With This White House, Can Arts Funding Be Saved? The Creative Coalition Has a Plan

The Creative Coalition’s inaugural National Arts Advocacy Summit dubbed the “Davos of the Arts in the Desert,” brought 50 thought leaders from the arts and business to Las Vegas’ Summerlin community on Feb. 12 and 13 for a two-day invite-only gathering. 

The call to action was to develop a blueprint for the TCC to take to Capitol Hill to advocate for arts funding, with the $207 million earmarked for the National Endowment for the Arts on the line. The TCC’s visit to Washington, D.C., known as “Right to Bear Arts Day,” is scheduled for late April and will include a trip to the White House.

“Our vision for the summit was accurate,” says Robin Bronk, CEO of The Creative Coalition. “It was everything we hoped for, being able to come together, to speak with one voice and to have different types of leaders bring their best game to the table.”

The summit began with a hike at Red Rock Canyon National Conservation Area, followed by dinner at Harlo Steakhouse in downtown Summerlin, where actors, musicians, entertainment executives, CEOs, and media personalities shared ideas and engaged in lively conversation. Participants included Paramount Global senior vp Rob O’Neill, executive producer Jessica Sharzer (American Horror Story), actor and president of The Creative Coalition Tim Daly (Madam Secretary), Howard Hughes Holdings CEO David O’Reilly, LeVar Burton (Star Trek: The Next Generation), Harry Hamlin (80 for Brady), Amazon’s head of communications strategy Sallie Schoneboom, actor Richard Kind (Only Murders in the Building), executive producer Bill Prady (The Big Bang Theory), Iain Armitage (Young Sheldon), Amy Brenneman (The Old Man), Gloria Calderón Kellett (With Love), Peri Gilpin (Frasier), Retta (Good Girls) and The Hollywood Reporter co-editor-in-chief Maer Roshan, among others. (THR is the official media partner of the Summit.)  

The following day, at Red Rock Resort, Summit attendees dedicated eight hours to crafting actionable strategies for advancing arts education, funding and policy, highlighting the arts’ essential role in U.S. economic growth and workforce development. 

The Creative Coalition was founded in 1989 (by Christopher Reeve, Susan Sarandon, Ron Silver and Alec Baldwin) when the Reagan administration announced it would heavily reduce and potentially eliminate the National Endowment for the Arts. The urgency surrounding the conversation of arts funding recently shifted into high gear as the Trump Administration announced in January the NEA would cut funding for underserved communities. With the president installing himself as the chairman of the board at the Kennedy Center, the intersection of arts and politics made top headlines. 

Andy Buczek, TCC legislative director, kicked off the summit’s morning session with a hot take on the state of the arts and a history of the NEA, which was established in 1965 and provides thousands of grants to arts organizations within 435 congressional districts and all 50 states. These dollars often go to organizations that struggle to raise money, such as small-town community theaters or galleries, who find the NEA dollars critical because they leverage them to raise other funds. Approximately 2,151 unique communities are served annually through NEA grants, arts-funded therapy helps military and veteran populations cope with trauma and every dollar of direct NEA funding leverages $9 in non-federal funding. Despite these statistics, several attempts have been made to zero out NEA funding.

Throughout the day, every participant had an open mic in the dialogue, which included goal setting, drafting the blueprint, leadership huddles and next steps, and arts workforce-related fireside chats covering family caregiving and the business of art.

Cohorts were established for follow-up action in several areas: to pull together an executive summary for Congress and the White House that includes data to support public arts funding; to increase public service awareness; and to create a campaign bringing notables from business and industry back into the communities where they received arts education. 

“After the meeting, the committee wanted at least another day to keep rolling up their sleeves and honing the plan,” says Bronk. “We will meet through Zoom and all were willing to give up more time for this.”

According to data compiled by the Coalition, in 2022, the arts sector reached an all-time high of $1.1 trillion in value added to the U.S. economy. 5.2 million workers across the country are employed to produce arts and culture goods and services. Arts and culture exports produce a trade surplus of $21 billion.