Please save NEA

Arts funding has huge impact Guest writer

What does it mean for Arkansans if a big chunk of funding for arts organizations goes away? I fear we’re about to find out.

In his 2018 budget blueprint, President Trump has included the National Endowment for the Arts on a list of programs to eliminate from federal funding. Never mind that the NEA’s 2016 budget of $147.9 million accounts for 0.004 percent of our annual federal budget. Never mind that in an economically disadvantaged state like Arkansas—in 2015, we ranked 46th in per capita personal income in the United States—few private foundations and grantmakers explicitly support the arts.

The Oxford American, a nationally lauded magazine published from Main Street in Little Rock, explores the complexity of the American South through a diverse array of writing, music, and visual art. (I was named editor of the magazine in 2015.) In our 25-year history, we’ve published some of the region’s greatest writers and thinkers, from William Faulkner to Nikky Finney. We are also an incubator of talent, helping develop young writers early in their careers. I like to say that an investment in the Oxford American is an investment in the future of American Letters. Our legacy bears out this truth.

We have a devoted readership in Arkansas and around the world. For that I’m grateful. We have also won some big awards, like a 2016 National Magazine Award in “General Excellence.”

But the reality is that we’re published by a small nonprofit organization. We can continue our work because of the generosity of philanthropic organizations and individuals who give above and beyond our subscription income and advertising revenue. Our supporters include private foundations, individual donors and sponsors, and government grantors like the National Endowment for the Arts and the Arkansas Arts Council, which receives funding from both the state of Arkansas and the NEA.

These supporters appreciate the value of investing in the arts, both to enrich people’s lives and to contribute to our local economy. Though President Trump doesn’t seem to get that the arts are good for the nation’s bottom line, I urge Arkansas’ congressional delegation to look at the facts: Per a study by the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis, arts and cultural production contributed more than $698 billion to the nation’s economy in 2015. In 2016, the Arkansas Arts Council’s grant recipients and their audiences generated more than $100 million for the state economy.

The NEA might be stereotyped as a funder of New York programs, but in the 2016 fiscal year, the agency recommended grants in every congressional district in the United States. The NEA is especially important in less affluent regions of our country—places like Arkansas. Martin Miller, executive director of TheatreSquared in Fayetteville, recently made that point when he was quoted in an article in the New York Times: “The NEA has a big impact in the middle of the country—even more so, I suspect, than in urban areas where funding is more diversified.” The Oxford American and TheatreSquared— and many other organizations, like the King Biscuit Blues Festival in Helena, the Ozark Foothills FilmFest in Locust Grove, and Arkansas Shakespeare Theatre in Conway—have benefited from the NEA’s Art Works grants.

Many of our most beloved Arkansas writers—like poet Davis McCombs (who also serves as director of the Creative Writing Program at the University of Arkansas) and fiction writer Kevin Brockmeier (who has participated in every Arkansas Literary Festival since its founding)—have received literature fellowships from the NEA.

Thanks to the NEA’s Big Read initiative, which provides funding for libraries and community associations to buy books, distribute them for free, and design programming around the titles, Arkansas native Charles Portis and his celebrated novel True Grit have enjoyed a significant revival in towns as diverse as Kenosha, Wis.; Enterprise, Ore.; and Brunswick, Ga. When Jay Jennings, a senior editor at the Oxford American who has written extensively about Portis, travels the country to give presentations about True Grit, he introduces Arkansas’ rich culture, literary heritage, and unique landscape to those who may not otherwise be familiar with our state.

As for me, I was born and raised in Little Rock, and President Trump’s proposed elimination of the NEA feels personal.

I had the opportunity to rise into my position because I was nurtured in a strong, well-supported creative community that made my professional path possible: My introduction to writing came in an after-school workshop at Pulaski Heights Elementary; I edited the student newspaper at Central High; I interned at the Oxford American when I was 19 years old. I am a proud product of both local and federal investment in the arts in middle America.

In the 2018 fiscal year and beyond, I want to live in a country where arts organizations and programs thrive everywhere. To my representatives in Washington: Please save the NEA.