Stimulus package

Very belatedly: On Friday, $50 billion for the National Endowment for the Arts just squeaked in to the final House/Senate compromise stimulus bill, and the Coburn amendment was narrowed so that arts centers and museums can now receive stimulus funding.

Some heart warming art + economy quotes from this NY Times article on the details:

"It's a huge victory for the arts in America," said Robert L. Lynch, the president of Americans for the Arts, a lobbying group. "It's a signal that maybe there is after all more understanding of the value of creativity in the 21st-century economy."

"It's a great opportunity for the cultural work force to be dignified as part of the American work force," she said in an interview. (Patrice Walker Powell, interim chairman of the NEA)

Also, for the curious, the American Association of Museums has an ongoing study on the arts and the economy called Excellence in Equity.