The Creative Coalition on the Urgent Fight to Protect The National Endowment For The Arts

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Welcome to Get Connected with Nina del Rio, a weekly
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conversation about fitness, health and happenings in our community on
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one oh six point seven light FM.
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Thanks for being on Get Connected, Thanks for listening. In May,
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arts organizations of all kinds across the country, including many
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in New York, from dance to film, to music to theater,
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began receiving notices that prior grants from the National Endowment
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for the Arts were being cut as thousands of cultural
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organizations scrambled to replace those much needed funds, and the
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Trump administration is calling to shut down the NEA entirely.
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Our guests are Tim Daily, president of the Creative Coalition,
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and Robin Bronc, the organization CEO, on the urgent fight
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to protect the NEA and public funding for the arts.
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Tim Dailey and Robin Bronc, thank you for being on
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the show.
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Thank you for having us.
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The website is the Creativecoalition dot org. I think a
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good place to start, and I'll start with you, Tim.
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Is to help the public understand what the National Endowment
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where the Arts does well.
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The National down for the Arts is a federal organization
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that gives grants to every single congressional district in the
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United States of America. And what makes that so important
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is that places like New York City, although it does
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receive ANYA grants, are pretty much okay in terms of
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their arts community because it's such a vibrant and a
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populous place in the country. But the NEA gives grants
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to all these tiny communities all over the place, without
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which they would have no exposure to the arts whatsoever. So,
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you know, in some rural community, their dance company or
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their you know, veterans program, or their after school program
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for children, or there's there you know, chamber orchestra would
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not exist were it not for these small grants, which
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act like sort of a good housekeeping stamp of approval
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for communities, And they can take that grant and go
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around to the community and then use that to raise
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private funds and cement their organization in that community, which
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becomes more often than not a sort of a cultural
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touchstone and a place that brings people together. That's part
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of it. The other part is that every dollar spent
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by the National Down for the Arts brings back about
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nine dollars in economic activities. So if you don't think
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of it as a cultural institution to think of it
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as an economic driver. It's a real money maker, not
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only for communities but for the federal government. So the
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idea that the NEA would be removed as an organization
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is absolutely insane.
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Frankly, Rob, and I've also heard you talk about the
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arts funding or the arts driving innovation. What do you
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mean by that, Well.
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It's fascinating, by the way, it's I'm looking you up.
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You're an artist too, in an actor, so I know
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you certainly appreciate this.
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But the for every dollar.
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That the NEA spends on a community, and remember every
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single congressional district receives any A funding, it is seed
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money that grows.
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Apparently, the Bureau Statistics.
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Tells us that for every dollar that is given by
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the NEA into a congressional district, nine dollars comes back
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into that district. So if you don't care about the arts,
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if you don't care about humanity, if you don't care
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about learning strategic skills, if you don't care about discipline,
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if you don't care about learning about history, I think you.
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Probably care about the economy.
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And what I've been saying also, is that, interestingly enough,
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in all the times Tim and I have been up
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to Capitol Hill.
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No one is against the arts.
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I would I would be hard pressed to have anyone
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on either political aisle or any the three Polittle files
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saying I hate the arts. It's about how they're funded.
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So this is a drop in this giant federal budget.
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So what the NEA is asking for is two hundred
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and seven million dollars and then it increases by nine
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if you care about the economy and nothing else.
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What they say, it's the economy stupid.
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But I'm going to answer Robin the question that you
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actually asked, Robin, which is which is how does do
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the arts benefit us? As you know, a creative culture.
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And it's my belief that the United States of America
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has a population that is the most imaginative and creative
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in the world. I mean, it's been a cornerstone of
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what has driven not only our economy, but our culture,
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which we export all over the world because it's so
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varied and interesting. And the thing is that creativity and
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imagination are muscles, and if those muscles aren't ex exercise,
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they atrophy like any other muscle. And the arts are
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the gymnasium for those for the creative mind and the
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imaginative mind. So I remember in two thousand and eight
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we were at the White House in a very small group.
