$50 million for NEA

New York, NY —

When the stimulus bill passed on Friday it included an additional $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts, and some New York-based arts groups should receive a boost from the funds. Randall Borsheidt is director of Alliance for the Arts, a New York state advocacy group. He says some of the NEA funding will be distributed to each state, including New York.

BORSHEIDT: the rest of it is given out on a competitive basis based on applications, and obviously New York will always do fairly well because we have such a wealth of great cultural institutions, large and small.

REPORTER: This is the first year that the NEA budget has surpassed New York's own budget for the arts. With the stimulus funds, the NEA budget comes to $195 million, while the budget for the New York's Department of Cultural Affairs will be $149 million in the 2009 fiscal year.