Trump Wants To Kill Federal Arts Funding. These Artists Are Standing Against Him.
Image by Rhona Wise/Getty Images
By Talya Zax March 16, 2017
In President Trump’s first federal budget plan, submitted this morning, one item has stood out to proponents of the arts: Trump’s call to cut all funding from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH).
The response has been swift, as over 200,000 Americans have joined PEN America, the Daily Kos, and a variety of other groups in a petition for Congress to reject that proposal. Among their number are comic artist Art Spiegelman, novelists including Neil Gaiman and Salman Rushdie, actor John Lithgow and singer-songwriter Rosanne Cash.
“Funding for the NEA and NEH each constitute only .003% of federal spending, an investment that supports some of the world’s greatest literature, art, and cultural institutions,” the petition reads. “Eliminating these vital agencies would lessen America’s stature as a haven for free thinkers and a global leader in humanity’s shared quest for knowledge.”
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse..
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
