Over the last year or so, MAN has featured a number of posts about funding cuts Congress and the White House have made to the National Endowment for the Arts. Typically journalism outlets talk about the latest cuts as “$X million was cut from…” because that’s how the federal budgeting process works. When Congress and the White House set the NEA’s budget number, it’s a small abstract figure instead of money that supports specific jobs in the cultural sector. It’s never clear exactly what jobs will be lost when the NEA’s budget is cut. Conversely, it’s never clear what jobs are supported by the NEA’s grants.

Today comes news of what jobs the NEA supports: This morning the NEA announced $88 million in grants. Here’s a selective links-list that will help you see how your tax dollars support cultural projects that enrich our nation. If you enjoy MAN, you’ll enjoy clicking through. (In addition, I’ll be tweeting news of specific grants throughout the day. Follow me and see my tweets on the grants here.)

• Grants for Access to Artistic Excellence in the visual arts;
• Grants for Access to Artistic Excellence at museums;
• Grants for Access to Artistic Excellent at local arts agencies;
• Grants for arts education via Learning in the Arts for Children and Youth; and
• Grants for arts programming on radio and television (which seems very 1972 as grants for digital projects are strikingly few…).