Speaker Pelosi received the Congressional Arts Leadership Award for her commitment to the arts as an outspoken defender of the creative industries in her home of San Francisco and across the country. Pelosi was recognized for her personal involvement and leadership in securing funding to save nonprofit arts jobs in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The arts community owes her debt of gratitude for the jobs that were saved and the validation it provided of the importance of arts workers to the overall national economy. Her leadership of the 111th Congress is making great strides in advancing cultural policy and federal arts funding in the United States.