NEA and NEH Budgets

It's official - at the subcommittee level - the NEH and NEA are getting $170mil each: the House Appropriations Subcommittee of the Interior voted on Wednesday.  I may be a little behind the times (sorry), but it's happening!

Just as a point of note, these funding levels are STILL below the levels in 1992, when the NEA and NEH were funded at $176mil.  Annoyingly, the little, teeny increments are because of Republicans, the people who understand the arts least - “I’ve been trying 

to take this back up but to do it in increments that were sustainable with our Republican friends,” said Representative Norm Dicks, Democrat of Washington, who is chairman of the House subcommittee.

Sometimes I wonder if the reason why reality TV took over SO overwhelmingly was because there was no new real art coming through the pipeline because of a lack of funds.  It's a theory, at least.