered since 2010. The National Assessment Governing Board (NAGB) has removed the arts from the schedule of NAEP assessments, which measures what students are learning in the arts and is the only nationally recognized assessment in the arts outside of limited Advanced Placement assessments. With little notice to the arts education community, or to Congress, the arts, along with economics, geography, and foreign languages, were removed from the 10-year calendar of assessments beginning in 2020. The 2014 National Core Arts Standards can serve as a foundation for creating reliable measures of what children know and are able to do in dance, media arts, music, theater, and visual arts. Since their release, 39 states have adopted or adapted the Core Standards. Data collection must be immediately reinstated to inform opportunities to improve access to and advancements in arts education.
- Students are increasingly in need of environments that support active engagement in learning and student wellness. Access to arts learning can motivate students to attend school and has been shown to significantly reduce chronic absenteeism rates, which have significantly increased across the nation following the COVID-19 pandemic. Research indicates that a welcoming school environment that nurtures student wellness can help students cope with social isolation and encourage self-expression in a safe and positive way. The arts, through a rich partnership among certified arts educators, teaching artists, and community providers, play a valuable role in helping students and their families build and sustain community and cultural connections.
- Federal resources should support the many schools that are struggling to recruit and retain arts educators, which will impact the quality of these programs and their availability in the future. According to IES, 35 percent of all public schools that had teaching vacancies during the 2022-23 school year found it very difficult or were not able to fill vacancies in music or art. Greater challenges were experienced by schools serving a high percentage of students eligible for free or reduced-price lunches.
- Education leaders at the national, state, and local levels are calling on policy makers to recognize that arts education is a key to igniting students’ learning. The Arts ARE Education campaign affirms: arts education helps nurture healthy, inclusive communities where all points of view are respected and help students understand their own cultural roots and appreciate others’ cultural roots and traditions; arts education supports the social and emotional well-being of students.
- Title IV-A funds are making a difference. A pre-pandemic non-scientific survey found that more than $30 million of Title IV-A funds were helping increase access for students to music and arts education in 26 states. With the ESSER funding being obligated by September 2024, these Title IV-A funds will be needed even more to support Well-Rounded Education activities and avoid transfers into other programs.
- Congress should fund the 21st Century Community Learning Centers at $2.09 billion, allowing after-school programs to fully embrace the arts as a learning opportunity for all students in and out of the traditional school day.
- The U.S. Department of Education provides grants through the Assistance for Arts Education (AAE) program to strengthen the arts as part of a well-rounded education. The AAE program at the U.S. Department of Education is authorized under Title IV of the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), and has received consistent bipartisan support from Congress year after year. A newly-launched U.S. Department of Education resource center highlights funded projects.
Strengthening the Arts in Higher Education
Putting Students on a Path for an Affordable & Successful Future
Download the following policy brief as a printable PDF. Updated 2022.
ACTION NEEDED
We urge Congress to strengthen access to and affordability of higher education in the arts through supporting legislation that achieves the following:
- Funds federal financial aid at a level to ensure access to and affordability of higher education in a way that encourages students to pursue disciplines where they have the most interest and talent;
- Supports the Federal government's efforts to address diversity, equity and inclusion within higher education;
- Ensures the Department of Education’s role in properly implementing the Public Service Loan Forgiveness program as well as its oversight of for-profit higher education institutions.
Talking Points
- The Biden Administration supports doubling the Pell Grant maximum. Recent Congressional efforts to streamline the FAFSA and broaden access to federal financial aid to more students are a welcome start, but funding for the Pell Grants must increase significantly to return its impact on low and moderate income students, in turn driving economic recovery.
- We strongly encourage Congress to continue supporting a student-centered approach to funding higher education. Current federal financial aid policies equally support all students regardless of what they study or where they choose to obtain a higher education. Degree completion, regardless of major, is the most important factor to future success, and students should be encouraged to concentrate their studies where their interests and talents lead them. Regardless of career path, the arts contribute to the success of individuals in a variety of fields and the national economy.
- Closing racial equity gaps in education is good for the American economy. As stated in the American Rescue Plan, "an analysis shows that closing racial gaps in wages, housing credit, lending opportunities, and access to higher education would amount to an additional $5 trillion in GDP in the American economy over the next 5 years."
- Student loan debt is disproportionately held by students of color. Additionally, arts graduates have been overwhelmingly affected by the COVID-19 economic crisis. Meaningful debt forgiveness would both address previous inequities in support for federal financial aid and the particular economic stresses incurred recently by creative workers.
- Congress enacted the Public Service Loan Forgiveness (PSLF) program with bipartisan support in 2007, partly to create incentives for motivated and committed individuals to pursue careers in service to the public. PSLF is a vital tool in allowing talented and highly trained employees from all socioeconomic backgrounds to work at organizations that make an impact in their community, if implemented as intended.
- 35% of all recent arts degree graduates said that debt levels had a “major” impact on their educational and career decisions, compared to only 14% of non-recent grads (from the Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP), 2017).
- For-profit colleges, a substantial number of which offer arts degrees, must be properly monitored to reduce their incentive to maximize profits over student success. The highest percentage of the most extreme levels of student debt are held by those who attended for-profit institutions.
- Higher education in the arts is a valued investment in a career. According to the SNAAP, 90% of respondents rated their arts school experience as good or excellent, and 81% said their training is at least somewhat relevant to their current work regardless of whether or not they are a professional artist. Furthermore, 87% of master’s level respondents who intended to work as artists have done so with 62% working as artists and 72% working in a career related to the arts (artists, arts administrators, and arts educators).
Background
The last comprehensive reauthorization of the Higher Education Act (HEA) was in 2008. The HEA is the single most important piece of legislation overseeing the relationship between the federal government, colleges and universities, and students. It authorizes various federal aid programs within the Department of Education that support students pursuing a postsecondary education, including grant programs that support efforts to expand and increase access for low-income and first-generation students, such as Pell Grants. Whether addressed through reauthorization of the HEA in whole, or through targeted legislation, we urge Congress to take action on the above items.
In 2018, Congress funded Temporary Expanded PSLF (TEPSLF) to help borrowers who faced barriers obtaining PSLF loan forgiveness because they were on repayment plans that were ineligible for PSLF. According to the September 5, 2020, GAO Report on Public Service Loan Forgiveness, only 1% of PSLF requests were approved, even under TEPSLF, due to lack of marketing the expansion and an unclear multi-step process.
The Consolidated Appropriations Act of 2021 simplified the FAFSA and expanded access to Pell Grants to a broader segment of students through a new funding formula.
President Biden released an Executive Order on Advancing Racial Equity and Support for Underserved Communities Through the Federal Government in January 2021 that includes access to higher education as a critical role for the federal government in supporting racial equity.
Boosting the Creative Economy
Supporting Artists, Entrepreneurs, and Small Business
Download the following policy brief as a printable PDF. Updated 2022.
ACTION NEEDED
We urge Congress to:
- Support legislation to invest in the country’s creative economy and workforce and promote economic inclusion; to recognize artists, entrepreneurs, and nonprofit arts organizations as contributors to the small business community; improve and revitalize rural, remote, and underserved populations; and support the creative economy through federal programs and actions.
- Cosponsor these bills:
- Comprehensive Resources for Entrepreneurs in the Arts to Transform the Economy Act (CREATE Act) HR 6381 / S.3521
- Promoting Local Arts and Creative Economy Workforce Act (PLACE Act) HR 6569 / S.3560
- 21st Century Federal Writers Project Act (21CFWP) HR 3054
- Creative Economy Revitalization Act (CERA) HR 5019 / S. 2858
- Performing Arts Tax Parity Act (PATPA) HR 4750 / S. 2872
- Help Independent Tracks Succeed (HITS) Act H.R. 1945/S. 753
- Saving Transit Arts Resources Act (STAR Act) HR 2380
- Arts Education for All Act (AEFA) HR 5581
Talking Points
Equity
These bills would strengthen equity in the allocation of federal resources for the creative economy, particularly the creative workforce.
Racial and cultural equity, particularly through expanded support for artists and culture bearers, narratives from marginalized groups, and access to arts education, are central to this legislative agenda. Five of the bills address racial, geographic, economic, and cultural equity.
CERA and 21CFWP include specific calls to commission narratives from marginalized populations, and CERA and AEFA both center funding for arts education for all, including the support of culture bearers who carry traditional knowledge forward. PLACE adjusts policy to ensure Indigenous artisans earn fairer revenue from creative work and protects Native heritage, and CREATE expands access to capital for creative entrepreneurs, particularly in rural settings.