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We were being asked to talk about STEM education, and
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I got pissed off, frankly, because I thought, where is
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the First of all, Stem's a terrible acronym. It's either
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stem cell research or like a florist convention. And second
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of all, where's the a? It should be steam, science, technology, engineering, arts,
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and math, because arts are the thing that not only
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put technology into a human context, but they do exercise
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the creative and imaginative mind. So the next great product,
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the next great idea, those things are going to come
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from someone with a vivid imagination and the ability to
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think critically. And the way to train people with those
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traits is through arts. And I think you'd actually be
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hard pressed to find people in the tech industry, or
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in almost any industry who wouldn't value the arts as
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part of what got them to where they are. I mean,
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when you think about small businesses and entrepreneurial business those people,
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it involves a lot of ingenuity and creative thinking in
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order to make a successful small business. So arts are
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critical to our culture and our society, and especially to
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our children because you know, the statistics show that children
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are three times more likely to graduate from high school
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if they study arts, which means that they're going to
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be more likely to go to college, make more money,
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and you know, have a platform on which to build
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a productive life and become tax paying, productive citizens rather
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than people that you know, draw off the you know
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that suck things away from our society, or god forbid,
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wind up in a penitentiary. So do we want citizens
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or inmates? Your choice? Teach arts.
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Our guests are Tim Daley, President of the Creative Coalition
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and Robin Bronk, CEO of the Creative Coalition on protecting
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federal arts funding in the face of threatened cuts. You
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can find out more at the Creative Coalition dot org.
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You're listening to get connected on one oh six point
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seven light FM. I'm Ina del Rio. I want to
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go back to the intro for just a moment. In
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the fall of twenty twenty four, the NEA. I know
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we're talking about the NEA funding projects in smaller cities,
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but we're in New York City, so I want to
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talk about the impact here briefly. In the fall of
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twenty twenty four, the NEA awarded grants of up to
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one hundred thousand to three hundred and twenty seven organizations
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across New York State, including two hundred and sixty six
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in New York City. Many of those organizations received letters
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canceling those grants again earlier this spring. Among those affected
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in the city, Central Park Summer Stage, Tricia Bound Brown
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Dance Company, the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, the Drama Lee,
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the Classical Theater of Harlem. I don't know if you
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can speak to those cuts specifically or New York City specifically,
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but what do you know about the impact of some
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of those cuts to date, either of you.
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Well, some of those cuts are going to create the
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extinguishing of these programs.
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Because it's not just that they were funded.
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By that piece of the NEA grant, it's those of
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their other funders. The NEA grant is seed money, and
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when the seed goes away, the foundation goes away. This
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is it's going to directly impact these programs. Now, the
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people who are detractors from public funding for the arts,
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do you say, why not private, why not all private funding? Well,
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we know that public private funding partnerships work, and the
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NEA is the biggest success story in public private partnerships.
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Why would we extinguish that this is success, this is
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money in the bank, this is successful outcomes.
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We have all that.
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You know, the reality is that Americans are very generous
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and they donate a lot of money to arts organizations.
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But the problem is that so much that money and
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this kind of supports people's false idea about what's arts,
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what arts are The majority of the of that that
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altruism goes to organizations that are already hugely established. So,
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you know, identifying the smaller organizations that are deserving of
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a little bit of public support is critical to having
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a wide variety of arts organizations that are funded, not
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just Carnegie Hall and not just Lincoln Center, but the
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smaller organizations that you just delineated. So keeping that ability
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of these, you know, these smaller organizations that serve little
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are parts of our community for people who maybe can't
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afford a ticket to go to Lincoln Center is vital.
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I want to follow that thread for a moment though,
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of why fund the arts? So we don't have an
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advocate for any cuts here, So I'm going to ask
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another question from that perspective, why should the government fund
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the arts if the work is controversial or antithetical or
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antagonistic to any administration's platform.
