Sundance Institute vigorously supports the National Endowment for the Arts, and calls upon our country's leadership to do the same. NEA support played a crucial role in launching Sundance Institute in 1981 and has helped thousands of museums, arts programs and organizations. The NEA plays a critical role in building a culture that values artists and understands the important economic benefits of investing in the arts. Defunding the Endowment undermines our national artistic heritage, and handicaps our future potential.
LETTER:
The NEA must not only survive, but thrive.
In 1981, the National Endowment for the Arts helped jump-start a new creative idea in the mountains of Utah, with a seed grant for the first Sundance Institute Lab, where independent filmmakers developed new work. These artists were telling risk-taking and human stories, making the sort of films the commercial mainstream did not recognize or value, and they had few opportunities for creative support.
That first investment from the NEA led to the launch of the Sundance Film Festival a few years later, which in turn helped create an independent film movement in America including the birth of a vibrant business sector that brings these films to theaters and home screens around the world. Our Festival, now a core part of our nonprofit work, brings tens of thousands of visitors and important revenue to the State of Utah, including a cumulative gross domestic product of nearly $400 million and more than 7,000 jobs over the past five years alone - providing further evidence that the arts can be an economic driver, putting people to work and filling local government coffers.[1]
For more than three decades since that transformative first investment in Sundance, the NEA has provided enduring support for our programs as they've deepened to include theatre, documentary, virtual reality, and more for artists from all 50 states and dozens of countries globally. Independent artists need support outside the commercial marketplace, and their diverse views and creative work provide perspectives to our culture and economy that are far too valuable to de-fund.
The proposed cuts to the NEA's budget would gut our nation's ability to support and nurture artists and arts programs and deprive citizens both culturally and economically. In order to keep pace in a global world, we need to invite new voices to the table, offer future generations a chance to create, and celebrate our cultural heritage together.
In the 2016 fiscal year, the NEA cost taxpayers $148 million, or .004% of the entire Federal budget.[2] When bundled together with the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, budgets total $741 million, or .016% of the entire Federal budget. This funding means thousands of grants for artists and arts organizations, across the country, in every state and Congressional district. And that investment generates returns both tangible (every dollar granted by the NEA leverages up to nine additional dollars through matching and federal-state partnerships) and cultural (allowing us to see our world and imagine our future).
We add our voices to the many other institutions and individuals who have spoken out in opposition to these cuts and in favor of continued American artistic innovation.
Yours sincerely,
Robert Redford
President and Founder, Sundance Institute
Sundance Institute Brings $143.3 Million in Economic Activity and $72.5 in Gross State Product to Utah with 2016 Sundance Film Festival. sundance.org. Published June 15, 2016.
National Endowment for the Arts Quick Facts. arts.gov. Retrieved March 16, 2017.
Bump, Philip. Trump reportedly wants to cut cultural programs that make up 0.02 percent of federal spending . Retrieved March 16, 2017.
If you'd like to join the conversation, please visit the Americans for the Arts's Action Center to send a customizable message to your elected representatives. Be sure to share on Facebook, Twitter, and other social media with #ArtsVote, #SaveTheNEA, #StandfortheArts and tag your elected officials.
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An old letter Early grant letter from NEA
A video
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Sundance Institute vigorously supports the National Endowment for the Arts, and calls upon our country's leadership to do the same. NEA support played a crucial role in launching Sundance Institute in 1981 and has helped thousands of museums, arts programs and organizations. The NEA plays a critical role in building a culture that values artists and understands the important economic benefits of investing in the arts. Defunding the Endowment undermines our national artistic heritage, and handicaps our future potential. 
