Federal support for the arts has been enhanced during my Administration by expanding government funding and services to arts institutions, individual artists, scholars, and teachers through the National Endowment for the Arts. We have broadened its scope and reach to a more diverse population. We have also reactivated the Federal Council on the Arts and Humanities.
It is my hope that during the coming years the new Administration and the Congress will:
--Continue support of institutions promoting development and understanding of the arts;
--Encourage business participants in a comprehensive effort to achieve a truly mixed economy of support for the arts;
--Explore a variety of mechanisms to nurture the creative talent of our citizens and build audiences for their work;
--Support strong, active National Endowments for the Arts;
--Seek greater recognition for the rich cultural tradition of the nation's minorities;
--Provide grants for the arts in low-income neighborhoods.
THE HUMANITIES
In recently reauthorizing Federal appropriations for the National Endowment for the Humanities, the Congress has once again reaffirmed that "the encouragement and support of national progress and scholarship in the humanities . . . while primarily a matter for private and local initiative, is also an appropriate matter of concern to the Federal Government" and that "a high civilization must not limit its efforts to science and technology alone but must give full value and support to the other great branches of man's scholarly and cultural activity in order to achieve a better understanding of the past, a better analysis of the present, and a better view of the future."