The Senate Labor Committee is considering reauthorization for the National Endowment for the Arts. For several years the NEA has been funded by Congress even though its authority to exist has not been renewed. Technically a federal agency can't get funding unless it is authorized. But several agencies, including the NEA, have been funded from budget to budget without authorization, which leaves them in a politically precarious position.

The NEA’s current budget is $99 million. President Clinton has recommended giving the endowment $136 million in the next federal budget. Some members of Congress would like to eliminate the NEA. In FY 1995 Ohio organizations and individuals received 89 NEA grants totaling $4,208,385, including funding for the Ohio Arts Council. In FY 1997 Ohio will receive 27 grants totaling $1,516,700. That’s a 69 percent reduction in the number of grants, and a 64 percent reduction in total grant dollars.

Tennessee is the only state hit harder by the loss of NEA dollars. The average grant loss across the country was 41 percent. We don't know why Ohio was hit so hard, but Ohio communities, where the arts play a central role in education and tourism, will feel the loss. State and local arts agencies cannot make up the difference.

Ohio Senator Michael DeWine, who is on the Labor Committee, has expressed a desire to reauthorize the NEA. His email address is senator_dewine@dewine.senate.gov. His phone is 1-800-972-3524. Wayne Lawson, executive director of the Ohio Arts Council, has written to all U.S. representatives from Ohio and both senators asking them to support an increase in funding for the NEA.

A LITTLE TWIST

California Congressman Wally Berger, who said the NEA should be eliminated because it funds gatherings of basketweavers, has been taken to task for his remark. It turns out that he was attacking Native American traditional arts. The executive director of the California Indian Basketweavers Association replied that NEA funding is the most significant source of support for CIBA’s efforts to strengthen the baseketweaving traditions of California's first people.

"Basketweaving is one of the oldest living traditional art forms in North America," the CIBA director said. "In California, basketry was taken to artistic heights. Baskets made by California tribes can be found in museums and art centers around the world. We're trying to hang on to our native culture. Basketweavers carry much knowledge, not only of the art, but also of how to care for plants and the environment. Our numbers were finally increasing instead of decreasing. People are just beginning to understand and appreciate our work as an art form."