The National Endowment for the Humanities, Institute of Museum and Library Services and the Corp. for Public Broadcasting, a chief revenue source for PBS and National Public Radio, would also get the ax. Imagine where today’s cultural life would be if the federal agency, born into an era of general indifference to the arts, had never existed. As with any other infrastructure, from bridges and roads to power supplies, an arts infrastructure requires maintenance. The NEA has not been popular among conservatives and the GOP since 1965, the year the federal agency was founded. When Washington’s plans for a National Cultural Center, conceived during the Eisenhower years, finally opened a decade later, its new name was the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Source: Los Angeles Times March 16, 2017 17:26 UTC