NEA CHIEF SAYS SUPPORT FOR THE ARTS IS “BREAKING DOWN”

State governments have cut their spending on the arts an average of twenty-one percent over the past two years, according to National Endowment for the Arts chairman Dana Gioia, and even greater cuts are expected next year. In The Guardian, Carl Hartman reports that Gioia, speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, DC, on Monday, said, “The mere debate [over arts funding] suggests that the political and social consensus that once existed on the necessity of public support for the arts and arts education is breaking down.”