National Endowment for the Arts

What is Art?

“Art” includes all of the visual arts (drawing, painting, sculpture, film, etc.). It also embraces all forms of music including vocal and instrumental, from composition to performance. It includes all types of theater from on-stage performance to the technical side of set design and lighting. In addition, it entails creative writing, from poetry and fiction to journalism. The arts are diverse but also inclusive, as they may involve a blend of many elements and approaches.

From its inception, the NEA has been dedicated to strengthening the artistic life of the United States. It seeks to foster America's creativity and investment in its cultural heritage. It does this by supporting artistic excellence, forging partnerships, building more livable communities, promoting lifelong arts education, and improving access to the arts for all citizens. By focusing on these elements, the agency has worked to strengthen America's democracy.

In its first 35 years, the NEA awarded more than 110,000 grants to arts organizations and artists in all 50 states and the 6 U.S. jurisdictions. The number of state or jurisdictional organizations grew from 5 to 56. Local arts agencies grew in number from 400 to 4,000. Nonprofit theaters increased from 56 to 340. Similar increases in the number of symphony orchestras, opera companies, and dance companies have been the result.

Arts Education

Many of the “arts” grants included a significant element for adding to arts education in the local schools. Musicians performed and explained their music to pupils. Artists-in-residence programs at schools grew rapidly since the 1965 NEA founding. Writers worked with students to motivate and teach them to become more effective writers. Acting and performing on stage were a part of what was shared with the K–12 schools. PreK–12 arts education has received a major boost since the NEA's founding.

The noted sculptor Magdalena Abakanowicz claimed that art does not solve problems “but makes us aware of their existence.” The George Lucas Education Foundation's 2008 report begins with this significant summary in its first paragraph: “Years of research show that it's [the arts] closely linked to almost everything that we as a nation say we want for our children and demand from our schools: academic achievement, social and emotional development, civic engagement, and equitable opportunity.”

More specifically, involvement in the arts is associated with gains in math, reading, cognitive ability, critical thinking, and verbal skill. Arts learning can also improve motivation, concentration, confidence, and teamwork. Some contend that strong arts programming in schools helps close an academic achievement gap that has too often left many a child behind when less affluent families were unable to provide the lessons, trips to museums, attendance at concerts, and so forth, for their children.

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