Of the $787 billion American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, $50 million was earmarked for the National Endowment for the Arts. The NEA gave some of that funding to state and regional arts agencies for distribution, while $30 million in direct grants was given to museums, theaters, symphonies and other cultural institutions in order to avoid cutting critical positions or to restore previously eliminated jobs.
However, the City of San Diego only received two grants totaling $75,000, according to an article by The San Diego Union-Tribune. The Old Globe theatre in Balboa Park received $50,000 and AjA Project, a photography education program in City Heights, received $25,000. Both organizations used the funding to save jobs that would have otherwise been cut.
Overall, 19 San Diego organizations submitted applications to the NEA for funding. Two of the most prominent institutions to be rejected were the William Heath Davis House Museum, which has received large amounts of funding in the past, and the San Diego Commission for Arts and Culture, which asked for $200,000 to help local arts organizations survive the recession.
The following cities in California received funding from the NEA for arts projects:
San Francisco - 37 grants totaling $1.4 million
Los Angeles - 15 grants totaling $1.05 million
Pasadena - four grants totaling $175,000
Long Beach - three grants totaling $150,000
Monterey - two grants totaling $100,000
Oakland - two grants totaling $100,000
San Jose - two grants totaling $100,000
Santa Clarita - two grants totaling $100,000
Fresno - two grants totaling $75,000
San Diego - two grants totaling $75,000
The NEA has reported that only 630 of the more than 2,400 organizations that submitted applications received funding. The winners were chosen by a panel of experts, although nobody from San Diego served on that panel.
Many critics argue that arts funding should have never been included in the stimulus bill in the first place. The stimulus, critics say, is meant to create jobs by allocating money into shovel-ready projects, not by funding arts projects that are often controversial and fail to create a steady stream of employment.