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Well, so here's the deal. My analogy always is that
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artists like food. You're not going to like everything you tay.
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Something you're going to think is gross, something you're going
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to think is absolutely delectable. But we can't live without it,
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you know. Food is what keeps us alive. And I
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think that not to go down a whole other road,
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but it's also becomes a free speech issue. You know,
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we need to listen to other points of view, and
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one of the great benefits of arts is that sometimes
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it solidifies our point of view about something. Sometimes it
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makes us question our assumptions about something, sometimes it changes
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our mind. And it's really important to keep those three
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balls in the air because that way we're not just
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blindly rubber stamping an opinion or a point of view
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or even a definition of beauty. We need to look
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at everything and decide what we like and not have
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someone else decide for us.
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You have both been deeply involved in advocating for the
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arts for some time. Pastor public administrations have called for
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the NEA's reduction and closure in the past. Why did
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the NEA survive during those periods? And why is this
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climate particularly risky or why does it feel so we're
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on the precipice of something.
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Well, we've saved the national down for the arts multiple times,
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and I think that over the years we've cultivated colleagues
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and supporters on both sides of the aisle who really
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understand this issue and they understand the importance of the
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NEA and that has been I think the reason that
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we've we've had success. You know, this is a difficult
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time for a lot of reasons that you know, we
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could talk to about, you know, in a more politically
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oriented show, But we are a non partisan organization. We
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believe that the arts are a non partisan issue and
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we've you know, so far been quite successful in getting
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people to see it that way and to understand that
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it's important to their communities and especially in places that
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that wouldn't normally be in need of that kind of
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nurturing small grant support.
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So, Robin, what is the timeline? I feel like we
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have an urgency when it's Congress vote.
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Yeah, that's a great question. And your question about why now,
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why what? What makes what is different about this time around?
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I feel like there's this lack of.
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Enthusiasm among constituents that we can make change. And there's
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this you know why bother And here's a little slice
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of life that impacts everything that you do, where all
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you have to do is make a phone call and
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it does count.
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So why now?
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Because the vote's coming up in a couple of months,
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and once the NEA is gone, if it is, if
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God forbid, it is gone, it's going to be very
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hard to get it back. So even though the budget
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is currently cut and it's kind of on life support,
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the patient.
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Is still alive.
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So and I was looking at some of the stats
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from you know, New York City is a big place
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and Queens is way different from Manhattan. So many of
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the smaller programs and Queens they give those constituents life
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are threatened. It's not about Lincoln Center, which is also
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something that is supported and should be supported, but it's
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about that small project in Queens on the corner. So
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we're asking New Yorkers to be New Yorkists and call
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that number two two two two four three one two
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one and just say that we need to support the
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National Endowment for the Arts.
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You can support it through social media and all those things,
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but the call to your actual congress person does the most.
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More social media. Whatever's easiest for.
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You, Tim, is there anything else you want to add?
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I just want to say that the Creative Coalition is
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a tremendously patriotic organization. We believe in the creative power
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of this country, and you know, a culture without imagination,
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without creativity, is a dim gray place, and we need
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to support not only our art, but anyone who has
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the need to be a critical and imaginative and creative thinker. So,
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you know, just for anyone that thinks that you know
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we're a fringe organization, you're wrong. We get nothing out
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of this except that we want to help the population
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of the United States be exposed to and participate in
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the arts for their own economic benefit and for their
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own sort of, you know, more spiritual and emotional benefit.
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You can find out more at the Creative Coalition dot org.
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Our guests are Tim Daly and Robin Bronc of the
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Creative Coalition. Thank you for being on to Get Connected,
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Appreciate it, Have great day, Take care, Thanky bte.
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This has been Get Connected with Nina del Rio on
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one oh six point seven Light FM. The views and
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opinions of our guests do not necessarily reflect the views
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of the station. If you missed any part of our
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show or want to share it, visit our website where
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downloads and podcasts at one O six seven lightfm dot com.
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Thanks for listening.