President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion COVID stimulus bill, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, includes $470 million in relief to arts and cultural organizations.
The bill appropriates $135 million to both the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). Also, it sets aside $200 million for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).
Under the bill’s provisions, 60% of the funds appropriated for the NEA and NEH should be dedicated to direct grants and administrative expenses to support organizations that have been impacted by the pandemic. The remaining 40% are to be dedicated to state agencies and regional arts organizations.
These funds far exceed the respective $75 million allocated to the NEA and NEH in the Trump administration’s 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES) Act. In fact Trump threatened to slash the agency’s funds throughout his presidency, even labeling spending toward its activities as “wasteful and unnecessary funding.”
In 2020, the NEA distributed funds provided by the CARES Act to 855 organizations across the country. The organizations received grants to support staff salaries, fees for artists or contractual workers, and facilities costs.
