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Show AMERICA'S ARTS & ARTISTS 15 Years: A Dream Comes True Access of all Americans to the best of art? Many said it was, and would remain, re-main, a dream. Yet the vision and determination of inspired groups and individuals indi-viduals are making that dream a reality. Here the Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts discusses how the arts are reaching each of us. By Livingston L. Biddle, Jr. Nothing is more enviableor envi-ableor daunting than the opportunity to make a practical prac-tical reality out of a visionary vision-ary dream. Yet today we see the phrases of the legislation that created the National Endowment for the Arts 15 years ago translated into goals, programs and accomplishments. accom-plishments. The Endowment's Annual An-nual Report provides a record rec-ord of the many communities communi-ties into which our finest dance companies toured; of historic buildings preserved and adapted into art centers', cen-ters', and of artists working with children in schools throughout the land. It also lists support for arts festivals, festi-vals, exhibits, and workshops; work-shops; for street theater and jazz performances; for residences resi-dences for poets, painters and photographers; and for the nation's great orchestras, orches-tras, operas, and museums. It records grants that help preserve the traditional arts and crafts which reflect the ethnic culture of America's diverse population; and those that help encourage an expanding awareness of the artistic needs of minority minor-ity groups and a recognition of the importance of their art. Free outdoor concerts, ticket discount programs for the elderly, and special projects proj-ects for handicapped individualsare indi-vidualsare integral to the Endowment's efforts to make the arts available to all citizens. The Endowment's hnHcrpt has risen dramatically from $2.5 million in 1965 to $154.4 million for 1980, yet this is less than only an infinitesimal three ten-thousandths ten-thousandths of today's annual an-nual federal budget. The law creating the Endowment En-dowment was designed to prohibit government dominance domi-nance in the arts. It stipulated stipu-lated that the agency not provide more than half of the cost of any project. Thus, the great majority of grants require a match of one dollar or more in nonfederal non-federal funds for each dollar received. In this way the Endowment serves as a catalyst, to stretch the arts dollars far beyond its own budget limits. We are pleased to note that paralleling the government govern-ment support, private contributions con-tributions have risen from less than a quarter billion dollars in 1965 to nearly $3 billion today. Thus, as a nation we have mobilized our funding resourcesat re-sourcesat federal, state and local government levels, among corporations, foundations, foun-dations, and private philanthropistson philan-thropistson behalf of the arts, and the abiding talents they represent. Today we are moving toward goals that once seemed impossibly impossi-bly beyond reach. The enriching qualities of the arts can profoundly affect af-fect the uplifting of the human spirit. This has been true in leading civilizations throughout history. It is becoming true in our own country at all economic levels of society. I see growing grow-ing numbers of examples. It is not a renaissance of the arts. It is a birth; it is new beginnings. We have never witnessed its like before. |