[USAO-ArtGallery] Fw: Arts ACtion Fund Releases Congressional Arts Report Card

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Sent: Friday, October 29, 2004 7:47 AM
Subject: Arts ACtion Fund Releases Congressional Arts Report Card


Subject: Arts Action Fund Releases Congressional Arts Report Card

October 19, 2004

Dear Arts Advocates:

Americans for the Arts, the leading national nonprofit organization for

advancing the arts in America, has launched a major new initiative to
involve individual citizens in advocacy for the arts and arts
education.

The creation of the Americans for the Arts Action Fund adds a new
dimension to arts advocacy in the United States by providing a vehicle

through which any citizen can help ensure that all Americans have the
opportunity to appreciate, value, and participate in the arts. In
November, we will specifically launch a national citizens' membership

campaign to encourage Americans to join and support the Arts Action
Fund. Our goal is to enlist and mobilize 100,000 citizen activists who

will help ensure that arts-friendly public policies are adopted at the

federal, state, and local levels, and public and private resources are

maximized.

Today we are proud to announce that the Arts Action Fund has produced a

Congressional Arts Report Card for the U.S. House of Representatives.
The report card provides a complete detailed overview of all 435 voting

Members' arts support during the 108th Congress (2003-2004). The
Report Card assigns each Member of the House of Representatives a
letter grade and numerical score based on his or her voting record on
specific arts and arts education policy issues. Eleven separate
government actions are covered, and each is weighted based on its
importance to the arts, with the greatest weight given to four votes on

funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). A perfect score

equals 100 cumulative points, and the points are correlated to a letter

grade of A+ through F. The Report Card also includes a detailed arts
voting record for each Member.

Thirty-three Members of Congress received the highest grade possible
(A+), while the average overall score of Congress was a B. The Report
Card shows that arts support is increasingly bipartisan; twice as many

Republicans voted for an NEA increase in 2004 than in 2000. We
encourage you to visit

www.artsactionfund.org<http://www.artsactionfund.org/>

to view the Report Card as well as the accompanying press release. You

may also wish to read Charles Storch's article in today's Chicago
Tribune about the report card, headlined "Arts Group Gives State
Delegation Good Grade."

This is just the first of many initiatives the Arts Action Fund will
undertake to increase citizen involvement in the arts. We hope you'll

join us as we work to increase the visibility and vitality of the arts

for all Americans.

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