Hollywood stars like Jason Isaacs, Pauline Chalamet, Alex Borstein, Alan Ruck and more are advocating for what they call "the right to bear arts." The Hollywood Reporter followed a group of actors and business leaders as they took to Capitol Hill to fight for funding the National Endowment for the Arts, also known as the NEA.
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00:00The reason it's important now is it's never been as under threat.
00:02Hollywood stars like Jason Isaacs, Pauline Chalamet, Alex Borstein, Alan Ruck, and more
00:08are advocating for what they call the right to bear arts.
00:11I'm Tiffany Taylor for The Hollywood Reporter here on Capitol Hill,
00:14where today we're following a group of actors and business leaders brought together by the Creative Coalition
00:19as they fight for funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.
00:23Since it was founded in 1989, the Creative Coalition has joined forces
00:27with some of the biggest film and TV stars for Arts Day,
00:30where a group of Hollywood notables, along with business leaders,
00:33get on a bus and head to Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C.
00:36to advocate for why the U.S. government should continue funding the National Endowment for the Arts,
00:41also known as the NEA.
00:43But as the Trump administration has been making major cuts to government-funded programs,
00:47the NEA has never been in more danger.
00:50Well, there's some things like, we're cutting everything across the board,
00:53why shouldn't you get cut, you know?
00:55And the truth is, if you invest in kids now, then you're going to have better citizens later.
01:02On this year's Arts Day, the group, which was divided into three teams,
01:06met with congressional staffers on both sides of the aisle, but mainly Republicans.
01:10Something that we're hearing from some of the offices that we're visiting
01:13is that sometimes there's a misunderstanding of what a lot of the funding for the NEA goes to.
01:20For instance, the NEA is going towards the big cities and is funding the opera houses
01:23or things that maybe culturally don't really align with a lot of different constituents
01:29around the country's beliefs and values.
01:32But the thing is, is that it's actually funding arts programs, education programs,
01:39in a lot of rural communities.
01:41Most staffers the group met with agreed that funding the arts is important to them
01:45and the communities their bosses represent.
01:47But for those who asked, how does this make sense financially?
01:50They had answers.
01:51This is an investment.
01:52It's an investment in our country's future, and it's an investment in our GDP and growing
01:56our net exports.
01:57And I think that perspective changes the idea that the arts is something that is ancillary
02:04or extra.
02:04This is something that's required that drives our economy forward.
02:07At the end of a day of numerous meetings with both congressional and White House staffers,
02:12a congressional briefing, and even a ride on the Capitol subway, many members of the group
02:16left feeling positive and even hopeful.
02:18I think I came in a little scared that we would be hitting some walls.
02:24But yeah, it was really encouraging, kind of the conversations we were having in those
02:28rooms.
02:28You know, I thought they went really well, maybe better than I expected.
02:32It was glorious.
02:34Everyone was attentive and engaged, and that seems to be the case with everyone because
02:39we were sort of split up in groups.
02:41I was moved by today and how many of the staffers all respond to the arts, all had arts education
02:51and know how valuable and important it is.
02:53I was very nervous.
02:54I was very scared.
02:56Not about my performance or how we would do in the room, but about the state of things
02:59in general.
03:00And I left with an emoticum of hope.
03:03These meetings are just, they're very old school.
03:06You sit in a room face to face with other human beings.
03:10You explain your cause.
03:12You talk about what you need.
03:14And there's communication.
03:15There's questions.
03:16You answer those questions.
03:18You ask them questions.
03:19They answer you.
03:20And there's a lot of honesty.
03:22I was very hopeful by the ability to sit down and actually communicate.
03:26But for others, a feeling of uncertainty still remained.
03:29There was a kind of look of confusion on everybody's face because no one really knows what's going
03:35on and, you know, it makes it so you have to be nimble and be willing to pivot.
03:41But I think that we were very well received.
03:44It's just that no one really could say this is what's happening or this is not what's happening.
03:48It was kind of like, we'll see what happens and maybe we'll be able to work together.
03:53Every organization and every institution is under threat.
03:57But this is such a minuscule budget and it has such a huge bang for its buck.
04:01It would seem to be insane to threaten it or do away with it.
04:05But there are more insane things going on.
04:07For more on the work that the Creative Coalition is doing, go to THR.com.
04:11For The Hollywood Reporter News in Washington, D.C., I'm Tiffany Taylor.
04:14For The Hollywood Reporter News in Washington, D.C.