Workers & Training
Workers: The country’s 5.1 million creative workers have long been unable to fully access federal opportunities and programs; these bills seek to address this gap. Six of the bills directly impact the livelihoods of creative workers.
PLACE, PATPA, and HITS adjust tax codes that currently disadvantage artists so they can deduct fair value for donated work and/or access tax credits and deductions more appropriately. CERA and 21CFWP authorize direct-to-artist grants for work, while STAR ensures transit money can support creators of public art. AEFA invests in skill-building for creative educators and future workers, and PLACE, through various provisions, improves workforce policy for creative workers and increases access to capital for creative businesses.
Additionally, the possible reauthorization of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) could integrate creative workers and solo creative entrepreneurs more explicitly in its reauthorization process.
Education: The U.S. economy works best when future workers are fully prepared with the creativity and innovation skills that our current economy demands. Three of the bills expand and increase access to education in the arts, creativity, and innovation for all Americans. AEFA calls for universal arts education and rigorous research to measure and improve impact. CERA provides support to both in-school and community arts education, particularly of marginalized histories and heritages. Additionally, PLACE authorizes Creative Economy Apprenticeship Grants under the Department of Education to help teach future generations of the creative economy workforce and advance creativity as a tool for future innovation, providing a competitive edge.
Businesses
In the U.S., there are over 673,000 creative businesses—9-in-10 of them small or single-employee businesses—that will benefit from modest changes in current federal policy. Three of the bills bolster both creative businesses and entrepreneurs.
CREATE improves access to economic development tools and expands loan programs and capital for creative businesses, creative entrepreneurs, and non-creative businesses who engage creative workers. PLACE increases access to technical assistance, startup and apprenticeship grants, while removing barriers to disaster relief funding for creative businesses, and providing tax incentives. And PATPA corrects tax policy to ensure artists can deduct the cost of unreimbursed business expenses.
These policy shifts would open access to billions in investment in the creative economy, generating positive economic ripple effects in every American community. $3.5 billion in federal funds would be made more accessible for creative businesses for growth capital, skill building, relief, recovery, and more. That is a sound financial investment, because the annual amount generated by the creative economy to the U.S. GDP is $876 billion, which could be supercharged with better federal investment.
Research shows that investing in the arts means investing in communities. In fact, 83 cents of every dollar invested in creative entrepreneurs is re-invested locally by that artist, producing a high-return investment that betters every U.S. city and town.
Background
These seven bills together map a new, more equitable and impactful policy landscape for creative businesses and workers. Were all these bills to pass into law, they would improve the lives of all Americans by opening billions of dollars in investment opportunities for creative businesses and entrepreneurs, expanding opportunity for current and future workers, and producing economic benefits for adjacent industries that rely on a healthy creative economy including tourism, hospitality and local community development to boost the U.S. economy. In particular:
- The creative economy would be recognized and supported for the economic powerhouse that it is.
- Cultural entrepreneurs and small businesses could access the capital to grow and contribute to local economies.
- Displaced and marginalized creative workers would be taxed and supported appropriately and centered in policy reforms.
- Creative skills development would be taught alongside other professional aptitudes to prepare a next generation workforce.
- The integration of art in public spaces would be codified as a necessary expenditure toward a healthy, vibrant community.
In addition to improving the lives of the U.S.’s creative workers, the policy shifts in these bills would directly affect tens of millions of Americans beyond the creative sector.
Over 5.1 million people in the United States are creative workers, and over a third of those are independent/gig workers or entrepreneurs that collectively fuel over 640,000 businesses. All of them are essential to local economies. Nationally, 55 million people are independent workers, many of them by choice, who are currently not able to equitably access healthcare, retirement savings, unemployment, paid leave, or growth capital—which stifles innovation, negatively impacts the social and economic growth of communities, and decreases the creative offerings available to all Americans.
86% of Americans agree that creative organizations and artists are important to local businesses and the economies, and all 330 million Americans take part in and benefit economically, professionally, and socially by creative work.
Arts in Infrastructure
Supporting Arts in Public Transit, Infrastructure, and Digital Equity Projects
Download the following policy brief as a printable PDF. Updated 2022.
ACTION NEEDED
We urge Congress to:
- Monitor the Departments of Transportation and Commerce to ensure timely implementation of IIJA grant programs.
- Encourage the Department of Transportation to incorporate public art, community design, and creative placemaking strategies in implementation of IIJA programs.
- Instruct the National Telecommunications and Information Administration to engage NEA in the implementation of the Digital Equity Act.
- Support the Saving Transit Art Resources (STAR) Act HR 2380 to eliminate the prohibition of funding art and non-functional landscaping in federally-funded transit projects and facilities and to restore control on this issue to local transit authorities.
Talking Points
- The $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) that passed in November 2021 is a wide-ranging bill that incorporates myriad funding for improvements in transportation and soft and hard infrastructure. This bill will have lasting impacts on the design of American communities for decades to come. The arts and cultural sector must have a role in the implementation of these programs.
- Art has been incorporated into transportation and infrastructure projects in the United States since the 1800s, with a tradition of targeted federal support for art to embellish public facilities that began in the mid-1930s under the Works Progress Administration (WPA), where the talents of professional artists were aligned with the values of the American People. With the inclusion of soft infrastructure in the IIJA, inclusion of professional artists who work in the digital space is an extension of this spirit.
- The onset of COVID-19 has shed a light on the importance of digital inclusion and equity. Foundational digital skills are now necessary for every occupation in the US, yet roughly one-third of unemployed individuals in the US lack these foundational skills and cannot compete for 75.2% of the current job openings.
- Artists, creative workers, and community-based organizations can play a vital role in advancing digital equity through providing assistance to households with digital skills and digital literacy training, obtaining access to computers, finding affordable internet for their homes, and navigating all the complexities of getting online.
- With the continued federal focus on hard and soft infrastructure, there is a need to address the on-going prohibition of art funding in transportation projects. In December 2015, Congress passed the Fixing America's Surface Transportation (FAST) Act. P.L. 114-94, to reauthorize highway and transit programs that established a prohibition for use of Federal Transit Administration (FTA) funds for art in transit, disrupting a long standing and highlight lauded national tradition.
- The 2015 prohibition removes local control from transit authorities, and reverses nearly over 100 years of systemic enhancement of our transit systems to the detriment of communities in every state.
- Artists have been an integral, not extra, part of the design of public transit and infrastructure. Arts and culture contribute to infrastructure solutions by generating creative solutions for entrenched transportation problems, making streets safe for all users, organizing transportation advocates, engaging multiple stakeholders for inclusive processes, fostering local ownership, alleviating disruptive effects of construction, and healing divisions (Transportation for America Creative Placemaking Field Scan).
- Additionally, as the FTA has previously funded and acknowledged the essential benefits of art in transit (FTA Circular 9400.1A, June 1995). Since then there has been growth of professional transit art as a field and processes built specifically to implement public art in transit. These jobs are being undermined by the 2015 prohibition of funding.
- The impact of the FAST Act art prohibition is felt across the country from metropolitan regions to mid-sized cities and rural areas. For example:
- In North Carolina, the Charlotte Area Transit System will be unable to support additional jobs to fabricate the art for a Street Car Extension project through neighborhoods that have come to expect cultural inclusion of their community represented through permanent public art.
- In Portland, Oregon a new bus rapid transit project along the most culturally diverse corridor in the state will not provide an estimated $600,000 to employ local artists and fabricators.
- Similar impacts are being felt at Los Angeles Metro, San Francisco BART, New York MTA, Chicago Transit Authority to name a few.
- The prohibition contradicts a 2018 public opinion poll which found that most Americans approve of arts funding by local government (60%) and the federal government (54%).
Visa Processing
Improving the Visa Process for International Guest Artists
Download the following policy brief as a printable PDF. Updated 2024.
ACTION NEEDED
We urge Congress to:
- Direct USCIS and the State Department to adopt immediate policy changes to make artist visa processing more accessible, reliable, and affordable. Any future fee increases must be proportional and fair, and policy improvements must be implemented.
- Reintroduce and enact the Arts Require Timely Service (ARTS) provision, which will require U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) to reduce the total processing time for petitions filed by, or on behalf of, arts-related organizations.
Talking Points
- American arts organizations and artists provide an important public service and advance cultural diplomacy by presenting international guest artists in highly valued performances, educational events, and cultural programs in communities large and small throughout the United States. International cultural exchange uniquely supports a diversity of viewpoints and contributes to international peace and mutual understanding. The United States should be easing—not increasing–the visa burden for arts organizations engaging international guest artists so that U.S. audiences can enjoy artistry from across the globe.
