A July 4 Message from Chairman Mary Anne Carter

Since returning to the National Endowment for the Arts final yr, America’s semiquincentennial has been on the forefront of my thoughts. I knew our company would have an necessary position to play in commemorating this historic milestone as a result of the humanities have at all times performed a vital position within the American story. They assist us perceive each other as our nation grows and evolves, strengthen our communities and financial system, protect our historical past, and assist us heal in occasions of problem. As we have a good time 250 years of American independence, the humanities additionally invite us to really feel the spirit of patriotism and replicate on our shared heritage, appreciating the folks, locations, and beliefs that make our nation distinctive.

The Arts Endowment has inspired initiatives commemorating the 250^th since 2021. Our grantees are creating new works, preserving necessary cultural traditions, and interesting audiences with performances and exhibitions that illuminate the folks and occasions which have formed our nation.

Our grant program “Celebrating America250: Arts Projects Honoring the National Garden of American Heroes”, for instance, honors extraordinary people whose management, creativity, and imaginative and prescient remodeled America. An Eden Festival undertaking (Salt Lake City, UT) is utilizing music to attach college students with American heritage by means of the works of icons like Ray Charles, Duke Ellington, Billie Holiday, and Nat King Cole. New West Symphony (Ventura, CA) celebrated President Ronald Reagan’s life and legacy by means of a multimedia live performance expertise that mixed orchestral efficiency with pictures, video, and a few of his most memorable speeches. Together, these works encourage audiences to replicate on the beliefs, challenges, and achievements which have outlined our nationwide journey.

Just as importantly, many Arts Endowment-supported initiatives shine a light-weight on the on a regular basis Americans whose tales have formed our nation. In The Woman Question, People’s Light & Theatre Company (Malvern, PA) explored the little-known historical past of a ladies’s medical school that introduced collectively aspiring feminine physicians from world wide throughout the nineteenth century. Borderlands Theater (Tucson, AZ) is utilizing immersive theater to share the historical past of the town and its residents, together with veterans who’ve served in each American battle for the reason that Civil War. Their tales remind us that the power of our nation has at all times come from its folks. 

Over the previous yr, we’ve additionally woven America250 into most of the Arts Endowment’s signature initiatives. Through the NEA Big Read, communities throughout the nation are coming collectively across the shared expertise of studying. This yr’s picks embrace American classics comparable to A Farewell to Arms and To Kill a Mockingbird; nonfiction works that invite readers to replicate on our nation’s story, together with Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave and 1776; and modern voices comparable to Joy Harjo and Sandra Cisneros that proceed to increase and enrich the American literary custom.

Poetry Out Loud likewise embraced an America250 focus, encouraging college students to have interaction with poems that replicate our nation’s historical past, beliefs, and aspirations. As college students memorized and recited works from throughout America’s literary custom, they demonstrated that poetry stays a dwelling expression of our shared expertise. Their performances revealed enduring connections between previous and current, exhibiting how the written phrase can encourage empathy, spark dialogue, and deepen our appreciation of the American story.

And now, the National Endowment for the Arts has the dignity of presenting a few of the artists and cultural traditions that make America distinctive at our Legacy Stage on the Great American State Fair. On our stage, audiences have skilled Native American hoop dancers, blues musicians, navy bands, New Orleans stilt dancers, circus artists, and plenty of different artwork varieties representing communities from throughout the nation. Together, these performances have a good time the outstanding breadth of American creativity and the wealthy cultural traditions that proceed to form our nationwide id.

Each day, as I watch these artists carry out and have interaction with guests from throughout the nation and world wide on the National Mall, I’m reminded that the humanities symbolize the easiest of our nation. They carry folks collectively by means of a shared appreciation of magnificence, pleasure, creativity, and our frequent humanity. 

As we commemorate 250 years of independence, I’m heartened to see artists and humanities organizations throughout the nation rising to this historic event. Through their work, they aren’t solely sharing our historical past however setting the stage for the following 250 years.