The National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) is a small, independent Federal agency. It was created in 1965 to nurture American creativity, to encourage widespread access to the best of our nation's arts and culture, and to sustain and preserve the country's many artistic traditions. The Arts Endowment's mission is to: support excellence in the arts, both new and established; bring the arts to all Americans; and provide leadership in arts education. The Arts Endowment carries out its mission through: direct grant making, primarily to arts organizations; National Initiatives that often involve other public and private partners; ad partnership agreement grants with the State Arts Agencies (SAAs) and their Regional Arts Organizations (RAOs).

NEA report to Congress on PL 1) Participation in Interagency Streamlining Efforts 2) Grants.gov 3) Grants Management Line of Business. June 2005 through August 2006