LAFAYETTE — Last week, President Donald Trump submitted a 2018 budget blueprint that would eliminate funding for the National Endowment for the Arts. Ever since, the national arts community has been buzzing with reaction.
The endowment is one of several independent agencies that Trump's "America First: A Budget Blueprint to Make America Great Again" would stop funding. Congress has yet to approve the budget blueprint, and as the process plays out, plenty more discussion will fly around.
The federal-level cuts for the arts would trickle down to the state and local levels. Arts institutions in Greater Lafayette are weighing what the endowment's absence would mean. They can point to the spots in their fiscal budgets that the federal dollars have filled and the economic boost that comes from arts investments.
"We are in support of the National Endowment for the Arts," said Tetia Lee, executive director for the Tippecanoe Arts Federation. "I know firsthand the positive impact that the arts have. The arts are not the cherry on top; they're an integral part of every community."
The federation is the regional arts partner for a 14-county area, and it is part of a chain that is affected by federal funding, Lee said.
Forty percent of the national endowment's grantmaking budget goes to states and flows through state and regional arts agencies, with the rest going to organizations and individuals that apply for funds, according to a fact sheet on its website. The endowment's 2016 budget was $147.9 million, and the agency is 0.004 percent of the federal budget, the sheet stated.