National Endowment for the Arts launches initiative to show how arts catalyze creativity

The arts are for everyone, and the National Endowment for the Arts plans to make sure that’s the case through a new initiative called “Creativity Connects,” which NEA Chairman Jane Chu unveiled at a National Press Club breakfast on Monday.

“When it comes to the arts, there is no such thing as a marginalized population,” she said.

Visiting the Club a day before the NEA’s 50th birthday, Chu said the Creativity Connect initiative will be a key part of her organization’s future.

Its objectives are to show how the arts are essential to creativity in America, to investigate how support for the arts is changing and to explore how the arts connect with other industries where creativity is important.

The project will begin with workshops that will lead to a report and, eventually “a digital interactive systems map” that will help the public see what types of projects are happening in the area of creativity.

Chu said the NEA is unveiling the new effort as part of its 50th anniversary because the celebration is about more than the organization’s past

“Our 50th anniversary is an opportunity to celebrate these once-emerging artists and arts organizations that are now world-renowned forces, and applaud their contributions to America's cultural landscape,” she said. “But it’s also an opportunity to celebrate the arts in our everyday lives, as well.”