- The USCIS and State Department can take immediate action under current law to address the extreme inconsistency of the U.S. visa process for guest artists.
- Under their current statutory authority, the agencies can make immediate changes to remedy unreasonable delays, cost, and uncertainty, such as improving the accuracy of the petition process and reducing wait times. For years, U.S. stakeholders have provided USCIS with detailed plans for feasible improvements to USCIS processing of I-129 petitions for O and P visas, as outlined in our Recommendations for Performing Arts Visa Policy.
- The absence of international guest artists costs American artists important employment opportunities. If an international guest artist cannot obtain a visa in time to make a scheduled performance, American artists who were scheduled to work alongside the guest artist lose a valuable source of income and artistic promotion. Furthermore, there can also be long-lasting harmful reciprocal effects on the ability of U.S. artists to tour, perform, and create art abroad.
- Delays and unpredictability create high economic risks for U.S. arts organizations and their local economies. Arts organizations and presenters frequently sell tickets in advance, creating a financial obligation to their audiences. When visa delays stretch to weeks and months, despite careful advance planning, the bottom line of U.S. arts employers is directly impacted.
- When guest artists are unable to come to the United States for advertised engagements, the American public is denied the opportunity to experience international artistry. Marketing highly sought-after guest artists prepares U.S. audiences to experience extraordinary artistic and cultural talent at home that they could not otherwise enjoy. When these pre-scheduled engagements are upended, U.S. audiences lose out on unique opportunities.
- The ARTS provision has a long history of strong, bipartisan support. Congress recognized the time-sensitive nature of arts events when writing the 1991 federal law regarding O and P visas—the categories used by artists—in which the USCIS is instructed to process O and P arts visas in 14 days. In the event the 14-day timeframe is not met, the ARTS provision would require USCIS to process O and P arts-related visa petitions within a total of 29 days—twice the current statutory requirement, which in itself is eminently reasonable and consistent with security concerns.Both the House and Senate have signaled bipartisan support for improving the artist visa process. The ARTS provision was included and passed in the 2013 Senate comprehensive immigration reform bill, the 2006 and 2007 comprehensive Senate immigration reform bills, and the full House approved a stand-alone version of the measure in April 2008.
- The latest fee and policy changes threaten to harm international artistic engagement. The Department of Homeland Security implemented on April 1, 2024 a staggeringly disproportionate fee increase for some petitioners who file O and P petitions at effectively more than triple the cost. What used to cost $460 will now cost anywhere from $510 up to $1,655 per petition, depending on the petitioner's filing status and which classification is being sought. While nonprofit and small-business petitioners are facing smaller fee increases, all petitioners are nonetheless facing higher fees for an already expensive process in dire need of improvement. Moreover, a new limit on the number of beneficiaries on a single petition will exponentially increase the fees and burden for anyone engaging large ensembles. This illogical change of policy will create more work and confusion for all parties. Such changes threaten the ability of many arts organizations to engage guest artists, not only due to cost but also in the face of USCIS action and decisions to proceed with ill-advised policies that effectively discourage international engagement and deprive U.S. employers, fellow artists, and audiences.
- Arts organizations of all sizes cannot afford the $2,805 premium processing fee, leaving them to await the unpredictability of regular visa processing, which in itself is increasingly unaffordable. The Premium Processing fee has increased in 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2024 to its present cost of $2,805, which makes the financial prospect of engaging international artists untenable for many arts organizations. USCIS has also now lengthened the timeline for PPS from 15 calendar days to 15 federal working days, which devalues a service that has steeply escalated in cost. No arts organization can afford to risk paying high fees for a visa that might not be approved at all or on time.
Background
Engaging guest artists to perform in the U.S. requires obtaining an O or P visa, which is a multi-step process. Visa approval must be granted by USCIS before artists interview to obtain their visas at State Department consular locations and then enter the country to perform. Artists and U.S. arts organizations have confronted uncertainty due to any number of possible delays at USCIS as well as inconsistent policies abroad relating to consular processing.
Visa processing times have varied widely, from 30 days to six months or more. In 2010, USCIS pledged to meet the statutory 14-day regular processing time and promised public stakeholders that significant improvements would be made to the quality of artist visa processing. For several years, petitioners experienced incremental improvements, only to encounter at-times lengthy and highly unpredictable delays and seemingly time-stalling Requests for Evidence for material already in the original filing. These delays, combined with inconsistent procedures, result in petitioners upgrading to PPS or being forced to make drastic changes to published programs. USCIS continually promises to improve services and increases its fees, yet fails to demonstrate consistent progress or show the system to be reliable.
Congress can make enduring improvements to the visa process and urge DHS to treat arts petitioners more fairly; any immigration reform effort should include the ARTS provision. USCIS would be required to treat any arts-related O and P visa petition that it fails to adjudicate within the 14-day statutory timeframe as a Premium Processing case, free of charge. This legislation would hold USCIS to a reasonable timeframe, restore the recognition that cultural interests are valued in this country, and impart sorely needed reliability to a process that affects U.S. arts employers, international guest artists, U.S. accompanying artists, and U.S. audiences.
Charitable Giving Policy
Encouraging Charitable Giving and Supporting Public Access to the Arts
Download the following policy brief as a printable PDF. Updated 2024.
ACTION NEEDED
We urge Congress to:
- Enact the Charitable Act (S. 566/H.R. 3435) to expand and extend the universal charitable deduction that encourages all taxpayers to give more.
Talking Points
- Arts organizations classified as 501(c)(3) nonprofit charities are a vital part of the broader community of approximately 1.6 million 501(c)(3) organizations, alongside hospitals, educational institutions, food assistance programs, and the full array of charitable organizations. In recognition of their benefit to the public good, contributions made to 501(c)(3) nonprofits have been tax-deductible since 1917.
- Tax policy changes directly impact services and U.S. jobs. With essential support from charitable donations, the 501(c)(3) sector boosts local economies by employing roughly 10% of America’s workforce, supporting 11.4 million jobs.
- Ticket sales and admission fees alone do not come close to generating the funds required to support artistic presentations, educational offerings, and community-based programming of 501(c)(3) arts organizations. Approximately 40% of income that supports performing and visual arts organizations comes from charitable giving.
- The 501(c)(3) arts sector relies on charitable gifts from donors across the economic spectrum. Donations of all sizes are an essential investment enabling arts organizations to respond to public needs and form community partnerships through education, artistry, economic development, and social service programs.
- Under comprehensive tax reform legislation enacted in 2017, the number of taxpayers claiming itemized deductions declined. The drop in the number of taxpayers claiming the charitable deduction accelerated an already troubling trend of fewer Americans making charitable donations. While the initial impulse to give comes “from the heart,” history has shown that tax law impacts what, when, and how much donors give.
- Through the CARES Act, Congress enacted a $300 charitable deduction for cash gifts from all taxpayers for 2020, whether or not they itemized their returns. The amount of charitable giving—especially of gifts less than the $300 cap—subsequently saw a significant increase. This Universal Charitable Deduction was extended through 2021 and the cap was raised to $600 for joint filers, but it expired at the end of 2021. While it was in effect, the amount of charitable giving – especially of gifts less than the $300 cap – saw a significant increase. Congress can support increased charitable giving by expanding and extending the Universal Charitable Deduction.
- Polling data confirms bipartisan support for reinstating the Universal Charitable Deduction. A September 2023 poll by Independent Sector found that 87% of voters support restoring the universal charitable deduction permanently for taxpayers that do not itemize their tax returns, and more than half of voters (53%) would give more if they were able to claim the charitable deduction.
- 2022 data indicates that giving did not keep up with inflation, at a time when charitable services are in high demand. A Giving USA report released in June 2023 shows that total 2022 giving reached $499.33 billion, down 3.4 percent compared to 2021, and when adjusted for last year’s inflation rate, total giving decreased by 10.5 percent.
Background
Reaching the Full Potential of the Charitable Deduction
While the comprehensive tax reform law enacted in 2017 preserves the charitable deduction for those who itemize their tax returns, the number of itemizers fell dramatically as the standard deduction was nearly doubled. 501(c)(3) nonprofit arts organizations, along with the broader charitable and philanthropic communities, have joined together in urging Congress to reinstate and expand tax incentives for charitable giving through a universal charitable deduction, available to those who do not itemize their tax returns. Congress can democratize charitable giving and help reverse its long-term decline by enacting the Charitable Act (S. 566/H.R. 3435) led by a bipartisan, bicameral group of lawmakers, including Sens. James Lankford (R-OK), Chris Coons (D-DE), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-NV), Margaret Hassan (D-NH), Raphael Warnock (D-GA), Susan Collins (R-ME), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Tim Scott (R-SC), Gary Peters (D-MI), Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), and Reps. Blake Moore (R-UT), Michelle Steel (R-CA), Chris Pappas (D-NH) and Danny Davis (D-IL). The legislation would raise the $300/$600 cap to roughly $4,600 for individuals/$9,200 for couples for the 2023-24 tax years.
