From the Research Team

Tracking Supplemental Funding for the Arts

As the pandemic continues, states are pursuing a range of legislative and executive strategies to ensure that arts and culture can play a crucial role in recovery and resilience, recognizing that arts and culture promote beneficial health outcomes, drive economic growth and foster economic recovery. While state arts agencies have received two federal supplemental allocations from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act and the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act, many states have supplemented that funding with additional state CARES, ARP and general funds. NASAA has been tracking the variety of passed and proposed funding sources and the ways in which they have been put to use for arts and culture. Examples of this funding include:

relief funding for individual artists, arts and culture nonprofits, and creative businesses
creative youth development and workforce development that address health, well-being and social issues
capital project funding for arts and cultural facilities that had delayed construction

Although NASAA does not publish a list of this supplemental funding, we welcome questions and inquiries about the depth of relief and recovery efforts for arts and culture across the nation. For a current list of supplemental funding used to support state arts agencies and the arts, descriptions of the programs, questions, or to forward information on your own state’s planning, please e-mail NASAA Research Associate Declan Wicks. The illustration above is a snapshot of a searchable database of ARP-related legislation and executive actions provided by the National Conference of State Legislatures, which includes a general Arts, Culture and Tourism filter.