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Message to the Congress Transmitting Annual Report of the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Council on the Arts

January 26, 1973

To the Congress of the United States:

It gives me great pleasure to transmit to the Congress the Annual Report of the National Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts for fiscal year 1972.

This Nation's cultural heritage is a source of enormous pride. It is also a source of communication, of ideas, of joy and beauty. And increasingly--and perhaps most important--it is a source of creative self-expression for countless millions of Americans.

As this Annual Report shows, the National Endowment for the Arts has an outstanding record of accomplishment in advancing the artistic development of the Nation. Its funds during the year under review, $29,750,000, were nearly double those of the previous year. Through its programs, the Endowment provides essential support for our famous cultural institutions---our opera, theatre, dance companies, our orchestras, our museums. The Endowment encourages our finest artists, providing new opportunities to gifted young creators and performers to expand their talent and to develop their careers. And the Endowment makes available to all of our people the very best our artists can do.

Under the guidance of the National Council on the Arts, the Endowment has effectively used its monies not only to support a wide range of cultural activities, but also to stimulate increased private support for the arts. I view this as essential, for if the arts are to flourish, the broad authority for cultural development must remain with the people of the Nation-not with government.

As our Bicentennial approaches, the cultural activities of America will take on even greater importance. Our art expresses the ideals, the history, the life of the Nation. The cultural hermitages of all nations whose citizens came to this country are part of the American heritage. The richness and diversity that characterize the whole of art in the United States reflect both our history and the promise of our future.

I invite every Member of Congress to share my pleasure at the many fine achievements of the National Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts. And I urge the Congress to continue to make available to the Endowment the resources it needs to fulfill its hopeful task of bringing a more vital life to our Nation.

RICHARD NIXON
The White House,
January 26, 1973.

Note: The message is printed in the report entitled "National Endowment for the Arts and National Council on the Arts; Annual Report, Fiscal Year 1972" (Government Printing Office, 121 pp.).

Richard Nixon, Message to the Congress Transmitting Annual Report of the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Council on the Arts Online by Gerhard Peters and John T. Woolley, The American Presidency Project https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/node/255423

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