Lyndon B. Johnson photo

Message to the Congress Transmitting First Annual Report of the National Endowment for the Arts.

February 15, 1967

To the Congress of the United States:

I am pleased to transmit the First Annual Report of the National Endowment for the Arts.

During its first year, the Endowment sponsored a great variety of projects to assist the arts in assuming their deserved place in American life.

It created new opportunities for novelists, poets, painters, sculptors, composers, and students in the arts.

It assisted fifty States in developing cultural resources, programs and facilities. Thirty-three State agencies for the arts have been established. New methods of bringing the arts to rural communities have been explored.

Plans have also been made for programs which will 'permit --greater assistance to a wide variety of artistic endeavor;

--increased artistic exchanges between Latin America and the United States, particularly in the field of creative writing;

--nationwide tours of the American Ballet Theatre and other artistic groups which will foster greater appreciation of the arts;

--the development of educational programs to heighten understanding of the arts among disadvantaged children.

Much of the early success of the Endowment can be traced to bipartisan support for its authorizing legislation, and to the wisdom of the Congress in requiring State and private participation in its programs.

We cannot expect massive Federal support to create great art, any more than massive defense programs can be expected to create individual courage. On signing the Arts and Humanities Bill in 1965, I reminded its supporters that "to produce true and lasting results, our States and municipalities, our schools and great private foundations must join forces with us. It is in the neighborhoods of each community that a nation's art is born. In countless American towns there live thousands of obscure and unknown talents. What this bill does is to bring active support to this great national asset, to make freshet the winds of art in this great land of ours."

What the Arts Endowment has sought to do, in its first year, is to improve the climate in which creative talent works, and to extend and inform its audience.

This report is evidence that it has begun to achieve that goal. Those who believe that the quality and appreciation of art is one test of a nation's maturity and greatness will take heart from this report. It is with pleasure that I commend it to your attention.

LYNDON B. JOHNSON

The White House

February 15, 1967

Note: The report is entitled "National Endowment for the Arts and National Council on the Arts, Annual Report for the Fiscal Year Ended June 30, 1966" (103 pages, processed).

The National Endowment for the Arts was established by section 5 of the act of September 29, 1965 (Public Law 89-209; 79 Stat. 845). The National Council on the Arts, established in 1964, was transferred to the National Endowment for the Arts by section 6 of the act. The President's remarks upon signing the act are printed in the 1965 volume, this series, Book II, Item 534.

Lyndon B. Johnson, Message to the Congress Transmitting First Annual Report of the National Endowment for the Arts. Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/238053

Filed Under

Categories

Attributes

Simple Search of Our Archives