Nancy L. Johnson: “I thank Representative Skeen for yielding me time, and I appreciate the support that the subcommittee has shown for the…”

“I thank Representative Skeen for yielding me time, and I appreciate the support that the subcommittee has shown for the NEA, the NEH and the IMLS. But I do rise in support of this amendment, because I think we as a Nation need to support the Challenge America initiative that the NEA has led. The Challenge America initiative has two primary goals: One, to literally press arts dollars down to the small communities. This is extraordinarily important, because these communities are far more conscious of their cultural life than they used to be. There are many more small theater groups developing, many more chamber groups, many more instrumentalist groups and choruses developing, and they need the help that small dollars can give them to organize, to publicize their concerts and to grow their position in the cultural life of our small communities. That is where the arts take on their greatest vitality. The second thing that these dollars do is to help their communities begin to record and cherish and revitalize their own knowledge of their heritage and to use that revitalization of their cultural heritage and the revitalization of current cultural institutions to develop the economy of rural areas, small cities, and those kinds of sectors of America that too long have had no support in developing the arts on a local and neighborhood and community basis. The third thing that Challenge America tries to do is to try to press these dollars down into our schools.…”