Money Makes the Art Go Round

President Obama is proposing a budget for 2013  that would raise the National Endowment for the Arts’ annual spending to $154.3 million from about $146 million this year. Of the proposed $8 million, about half will go directly to nonprofit arts organizations and 25% will go to state arts agencies.

This proposed increase is a welcome change from the trend that has dominated for the last few years. It also, follows on the Bill introduced last year by Jerrold Nadler and Herb Kohl to provide artists with resale rights and have the royalty fee split between artists and museums to spur acquisition of American art. As mediators like to say, if passed, the Equity for Visual Artists Act of 2011 would be a win-win for the artists and arts organizations in the United States.

Source: “President’s Budget Includes Increase for Arts,” The New York Times, Feb. 15, 2012; The Art Newspaper.