“There have been times in years past when Lincoln Center’s 11 constituent arts groups were better known for infighting than cooperation, but on Tuesday they banded together to release an unusual joint statement urging the federal government to save the National Endowment for the Arts, which the Trump administration has considered eliminating,” writes Michael Cooper in Tuesday’s (2/28) New York Times. “The groups—which generally get only very tiny fractions of their funding from the endowment—argued that it serves an important function … attracting private philanthropy and ‘providing early funding to get projects off the ground or helping to create or expand promising initiatives to achieve greater reach and impact.’ … The statement … was signed by the leaders of the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center, the Film Society of Lincoln Center, Jazz at Lincoln Center, the Juilliard School, Lincoln Center Theater, the Metropolitan Opera, New York City Ballet, the New York Philharmonic, the New York Public Library for the Performing Arts, the School of American Ballet and Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts.” The statement notes, “Every dollar the N.E.A. contributes leads to nine additional dollars being donated from other sources…. A great America needs that kind of return.”
Posted March 2, 2017