Arts & the Military
Improving the Health and Well-Being of Military and Veterans' Population Through the Arts
Download the following policy brief as a printable PDF. Updated 2021.
ACTION NEEDED
We urge Congress to strengthen access to and affordability of higher education in the arts through supporting legislation that achieves the following:
- Support anticipated recommendations from the National Defense Authorization Act report to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees that increase use of creative arts therapies that build resilience and support recovery of service members and their families.
- Support increased funding through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) to expand the number of creative arts therapists employed in the VA providing clinical treatment in medical centers, community-based outpatient clinics (CBOCs), and in virtual and telehealth services that reach a large number of rural and isolated Veterans.
- Support increased funding through the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and the Department of Defense (DoD) to build more community partnerships that provide lifetime access to creative arts therapies and arts-based programming for active military, Veterans, their families, and caregivers.
- Support continued funding to the National Endowment for the Arts for the Creative Forces National Grant Program, which will provide resources to nonprofit arts organizations across the country providing programs and services for military-connected populations through the arts.
Talking Points
Creative Arts Therapies and Community Arts-Based Programs Help Military and Veteran Populations
- The Youngstown Veterans Outpatient Clinic (YVOC), Ohio, launched Artful Living: A Whole Health Community Partnership virtual program in October 2020 to combat COVID-19-related isolation among its Veteran population and to complement the telehealth work of its art and music therapists. With funding from the VA Whole Health Program, the YVOC worked with seven community organizations to offer virtual classes including creative writing, songwriting, dance/movement, improvisation, drum circles, art appreciation, art creation, and Veteran-made/Veteran-themed national films.
- Soldier Song & Voices in Northwest Arkansas connects Veterans who perform music and create original visual arts pieces. They compete at the regional level for VA arts competition, and many have placed nationally. The artwork and cultural pieces are tied to mental health programs.
- The Currier Museum of Art in Manchester, New Hampshire, received $717,500 in CARES Act funding to support Veterans, active service members, and their families affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The museum’s remote art therapy programs will be enhanced for Veterans unable to physically attend programs.
- The Oklahoma Arts Council now offers the Oklahoma Arts and the Military Grants, designed to empower organizations to serve military-connected individuals through learning and audience-based programs. These grants stem from the state agency’s arts and military initiative, which began in 2015 and has included a partnership with the Oklahoma Department of Veterans Affairs.
- Blue Star Museums offers free admission to more than 2,000 museums across America from Memorial Day through Labor Day each year. In the past five years, more than 4 million active-duty members, National Guard, Reservists, and their families have participated.
Creative Forces®: NEA Military Healing Arts Network
Established in 2012, this initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the U.S. Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs and state and local arts agencies seeks to improve the health, wellness, and quality of life for military and Veteran populations exposed to trauma, as well as their families and caregivers. Creative Forces has grown to include multiple clinical sites at the Department of Defense and Veterans Health Administration treatment facilities across the nation and is managed in partnership with Americans for the Arts and the Henry M. Jackson Foundation for the Advancement of Military Medicine. Highlights include:
- 28 creative arts therapists (CATs) work in 13 clinical settings including providing services through telehealth programs for rural and remote areas and in response to the COVID-19 crisis.
- Despite significant disruption of services from COVID-19, over 14,000 patient treatment encounters were delivered by Creative Forces CATs in 2020.
- Over 12,000 patients have been served since 2012 with an average of 2,800 new patients annually.
- Since 2016, 19 Creative Forces clinical research studies have been published in peer-reviewed journals.
- 10 Community Connections projects were offered from 2018-2020 near existing clinical Creative Forces sites, designed to improve health, wellness, and quality of life for military-connected individuals. In response to the COVID-19 crisis, many of these projects transitioned to virtual platforms, and seven sites received funding to continue virtual work and document their learnings for the Creative Forces National Resource Center, which launched July 2020 (creativeforcesnrc.arts.gov/).
- Through a cooperative agreement with Mid-America Arts Alliance (based in Kansas City, Missouri), Creative Forces Community Engagement grants awarded more than $750,000 to 26 organizations across the country offering nonclinical arts programs to military populations—active duty, reserve, Veterans—and their family members and caregivers.
Background
“Arts and the Military” includes the professional creative arts therapies disciplines of art therapy, music therapy, dance/movement therapy, drama therapy, psychodrama, and biblio/poetry therapy, all of which are nationally board-certified therapies with licensure in selected states, as well as artist-directed applications of visual, literary and performing arts, and design. Economic analyses, cost studies, and clinical research show a positive trend in the use of creative arts therapies and their impact on containing healthcare costs and facilitating functional outcomes achievement. These clinical therapists and community artists provide quality, cost-effective healthcare and wellness services for military, Veterans, and their families.
In FY 2020, Congress took a positive step forward by including language in the DoD appropriations bill to increase support for creative arts therapies for service members with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and psychological health conditions. Additionally, Congress also included language for increased support for creative arts therapies and first-time funding of $5 million to provide arts-based treatments, programs, and partnerships serving Veterans through the VA’s Whole Health Initiative.
In FY 2021, Congress followed up on the DoD and VA appropriations bill language by including language in the FY 2021 NDAA bill recognizing that the use of creative arts therapies shows potential in treating servicemembers with traumatic brain injuries and psychological health conditions and that expanding this program could be beneficial to servicemembers and families. Congress directed the Secretary of Defense to submit a report to the House and Senate Armed Services Committees not later than 90 days after the enactment of the FY 2021 NDAA bill on the feasibility of expanding the creative arts therapies program. The report shall include: the current funding and investment in creative arts therapies at the National Intrepid Centers, the projected cost to expand creative arts therapies, and the number of locations to which the program could be expanded.
Cultural Exchanges through the U.S. Department of State
Strengthening Ties Between the United States and the World
Download the following policy brief as a printable PDF. Updated 2021.
ACTION NEEDED
We urge Congress to:
- Appropriate $115 million to the Office of Citizen Exchanges within the State Department’s Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs in the FY 2023 State and Foreign Operations appropriations bill.
- Direct the State Department to dedicate increased resources to, and increase operational capacity within, the Cultural Programs Division to strengthen its ability to oversee grants and programs. Despite increases overall for the Office of Citizen Exchanges—the Cultural Programs Department is funded at lower levels now than five years ago, including competitively awarded programs and those run by the State Department.
- Encourage the State Department to evaluate and publicly report on the impact, value, and success of arts diplomacy as part of its strategies to build cross-cultural understanding.
Office of Citizen Exchanges Annual Appropriations, FY 2010 to present (in millions of dollars)*
| FY10 | FY11 | FY12 | FY13 | FY14 | FY15 | FY16 | FY17-18 | FY19-20 | FY21 |
| $102 | $95.40 | $99.40 | $96 | $101 | $100 | $102 | $111.40 | $111.86 | $115.86 |
*These amounts represent the total funding for the Office of Citizen Exchanges, which includes a variety of exchange programs, including sports and youth programs. Federal budgets do not indicate totals for these individual programs.
Talking Points
- Policymakers and diplomacy experts agree that cultural exchange enhances international understanding.
- A January 2017 report from the nonpartisan Center for Strategic and International Studies states that while the U.S. has invested heavily in hard power tactics to fight terrorism, “it has overlooked the soft power necessary to blunt the appeal of extremist ideologies.” The report also states that public diplomacy “requires a toolkit of information, cultural, and educational activities and is not defined by one particular program,” and that it is important to understand the “role that [public diplomacy] as a whole plays in our national security.”
- At South by Southwest (SXSW) in 2014, U.S. House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX), said, “I think Western music could have an influence in countries where people otherwise don’t want to listen to us. We need a combination of hard and soft power, and I think the music piece goes to that soft power idea.”
- Cultural diplomacy programs are implemented through public-private partnerships. In 2020, the Cultural Programs Division, which manages programs such as the American Film Showcase, American Music Abroad, and the Arts Envoy Program, received $12.15 million, according to the U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy.
- According to the Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA), 85,000 participants attended a concert/interacted with American Music Abroad musicians in 2016. And in 2013, cultural programs reached 9 million foreign participants.
- Increased funding and operational capacity for the Cultural Programs Division will strengthen exchange and collaboration in the arts and culture fields that build bridges among people of different countries, cultures, and faiths.
