Lyndon Johnson signs into law the act that created the NEA

Today marks the 45^th anniversary of the National Endowment for the Arts as on September 29, 1965, President Lyndon Johnson signed the law that created the cultural agency.  

 Here is a list of facts regarding the Endowment that they provided in honor of the event. For more information, visit http://www.nea.gov/news/news10/NEA-45.html.

A compendium of statistics on the National Endowment for the Arts on the occasion of its 45th Birthday

September 29, 2010

Total dollar amount of NEA grants awarded to nonprofit organizations
in 45-year history: $4 billion (>130,000 grants)ⁱ

Economic activity generated by the nonprofit arts sector Ueach yearU: $166 billionⁱⁱ

Number of cities participating in NEA's Mayor's Institutes on City Design since 1986: 600ⁱⁱⁱ

Average ratio of matching funds to NEA awards: 7:1^iv

Rate at which arts participants volunteer compared to non-participants: 2:1^v

Languages translated into English through NEA Literature Translation Fellowships:  61^vi

Most recent estimate of languages spoken worldwide: 6,909^vii

Most common full-time arts profession: graphic designer^viii

Most common volunteer performing arts activity: choral singer^ix

Rank of education as a primary influence on arts participation: #1^x

Percentage of Internet users who watch, listen to, or download art at least once a week: 30^xi

Average cumulative audience per broadcast for the NEA-supported television program Great Performances: 2.3 million^xii

Average time Americans age 15-24 spent watching TV daily: 2 hours^xiii

Average time spent reading for pleasure daily: 7 minutes.^xiv

Rank of poem Still I Rise, by Maya Angelou, as selected by students competing in the 2006 Poetry Out Loud National Recitation Contest: #1^xv

Average time to create a three-foot traditional rug by NEA National Heritage Fellow and seventh-generation weaver Irvin Trujillo: 50 days^xvi

Average production time to machine-weave three feet of polyester fabric: 2 minutes^xvii

Percentage of American recipients of the National Book Awards, National Book Critics Circle Awards, and Pulitzer Prizes in fiction and poetry who have received NEA Creative Writing Fellowships: 58^xviii

Number of cities to hold community-wide readings of To Kill a Mockingbird through The Big Read: 130^xix

As a bonus question marking the event, what would you like to see those statistics look like in the another 45 years?