News and Commentary

Senate Stimulus Bill Gives Over $100 Million To Arts Organizations

   DailyWire.com
Pedestrians walk up a sidewalk to the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts on August 16, 2014 in Washington, DC.
Photo by Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images

The Senate stimulus compromise package passed in the wee hours of the morning on Wednesday includes over $100 million for the arts, with $25 million in funding for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts in Washington D.C. and $75 million each for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Democrats had previously wanted $35 million for the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts  and $300 million for both the the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities.

As Fox News noted, “That $25 million for the Kennedy Center is designated to helping the center ‘prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally, including deep cleaning and information technology to improve telework capability and for operations and maintenance requirements related to the consequences of coronavirus.’”

On Monday, Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-NY), who was one of the leaders in the impeachment efforts on President Trump in the House of Representatives, led some of his colleagues in firing off a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy demanding $4 billion for New York City museums.

Nadler tweeted, “NYC isn’t NYC without our non-profit museums. But if we ant our museums to survive COVID-19, we need to protect them NOW. That’s why I led the NYC Congressional delegation with @RepMaloney in calling for $4 billion in emergency funds to equip museums to outlast this pandemic.”

Nadler and his group’s letter to Pelosi and McCarthy began:

As members of the New York City Congressional Delegation, we ask that you provide at least $4 billion in federal assistance to the nonprofit museum industry in the recovery package for those affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. This financial support will ease the economic hardship facing nonprofit museums across the country, including New York City’s over 100 nonprofit museums, and give them the stability they need to be able to recover and reopen once this crisis passes.

As you know, Americans across the nation are undertaking unprecedented measures in order to minimize the transmission of COVID-19. On March 15, 2020, the CDC urged that any gathering of 50 or more people be canceled or postponed for the next 8 weeks. The following day the president recommended that gatherings of 10 or more people be avoided. In response to these concerns, museums and cultural institutions around New York announced on March 12 they would voluntary close their doors in order to slow the spread of the virus. Nonprofit museums across the country followed suit and closed indefinitely, even though roughly 65 percent of their income comes directly from patrons.

The letter stated that the Metropolitan Museum of Art projected that it would lose close to $100 million in the coming months; the American Museum of Natural History estimated it would lose $60 million by June.

The letter concluded, “Without help, our nation’s nonprofit museums cannot survive, and a vital part of New York and American culture will be lost forever. By providing $4 billion in emergency funding for nonprofit museums we can equip these museums to outlast this pandemic and continue their invaluable roles in preserving American art, history, and culture.”

 

 

 

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