- According to a January 2017 report released by the State Department’s U.S. Advisory Commission on Public Diplomacy, public diplomacy programs receive only 2% of the entire State Department and USAID FY 2016 planned budget.
- A review of 29 studies on public diplomacy in 2005 identified the most popular recommendation for public diplomacy reform was to increase U.S. exchange programs. The studies were compiled by the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.
- An October 2009 report by the New York University Brademas Center called for America to have a renewed role in cultural exchange and cultural diplomacy. “To these ends, [the] report recommends that international arts and cultural exchanges be integrated into the planning strategies of U.S. policymakers as a key element of public diplomacy. History has proven that robust public diplomacy is essential to U.S. national security and the promotion of American interests around the globe. The arts community has observed first-hand the value of international artistic exchanges in promoting moderation and tolerance among widely diverse religious and cultural groups.”
- Cultural exchange supports U.S. industry and employment.
- According to the National Governors Association’s report, How States Are Using Arts & Culture to Strengthen Their Global Trade Development, state governments find that including artistic and cultural exchanges in their international trade and business development serves to expand trading relationships with other nations and open markets abroad as a complement to more traditional efforts to generate exports.
- 90% of ECA’s appropriation is spent in the United States or invested directly in American citizens or American organizations, according to a 2015-2016 NAFSA Economic Analysis.
- International exchange prepares Americans for success in the global economy. Data shows 73% of U.S. employers put significant value on international experience when hiring, according to a study from the British Council and NAFSA: Association of International Educators.
- Exchanges bring resources to U.S. communities. Virtually the entire State Department exchanges budget is spent on American participants or in the United States.
Background
The Bureau of Educational and Cultural Affairs (ECA) at the State Department is responsible for the public diplomacy activities of the United States, including international cultural exchange programs. Within ECA, the Cultural Programs Division focuses on cultural diplomacy, exchange, and collaboration by sharing the rich artistic traditions of the United States. The Cultural Programs Division provides grant opportunities to U.S. nonprofits for cultural exchange activities; residencies, mentoring, and training programs; programs that are carried out overseas by or under the sponsorship of U.S. Embassy public diplomacy offices; and presentations at major international visual arts exhibitions and cultural centers.
Congress has continued to demonstrate bipartisan support in recent years for cultural exchange programs. For Fiscal Year 2022, Congress funded U.S. Department of State’s educational and cultural exchange programs at $753 million, which is the largest amount of funding in recent years.
For a complete listing of programs, please visit: http://exchanges.state.gov/us/special-focus-areas
Tax Fairness for Artists and Writers
Strengthening the Creative Sector and Providing Public Access to America's Artistic Heritage
Download the following policy brief as a printable PDF. Updated 2021.
ACTION NEEDED
We urge Congress to:
- Enact the Artist-Museum Partnership Act, which would allow artists to deduct the fair market value of their work when they donate it to charitable collecting institutions.
- Update the qualified performing artist tax deduction by supporting the bipartisan Performing Artists Tax Parity Act and reinstate deductions for unreimbursed employee business expenses.
- Pass the Help Independent Track Succeed (HITS) Act to harmonize the tax treatment of music production with other existing tax provisions and incentivize the creation of independent music.
Talking Points
- Fair Market Deduction for Artists’ Donations
- Most museums, libraries, and archives acquire new works primarily through donations. However, artists, writers, choreographers, and composers—unlike collectors—have no financial incentive to donate their works because they cannot claim a tax deduction for the work’s fair market value. Rather, they can deduct only the value of materials, such as paint and canvas, or paper and pen. As a result, works of local, regional, and national significance are sold into private hands and may never come into the public domain.
- If more works of contemporary, living artists were available to the public, emerging artists, visual artists, performers, scholars, and the public at large would benefit from this access and draw inspiration from these current pieces. Collectively, these works constitute an important part of America’s heritage. The majority of museums, particularly those in rural and smaller communities, lack resources for acquisitions, creating inequitable access to significant additions to their collections. The Artist-Museum Partnership Act would encourage artists and creators to donate work to a broader range of institutions, not just to the most notable museums.
- When Congress disallowed the artist deduction in 1969, the effect was immediate and drastic: artist donations to some museums declined by more than 90%.
- The Artist-Museum Partnership Act would allow creators of original works to deduct the fair market value of self-created works given to and retained by a nonprofit institution. It would encourage gifts of visual art, such as paintings and sculptures, as well as original manuscripts and supporting material created by composers, authors, and choreographers.
- Collectors have the right to deduct the fair market value of gifts that they donate. The creators of those works should have the same right when they donate their works. It is only fair. Furthermore, when artists die, works of art in their estate are taxable at their fair market value.
- Tax Deductions for Artists’ Expenses
- Tax reform signed into law in 2017 (P.L. 115-97) preserved the long-standing “above the line” tax deduction for job-related expenses of performing artists who work for two or more employers and have related expenses that are more than 10% of their performing arts income. Although the income cap of $16,000 is grossly out-of-date (dating to 1986 and never adjusted for inflation), this provision helps some artists pursue their passion to the benefit of audiences everywhere.
- On June 5, 2019, Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) and Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) introduced HR 3121, the Performing Artist Tax Parity Act of 2019, which would raise the income ceiling to $100,000 for individual filers and $200,000 for joint filers. This bill is expected to be reintroduced soon.
- Across occupations, P.L. 115-97 eliminated the opportunity to deduct unreimbursed employee business expenses that exceed 2% of adjusted gross income. For artists who are employees, this means that the costs of supplies, instruments, professional dues, and other expenses essential to employment are no longer tax-deductible. This deduction should be reinstated.
- HITS Act
- Under §181 of the Internal Revenue Code, qualified film or television productions may elect to fully deduct the cost of production, up to $15 million. Music production is not given the same treatment under the tax code. Instead of being able to fully deduct production expenses in the year they occur, independent recording artists amortize production expenses for tax purposes over the full economic life of a sound recording.
- The HITS Act will let independent artists deduct 100% of their production expenses for records created in the United States, up to $150,000, in the year expenses are incurred, in the same way that qualified film and television production costs are expensed.
Background
The arts community seeks support for provisions that would strengthen the creative sector in any upcoming tax policy considered by Congress.
The Artist-Museum Partnership Act is a proposal that has been repeatedly introduced in Congress for over 15 years to correct an inequity for artists that also harms public access to living artists’ works of art. For many years, artists, writers, and composers were allowed to take a fair market value deduction for their works donated to a museum, library, or archive. In 1969, however, Congress changed the law, and as a result the number of works donated by artists dramatically declined. The effect of this legislation was immediate and drastic. As just one example, the Museum of Modern Art in New York received 321 gifts from artists in the three years prior to 1969; in the three following years, the museum received 28 works of art from artists—a decrease of more than 90%. The Senate has passed artists deduction legislation five times in previous years, but the bills have not been reviewed by the House.
Arts & Health
Improving Health Through the Arts
Download the following policy brief as a printable PDF. Updated 2021
ACTION NEEDED
We urge Congress to:
- Expand coverage of creative arts therapies for Medicare and Medicaid beneficiaries.
Support National Institutes of Health (NIH) research funding related to telehealth access and outcomes of creative arts therapies, expressive arts therapy, and arts-based programming provided in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. - Support Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Department of Education funding for creative arts therapies, expressive arts therapy, and arts-based programming, including telehealth, designed to address mental health needs exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic (depression, opioid crisis, social isolation), including applications for healthcare and education professionals.
- Strengthen Affordable Care Act (ACA) provisions for artists and other creative occupations to include affordable access to mental health services.
Talking Points
Creative Arts Therapies and Arts-Based Programming Provide Mental Health Support and Opportunities for Social Engagement
- Art Lab Rx is a mobile mental health counseling agency offering wellness workshops, telehealth services, and art therapy sessions in treatment centers across Minnesota. The practice runs a mobile art therapy bus, breaking down accessibility barriers.
- My-T-By Design in Fayetteville, Arkansas, provides in-house counseling and access to arts (painting, space for poetry) plus community food/school supplies outreach. Art Feeds and Art Bags, also in Fayetteville, has designed art lesson plans (K-5) designed for children who have experienced trauma. Each lesson includes an emphasis on facilitating emotional expression.
- During the pandemic, artists, musicians, and writers in residence with Hearts Need Art in San Antonio, Texas, provide creative art experiences to patients and caregivers through video conference. The platform gives burned-out medical staff a creative escape and allows isolated patients to share their art experiences and efforts online with loved ones.
