Advancing Equity Through the Arts and Humanities Act of 2023

Access to the arts and cultural programming influences positive social determinants and is integral to healthy communities.

In America, the received narrative is that the arts are for entertainment or for artists, but a deeper look shows the profound effect access to the arts has on those most impacted by the justice system, children, veterans, low-income communities, and self-designated non-artists.

Concentrated cultural districts are associated with reduced poverty without neighborhood displacement, improved child welfare, and lower morbidity.

Low-income neighborhoods with cultural resources have 14 percent fewer cases of child abuse and neglect, and 18 percent less serious crime than low-income neighborhoods without cultural resources.

Low-income students who participate in the arts, both in school and after school, have a dropout rate of just 4 percent or 5 times lower than their peers. Children with access to arts programming in schools showed a 22.55 percent improvement in math proficiency, a 12.62 percent improvement in reading, and suspensions were reduced by as much as 89 percent.

Seventy-one percent of at-risk students with high arts involvement attend college, whereas only 48 percent of at-risk students with low arts involvement attend college.

Participation in after-school arts programs causes juvenile crime to fall by 4.2 percent on average, and slightly more (5.4 percent) in lower-income cities.

Arts programming in prisons showed an 89-percent drop in infractions.

The cultural economy is significant not only in cities, but also in rural and tribal communities. Forty percent of Native American households on the Pine Ridge Reservation in Kyle, South Dakota, depend on home-based arts enterprises.

The arts heal the mental, physical, and moral injuries of war for military servicemembers and veterans, as well as aid in their reintegration into the community.

Arts and culture is an $878,000,000,000 industry in the U.S. (nonprofit, commercial, education). The nonprofit arts industry alone generates $166,300,000,000 in annual economic activity spending by organizations and their audience, which supports 4,600,000 jobs and generates $27,500,000,000 in government revenue.

The National Endowment for the Arts is the only arts funder in the United States, public or private, that provides access to the arts in all 50 States, the District of Columbia, and territories of the United States.

Many of the most far-reaching victories for racial healing in the United States have been greatly enhanced by the involvement, support, and dedication of individuals from any and all racial groups.

At the same time, much of the progress toward racial healing and racial equity in the United States has been limited or reversed by our failure to address the root cause of racism, the belief in the myth of a hierarchy of human value based on superficial physical characteristics such as skin color and facial features.

Limited arts access is linked to economic and racial inequities as well as resource deprivation.

Arts organizations serving communities of color are, in general, much less financially secure and far smaller than their counterparts in White communities. The median budgets of the 20 largest arts organizations serving communities of color in a given discipline, such as dance, theater, or music, were more than 90 percent smaller than the budgets of the largest organizations in that discipline.

Children of color, who make up the overwhelming percentage of the children living in poverty in the United States, and other students with lower socioeconomic status, have a lower probability of accessing arts education.

Access to arts education declined significantly more for Black and Brown students than it did for White children between 1982 and 2008. There was less than a 2 percent decrease for White children, while there was a 49 percent decrease for Black children and a 40 percent decrease for Latin children.

The arts are in everyone. Everyone should have access to the arts.

Racial and ethnic inequality is a result of systematic and internalized racism and racist public and private policies and practices. Dismantling structural racism through the arts and humanities is critical to the health of our Nation.

Antiracism— The term “antiracism” means a collection of antiracist policies and practices that lead to racial equity, are substantiated by antiracist ideas, and include a policy or practice that recognizes pervasive racism in society, and actively combats racial prejudice and discrimination in order to promote racial justice and equity.

Antiracist— The term “antiracist” means any measure that produces or sustains racial equity between racial groups, including any policy or practice that produces active resistance to and dismantling of the system of racism.

Systemic racism— The term “systemic racism” means systems of power, unfair policies, discriminatory practices, and normalized dynamics (historical, cultural, internalized, interpersonal, institutional) that routinely produce inequitable outcomes for oppressed people and advantages for privileged people, with the effect of creating and sustaining inequities.

Equity— The term “equity” means fair and impartial outcomes, opportunities, and access for an individual (or entity) engaging with an organization or systems (political and socio-economic), to receive or experience what is needed (not equal) in order to maintain fairness.

BIPOC— The term “BIPOC” is an acronym to refer inclusively to—

Hispanic— The term “Hispanic” means an individual whose origin is Mexican, Puerto Rican, Cuban, Central or South American, or any other Spanish-speaking country.

BIPOC-led— The term “BIPOC-led” means an organization that is founded by or currently has executive leadership made up of BIPOC individuals, but excludes an organization that is predominantly White or serves predominantly White audiences that simply have a BIPOC individual in a token leadership position.

Chairpersons— The term “Chairpersons” means the Chairperson of the National Endowment for the Arts and the Chairperson of the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Promising practices— The term “promising practices” means programs that have strategies, activities, or approaches which have supporting research and evaluation, as well as measurable outcomes that have shown the program to be effective and impactful for participants.

Humanities— The term “humanities” means a discipline and method to share stories, ideas, and experiences.

Humanities organization— The term “humanities organization” means an organization that connects people through stories, ideas, and experiences that positively change lives and strengthen communities, bringing communities together for meaningful encounters, and includes—

Establishment— Not later than 180 days after the funds are appropriated to carry out this Act, the Chairpersons, in consultation with the advisory task force, shall establish a competitive grant program to be administered jointly in the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, to make grants to eligible entities to create and expand programs to support public and nonprofit arts and humanities organizations that directly combat systemic racism through the arts and humanities, including dance, music, theater, musical theater, literary, poetry and spoken word, visual and public art, performing, media arts, social justice, faith-based, folk and traditional, and other arts and humanities organizations.

Eligible entities— To carry out the components of the program under this section, the Chairpersons shall—

Allowable use of funds— An eligible entity that receives a grant under this section shall carry out 1 or more of the following:

Administrative expenses— The Chairpersons may use not more than 5 percent of funds available to carry out this section for administration of the Advancing Equity Through the Arts and Humanities Program, including technical assistance, collaboration with other relevant agencies, and dissemination of best practices.

Grantees— An eligible entity that receives a grant under this section shall submit an annual report to the Chairpersons describing—

Reports to Congress— Beginning 1 year after the first grants are awarded under this section, and annually thereafter, the Chairpersons shall publicly submit and digitally publish a report to Congress detailing—

Authorization of appropriations— There is authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be necessary to carry out this section.