- Philadelphia’s Streets Department, partnered with Broad Street Ministry, Mural Arts Philadelphia, HAHA MAG, and four regular Streets Department artists created and installed eye-catching and informative hand-washing stations to promote handwashing, social distancing, and mask wearing.
- Sing for Hope, New York City, pivoted in-person arts programming to a digital model, with interactive cultural events accessible by Zoom, targeting the elderly and homebound with multiple events available per day. This Healing Arts program offers direct access to artists with live classes and arts programming proven to have mental and physical health benefits for participants.
- SkyART, a community after-school arts center in Chicago, Illinois, has offered virtual art therapy sessions during the pandemic to children connected with partner schools, homeless shelters, and social service centers, and delivered art kits to over 1,000 children.
- In St. Louis, Missouri, Metro Theatre Company's (NEA Research Grant supported) Say Something Do Something, is an interactive and immersive drama-based violence prevention program for youth grades 4 to 6, designed to build empathy, critical thinking, decision making, and interpersonal skills in a group of students to help them learn to resolve conflicts without violence.
- Arttherapy4life offers consultative art therapy programming for Tennessee nursing homes, preserving dignity and fostering a sense of personal autonomy and empowerment for those living with dementia, and cognitive, mental, and developmental impairments. Workshops are supported by Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) Civil Money Penalty (CMP) funds.
Research in Creative Arts Therapies and Arts-Based Programming
- NEA Report, “Arts Strategies for Addressing the Opioid Crisis: Examining the Evidence” finds that incorporating music into treatments for opioid use disorder can contribute significant, positive effects for patients.
- Launched in 2021, the Sound Health Network is a partnership of the NEA with the University of California, San Francisco, in collaboration with NIH, the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, and Renée Fleming. It builds on the Sound Health Partnership, which brings together scientists, music therapists, artists, and the public to explore music’s impact on the brain, health, and wellness.
- According to a recent report from the World Health Organization (WHO), engaging with the arts can benefit mental and physical health. As the most comprehensive review of evidence on arts and health to date, the 2019 study analyzed evidence from over 3,700 studies from 900 global publications. It identified a significant role for the arts in preventing ill health, promoting health and management, and treating illness across the lifespan.
- COVID-19 and Social Distancing: Impact of Arts and Other Activities on Mental Health, an ongoing study by University College London and extended to the U.S. in partnership with the University of Florida and Americans for the Arts, is tracking 80,000 adults in the United Kingdom and United States to gauge the pandemic’s impact on mental health. Preliminary findings show that just 30 minutes of active arts activities daily may lower anxiety and depression and increase life satisfaction, combating the ill effects of isolation and loneliness associated with COVID-19.
Affordable Access to Mental Health Services for Artists and Other Creative Occupations
The national arts community requests the Affordable Care Act continues to provide:
- Access to affordable individual policies
- Protections for pre-existing conditions
- Consumer protections and essential benefits
- Requirement for coverage of preventative services
- Minimum standards of care
Background
“Arts in Health” includes the professional creative arts therapies disciplines of art therapy, music therapy, dance/movement therapy, drama therapy, psychodrama, and biblio/poetry therapy, all of which are nationally board-certified therapies with licensure in selected states, as well as expressive arts therapy and artist-directed applications of visual, literary and performing arts, and design. They work together to provide quality, cost-effective services within a variety of healthcare and community settings, assisting people through all life stages. Settings include hospitals, hospice programs, long-term care facilities, mental health programs, schools, rehabilitation treatment centers, disaster response teams, psychiatric forensic units, prisons, community centers, and wellness programs.
Creative arts therapists, expressive arts therapists, and community artists have adapted the delivery of their services and diversified service options to meet needs that have emerged during the COVID-19 pandemic. These important contributions continue to benefit consumers, family members, and healthcare providers and should be considered when identifying potential pandemic-related treatment and support services for consumers and healthcare professionals. Creative arts therapies, expressive arts therapy, and arts-based programming have the potential to positively impact spending concerns, quality of care issues, and treatment needs of healthcare consumers. An investment in “Arts in Health” is an investment in America’s health.
The Arts in Juvenile Justice
Download the following policy brief as a printable PDF. Updated 2023.
Background
In the Fiscal Year 2022, 2023, and 2024 Omnibus, Congress provided explicit direction to the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) to “continue to expand and advance Arts in Juvenile Justice demonstration program to provide competitive grants to partnerships between arts organizations and juvenile justice systems, programs, and nonprofit organizations, to pilot promising and effective art-based and art therapy models for youth at-risk of or engaged with the juvenile justice systems.” Congress further directed OJJDP to establish the demonstration program with “the advice and consultation from the National Endowment for the Arts and arts stakeholders.”
History of Practice
Through a robust history of research and practice, arts-based programs have proven promising and effective at improving economic, social, and mental health outcomes for youth at risk or involved with the juvenile justice system. There are innumerable promising arts programs working with at-risk youth throughout the country, but more work is needed to expand these supportive programs and create a multisystem effort to ensure youth are empowered to live safe and fulfilling lives. In 2020, the Arts Education Partnership published two reports on expanding the arts across the juvenile justice system, citing strategies for effective programming and examples of programs operating across the country. Engaging the Arts Across the Juvenile Justice System (Apr. 2020) explores research and programs that employ the arts along the juvenile justice continuum, including in prevention, intervention, transition, and healing. Expanding the Arts Across the Juvenile Justice System (October, 2020) is a brief that builds on the prior report by capturing the insights and policy considerations that came out of a Thinkers Meeting with 11 experts in the arts education and juvenile justice fields.
Moreover, in May 2021, OJJDP updated its own literature review examining “Arts-Based Programs and Arts Therapies for At-Risk, Justice-Involved, and Traumatized Youths.” The review found that, “arts-based programs and arts therapies provide a unique way to help youths in times of transition and development… provid[ing] a nonthreatening, engaging way for children and adolescents to express their feelings, manage emotional and behavioral problems, express cultural awareness, cope with trauma and victimization, develop artistic talents and skills, and improve strengths and assets they already possess.” The OJJDP literature also calls for additional research and demonstrations to further identify how arts can directly affect the behavior of at-risk, justice-involved, and traumatized youths. A well-designed, implemented and evaluated Arts in JJ demonstration program will further existing evidence, uncover new promising practices, and prove efficacy of arts-based and art therapy models across the juvenile justice continuum.
Fiscal Year 2023 Appropriations
The Cultural Advocacy Group respectfully requests $117 million for Title V Delinquency Prevention Grants, of which not less than $5 million is directed to the newly established “Arts in Juvenile Justice” demonstration program to further incorporate the arts into prevention, diversion, reentry, and secure detention juvenile justice programs.
Federal investment in the arts in juvenile justice prevention and intervention programs will:
- Support state and local efforts to invest in public-private partnerships between community-based arts organizations, law enforcement, probation and parole offices;
- Establish national benchmarks and metrics for evaluation of local and state juvenile justice systems utilizing the arts;
- Build evidentiary base of promising and effective art-based and art therapy practices and model programs; and
- Embrace a family-focused intervention model that includes health, education, housing, and employment guided by the arts and supported by Restorative Justice Principles and Practices and the National Center for Juvenile Justice Reform “credible messenger” strategy.
Funding History
See PDF for chart.
Arts Worker Supports
Download the following policy brief as a printable PDF. Updated 2023.
Background
Many arts workers are independent workers, and as such, lack access to safety net benefits and protections. Our current employer-based benefit system is insufficient to adequately protect not only arts workers, but the many gig workers and micro-businesses who share their precarious working conditions. Meanwhile, many arts businesses are microbusinesses and lack access to business support and protection. Policymakers should pass a full suite of worker and business protections to ensure everyone has the safety net they need, regardless of how they earn income.
Many arts workers are self-employed gig workers or micro-businesses
There are approximately 3.7 million arts workers in the United States, and they are self-employed at a much higher rate than traditional workers. According to a recent study, 31% of arts workers are self-employed, compared to just 10% of the total workforce. Moreover, this figure doesn't account for arts workers who combine income from multiple sources, for example earning their primary income via full-time, part-time, or temporary employment, and supplementing that work with income from work in the arts.
In some cases, the very nature of arts work demands both W2 and 1099 income. For example, many employers in the performing arts field are required to employ actors or dancers for a single performance or a limited run as W-2 workers, while directing and choreography gigs are often structured as a 1099 contract. The same individual might hold both types of jobs at the same time.
If one considers arts businesses separate from arts workers, the proportion of self-employed is even greater. 91% of all Arts, Entertainment, and Recreation Sector businesses are non-employer businesses, meaning that they are self-employed businesses of one. This is a far greater portion than the economy as a whole, in which 75% (26.5 million) of all businesses in the U.S. are non-employer businesses. The bulk of the remaining 9% of arts businesses have 3 or fewer employees. These businesses tend to have similar vulnerabilities to nonemployer businesses and often fall through the cracks in business relief and support programs.
Current measures of the economy and workforce fail to account for the fact that–as primarily self-employed individuals–arts workers often operate in the gray area between worker and business. In many cases, they are both. Like many other self-employed gig workers in other sectors, they tend to be excluded from policies intended to support workers, while also falling through the cracks of programs intended to support businesses. We need a system of protection that covers all workers, regardless of how they work. And we need a system of protection that covers all businesses, regardless of their size.
Arts workers lack access to social safety net protections
Arts workers share many of the same precarious working conditions that other gig workers face. In fact, one might argue that artists were the original gig worker. The term gig worker even originates in the arts–from gig musicians. Yet to date, arts workers have largely been absent from larger conversations about work and social protections.
Like other gig workers, self-employed arts workers lack access to major social insurance programs and protections, including large group health insurance, automatic retirement savings, unemployment insurance, disability insurance, and paid leave. In instances where the self-employed do have access to the same benefits and protections as employees–for example with Social Security–the self-employed must pay twice as much into the program than traditional employees. Policymakers should seek to ensure universal, equitable coverage for social insurance programs that protect workers and their families from economic insecurity.
Health Insurance: Most independent workers and self-employed individuals lack access to large-group health insurance. Although the Affordable Care Act expanded health insurance coverage dramatically, the cost of coverage remains out of reach for many. Lacking the ability to organize group-rate health insurance outside of employer or union models, arts workers must access health insurance on the individual market, and pay the associated higher costs. Even with government subsidies, these plans are out of reach for many. Further, many low-income arts workers rely on Medicaid for coverage, meaning threats to that program or lack of Medicaid coverage in many states result in lower coverage among arts workers.
Unemployment Protection: In general, independent workers are not eligible for unemployment insurance. The notable exception was the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program, which extended unemployment coverage to independent contractors during the COVID-19 pandemic. PUA marked the first time self-employed individuals could access unemployment insurance, and it was a lifeline to many arts workers. The FPUC payment of $600/week (later $300/week) helped bring the minimum unemployment compensation up to approximately $15/hour. However, PUA was also flawed in its implementation.
The program was based upon unemployment compensation for W-2 workers, so it made no allowance for business expenses that almost all non-employer business owners have to pay before clearing any money. In most cases, state unemployment compensation was based on a business’s net profit (or loss) rather than on gross business receipts. Coupled with low minimum and maximum state unemployment compensation rates in many states, this left little or nothing after business expenses for many workers.
Further, despite the fact that Disaster Unemployment Assistance has been in effect for many years, many states were unprepared to deal with both non-employer businesses and the volume of applications from workers of all kinds. Small business owners were subjected to requirements to seek employment, even while they were already trying to find ways to reestablish income from their businesses.
The problems were compounded for so-called multiple-income earners–those who earned both W2 and 1099 income–many of whom work in the arts. For example, many states decided to compensate workers who had sufficient W-2 income to qualify, based only on the amount of their W-2 income-even if that was the smallest source of income. The impact varied state-to-state depending on the compensation schedules in place within those states, but arts workers and others consequently suffered inadequate unemployment compensation.
Paid Leave: Paid leave coverage varies by state. In most states, paid leave is a benefit offered by employers only, meaning independent workers lack access to coverage. However, 12 states and Washington DC have passed some form of paid family leave coverage, with varying coverage for the self-employed. While a few states, such as Rhode Island, exclude the self-employed altogether, many allow the self-employed to opt-in to the program. However, these same programs may require the self-employed to pay significantly more than traditional employees, or require long waiting periods that reduce the usefulness of these benefits for independent workers. Notably, the first COVID relief bill included a paid sick time benefit for the self-employed in the form of a refundable tax credit, though this benefit also expired with other forms of COVID relief.
Disability Insurance: As a common employer-sponsored benefit, most independent workers lack access to short-term disability insurance. Similar to the health insurance market, the individual market for short-term disability coverage is cost prohibitive. Some self-employed workers are able to access disability insurance via the Social Security Insurance or Social Security Disability Insurance programs. However, asset and income caps on the SSI program severely limit disabled individuals from being able to earn income or work, preventing many would-be entrepreneurs and arts workers from engaging in productive work, for fear of losing the benefits they rely on.
Income Supports: While self-employed individuals have equal access to income support and poverty programs, such as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), among others, low-income individuals who are self-employed face greater barriers demonstrating both their income for the means testing these programs require. The income volatility these individuals experience further complicates access to these programs.
Retirement Savings: Many self-employed arts workers lack access to an employer-sponsored retirement plan, including the automatic deductions and employer matching programs that enable individuals to build sufficient savings to retire. Because employer contributions are tax-advantaged, these employer plans amount to a significant government subsidy of retirement savings that independent workers cannot access. Meanwhile, many new state automatic enrollment plans do not include the self-employed.
Micro-businesses in the Arts Lack Access to Business Support and Protection
Even as the self-employed lack access to the worker protections their traditionally employed peers have, so too are they excluded from the business supports and protections meant to enable small businesses in the United States to thrive. Though these gaps are apparent in non-crisis times, the COVID-19 pandemic made them even more apparent. For example:
Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL grants) were the first and most efficient forms of support that many businesses could access during COVID 19. However, the grant was based on the number of employees a business had. A business with zero employees other than the owner might qualify for a maximum of $1,000, far less than other similarly situated businesses.
The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was novel in its explicit inclusion of the self-employed and independent contractors. However, the details of implementation limited its effectiveness for many small and microbusinesses. For example, PPP loans were based on payroll with an additional 25% allowance for business expenses. Businesses with larger numbers of employees and higher payroll were able to get more assistance for business expenses. For non-employer businesses, payroll was interpreted as the net profit (or loss) of the business from Schedule C.
Like other businesses, non-employer businesses must pay their rent, utilities, insurance, interest on debt, transportation expenses, etc. before showing any profit. And like larger businesses, especially in early years, non-employer businesses often defer as much income as possible in order to build up their businesses. Those businesses suffered an extra penalty in the PPP program because they showed an even lower net profit.
Only in the final round of PPP loans with much encouragement from the arts sector, the PPP formula for non-employer businesses was changed to allow owners to calculate loan amounts based on gross business receipts (before expenses). This was a game-changer for many non-employer businesses, including many artists, who were previously eligible for zero or very small loans, and consequently lacked access to the assistance with fixed business expenses that were available to larger businesses.
Policy Recommendations:
- Improve data collection for independent workers and microbusinesses
- Align taxonomy to accurately and consistently describe the various types of businesses across federal and state rules and programs.
- Improve workforce data collection to better capture multiple income earners working across sectors
- Adapt workforce data collection methods to align data collection and analysis of information about the self-employed, independent contractors, gig workers, nonemployer businesses and micro-businesses
- Expand safety net programs to cover the self-employed and independent contractors
- Health Insurance: Expand and improve public health insurance programs including Medicaid, Medicare, and Obamacare to deliver affordable, portable health insurance coverage to all Americans.
- Health Insurance: Allow independent contractors to group together for the purposes of offering health insurance and other forms of social insurance
- Unemployment Insurance: Reinstate Pandemic Unemployment Assistance, with improved rules to improve implementation and prevent fraud, potentially using a reformed Disaster Unemployment Assistance program as a model. Study whether and how unemployment benefits can be made permanent for all self-employed workers. Canada and other countries provide models for this.
- Unemployment Insurance: Reform antiquated unemployment delivery systems in the states to better accommodate the needs of self-employed, non-standard, and multiple-income earners. Base state compensation on actual income lost from all sources and not on net profits (or losses).
- Unemployment Insurance: Expand Self-Employment Assistance programs to enable self-employed individuals to use unemployment benefits to launch a new business.
- Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA): Update DUA, which supports the self-employed after disasters, to include pandemic-style federal add-ons to provide families with bridge income while they recover. Expand the program beyond self-employed individuals whose economic losses after disasters are a “direct result” of the disaster (which has been interpreted to mean there is a physical nexus with the disaster that results in the loss of income, such as the place of work being destroyed), to include those whose income has disappeared as a secondary economic effect of the disaster, as was the case with PUA.
- Paid Family Leave: Pass comprehensive, affordable paid family leave that includes the self-employed, eliminates onerous opt-in periods, does not require them to pay both the employer and employee portions of premiums, and allows them to carry their coverage from job to job. Canada has a program that provides sick leave, maternity leave, caregiver leave, etc. It is an opt-in program that the worker must register for 12 months before receiving any benefits and must pay into based on income, which could provide a model.
- Paid Time Off: Reinstate and make permanent the Families First self-employed paid time off tax credit.
- Retirement: Allow the self-employed to opt into state SECURE CHOICE retirement plans.
- Portable Benefits: Allow independent workers to access large social insurance risk pools–including for health insurance, pensions, disability, unemployment, and paid leave–outside of employment models. Such benefit programs should be universally available, portable from job to job, and allow both individuals and employers to contribute to the funds.
- Portable Benefits: Allow states to experiment with portable benefits pilots by passing The Portable Benefits for Independent Workers Pilot Program Act (S.1696/ H.R.3482)
- Income supports: Shift implementation of income support and protection programs to better serve self-employed workers.
- Guaranteed Income: Ensure a guaranteed minimum income floor for all adults via a reformed Earned Income Tax Credit, Child Tax Credit, or alternative new policy measure.
- Expand small and microbusiness support programs to better meet their unique needs
- Forgivable loan programs: Create forgivable or partially forgivable loan programs similar to PPP for the smallest, most disaster-vulnerable businesses such as non-employer businesses and small employer businesses. For the smallest businesses base loan amounts on gross business receipts or another formula that takes into account the actual business expenses of these businesses.
- Simplification: Make SBA and other applications and reporting as simple as possible, taking into account that the smallest businesses consist of one person who does not have the resources to meet complex requirements, especially while navigating a disaster.
- Facilitate Access to Federal Resources That Are Available to Other Businesses and Workers For example, FEMA’s Other Needs Assistance (ONA) program provides grants to replace tools, equipment, and protective gear lost in disasters and necessary to earn a living. However, this assistance is currently available only to workers employed by others, and self-employed workers are ineligible. Make this assistance available to non-employer businesses which, by definition, consist of a single worker, and to small employer businesses for those tools used by the owner (they are already available to her employees).
- Include arts and other gig worker voices in all aspects of policy development and implementation
- Incorporate Participatory Action Research methods into workforce and economy data collection methodology to better adapt government data collection and analysis with the changing nature of the workforce
- Integrate arts workers, microbusinesses, and experts from the arts field into the design of future programs as technical assistance providers for Congress and agencies such as the Small Business Administration, DOL, and FEMA to ensure that these programs meet the depth and breadth of the arts sector’s needs.
References
See PDF.
Arts in Rural Development
Supporting Arts and Creativity in Rural Community and Economic Development
Download the following policy brief as a printable PDF. Updated 2023.
ACTION NEEDED
We urge Congress to:
- Sponsor/co-sponsor and pass the Rebuild Rural America Act (RRAA) of 2023.
- Affirm the contributions of arts and creativity to rural development and to the attraction and retention of talent in rural communities by upholding the language that establishes arts and culture as an eligible use of grant funds in RRAA.
- Prioritize strengthening federal agency partnerships between the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the National Endowment for the Arts. Instruct agencies to collaborate on strengthening existing programs to be more flexible and responsive to arts and creative industries and to develop long-term investment and technical assistance for arts and creative industries in rural development.
Talking Points
Support Rural America
- Roughly 60 million Americans live in rural counties, accounting for nearly 20% of the U.S. population.
- Rural areas can struggle to secure public and private resources. They may lack economic development organizations or cannot afford grant writers and lobbyists to assist in securing these resources. In the case of philanthropic dollars, most resources do not reach rural communities.
- Rural areas are underserved by philanthropy. In 2015, the Economic Research Service (ERS) within the U.S. Department of Agriculture released a study on grantmaking trends in rural communities. This study found that rural organizations received, on average, 5.5% of total domestic grants from large foundations between 2005 and 2010.
- Given the inequitable distribution of philanthropic dollars to rural areas, access to federal dollars play an important role in rural communities. Rural leaders and communities deserve equal opportunity to access their own federal tax dollars to help their communities.
- Existing federal programs are complex, lack flexibility, and are too narrow to lead to transformative solutions to facilitate economic growth for all rural Americans.
- Investing in rural development is vital because it sustains communities, bolsters local economies, and helps rural Americans thrive.
Arts and Creativity: Foundations of Rural Community Development
- Arts, culture, and creative industries are foundational to rural development and community development.
- Arts and creativity strengthen the fabric of America’s rural communities. They celebrate local culture—both cherished and new traditions—telling stories of people and places. Arts and creativity promote connection and cohesion, foster the entrepreneurial spirit communities need to thrive, and create the kinds of communities where young people want to build families.
- A prime example of creative spirit used to build thriving communities is the Red Ants Pants Foundation and Music Festival in White Sulphur Springs, Montana. Red Ants Pants Foundation's mission is to develop and expand leadership roles through women, to preserve and support working family farms and ranches, and to enrich and promote rural communities. Its music festival brings together people from different backgrounds to celebrate rural Montana through music. Proceeds from the festival are then used to support the Foundation's leadership and skills programs.
- Arts and creativity foster the entrepreneurial spirit communities need to survive and thrive. Many small businesses are based on the arts, and many others rely upon the creative skills honed by arts and creativity. The existence of organizations focused on arts and creativity is a key indicator of business innovation potential in rural communities.
- In a 2017 study conducted by the National Endowment for the Arts, it was found that the presence of performing arts organizations in rural counties is positively associated with the location of businesses that are substantive innovators.
- Organizations like Appalshop in Whitesburg, Kentucky are community anchor institutions that contribute to the local economy through vocational training in creative industries such as filmmaking, music, media, radio, and art. In working to document, disseminate, and revitalize the lasting traditions and contemporary creatively of Appalachia, Appalshop develops creative skills and entrepreneurial opportunities for its community.
- Arts and creativity create the kinds of communities where young people choose to stay and build families. By offering entertainment, family enrichment and opportunities for creative engagement—and by contributing to strong and resilient local economies—arts and creativity play a key role in attracting and retaining young families and helping communities counter the “brain drain."
- According to the National Association of Counties, rural population decline is noted as a factor that limits economic development in rural communities. Rural population decline is strongest among working-age adults, threatening the continued economic resilience of rural communities. It is vital to come up with solutions that will retain working-age adults in these communities.
- Retention of talent is a key challenge in rural areas. A 2023 report from Goldman Sachs found that 68% of rural small business owners have trouble attracting and retaining workers, compared to 45% in non-rural areas.
Background
The Rebuild Rural America Act seeks to change this by establishing a new $50 billion Rural Future Partnership Fund that would provide multi-year, flexible block grants to support regional revitalization. Rural regions that work together to become certified would automatically receive a commitment of five-year, renewable funding to support progress on the region’s locally developed goals and objectives.
This legislation transforms the Federal government away from being complicated, siloed, and top-down into a more responsive, effective partner for rural communities.
- Creates a State-By-State Rural Innovation and Partnership Administration: A newly created USDA Rural Innovation and Partnership Administration would oversee this program and would offer staffing in all state USDA RD offices to provide hands-on help to local leaders craft and implement their rural revitalization plans, and a direct line to call with questions and requests.
- Empowers Local Leaders: A new suite of national capacity and training programs will help connect the expertise and resources of national technical assistance providers with rural regions. A Rural Future Leadership Institute will be established to support annual cohorts of rural leaders in skill-building seminars, best practice reviews, and other training.
- Streamlines Disaster Response and Recovery: This new program offers a new delivery system for direct Federal disaster response and recovery efforts to rural communities rather than working through states which can delay and complicate local areas receiving vital assistance.
- Coordinates Federal Resources to Make Government Helpful, Not a Hassle: The new agency will work with the cross-government Council on Rural Community Innovation and Economic Development to ensure local leaders have knowledge of and access to all Federal resources to meet their complex needs. Local leaders are also encouraged to use existing Federal plans to develop their rural regional plan so as to reduce duplication for local stakeholders.
- Informs Strategies with Data: The new agency will work with Federal and non-Federal partners to provide cutting-edge, timely data that assist regions in developing effective economic and community development strategies, measuring progress and impact of plans, and assessing future needs and vulnerabilities.
- Launches the Rural Future Corps: USDA RD will coordinate with AmeriCorps to launch a Rural Future Corps to help rural communities expand critical services like childcare, health, nutrition assistance, education, and job training. This program would also help improve the capacity of local governments and economic and community development organizations. Specific efforts would be included to retain the Corps members in the rural areas after their service, helping to reverse population loss and creating a pipeline of a new generation of local leaders for rural America.