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September 1, 2025 16 mins
As the National Endowment for the Arts and public arts funding is threatened, our guests are Emmy nominated actor Tim Daly, President of The Creative Coalition, and author and producer Robin Bronk, the organization’s CEO, on the urgent fight to protect the NEA and how arts funding benefits communities across the across the country. Founded in 1989 by entertainment professionals committed to meaningful civic engagement, The Creative Coalition champions federal arts funding, free speech, and education. 
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Episode Transcript

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Speaker 1 (00:01):
Welcome to Get Connected with Nina del Rio, a weekly
conversation about fitness, health and happenings in our community on
one oh six point seven light FM.

Speaker 2 (00:12):
Thanks for being on Get Connected, Thanks for listening. In May,
arts organizations of all kinds across the country, including many
in New York, from dance to film, to music to theater,
began receiving notices that prior grants from the National Endowment
for the Arts were being cut as thousands of cultural
organizations scrambled to replace those much needed funds, and the
Trump administration is calling to shut down the NEA entirely.

(00:35):
Our guests are Tim Daily, president of the Creative Coalition,
and Robin Bronc, the organization CEO, on the urgent fight
to protect the NEA and public funding for the arts.
Tim Dailey and Robin Bronc, thank you for being on
the show.

Speaker 3 (00:48):
Thank you for having us.

Speaker 2 (00:49):
The website is the Creativecoalition dot org. I think a
good place to start, and I'll start with you, Tim.
Is to help the public understand what the National Endowment
where the Arts does well.

Speaker 3 (01:01):
The National down for the Arts is a federal organization
that gives grants to every single congressional district in the
United States of America. And what makes that so important
is that places like New York City, although it does
receive ANYA grants, are pretty much okay in terms of

(01:23):
their arts community because it's such a vibrant and a
populous place in the country. But the NEA gives grants
to all these tiny communities all over the place, without
which they would have no exposure to the arts whatsoever. So,
you know, in some rural community, their dance company or

(01:44):
their you know, veterans program, or their after school program
for children, or there's there you know, chamber orchestra would
not exist were it not for these small grants, which
act like sort of a good housekeeping stamp of approval
for communities, And they can take that grant and go
around to the community and then use that to raise

(02:05):
private funds and cement their organization in that community, which
becomes more often than not a sort of a cultural
touchstone and a place that brings people together. That's part
of it. The other part is that every dollar spent
by the National Down for the Arts brings back about

(02:26):
nine dollars in economic activities. So if you don't think
of it as a cultural institution to think of it
as an economic driver. It's a real money maker, not
only for communities but for the federal government. So the
idea that the NEA would be removed as an organization
is absolutely insane.

Speaker 2 (02:47):
Frankly, Rob, and I've also heard you talk about the
arts funding or the arts driving innovation. What do you
mean by that, Well.

Speaker 4 (02:55):
It's fascinating, by the way, it's I'm looking you up.
You're an artist too, in an actor, so I know
you certainly appreciate this.

Speaker 5 (03:06):
But the for every dollar.

Speaker 4 (03:08):
That the NEA spends on a community, and remember every
single congressional district receives any A funding, it is seed
money that grows.

Speaker 5 (03:19):
Apparently, the Bureau Statistics.

Speaker 4 (03:22):
Tells us that for every dollar that is given by
the NEA into a congressional district, nine dollars comes back
into that district. So if you don't care about the arts,
if you don't care about humanity, if you don't care
about learning strategic skills, if you don't care about discipline,
if you don't care about learning about history, I think you.

Speaker 5 (03:43):
Probably care about the economy.

Speaker 4 (03:45):
And what I've been saying also, is that, interestingly enough,
in all the times Tim and I have been up
to Capitol Hill.

Speaker 5 (03:52):
No one is against the arts.

Speaker 4 (03:55):
I would I would be hard pressed to have anyone
on either political aisle or any the three Polittle files
saying I hate the arts. It's about how they're funded.
So this is a drop in this giant federal budget.
So what the NEA is asking for is two hundred
and seven million dollars and then it increases by nine

(04:16):
if you care about the economy and nothing else.

Speaker 5 (04:19):
What they say, it's the economy stupid.

Speaker 3 (04:22):
But I'm going to answer Robin the question that you
actually asked, Robin, which is which is how does do
the arts benefit us? As you know, a creative culture.
And it's my belief that the United States of America
has a population that is the most imaginative and creative
in the world. I mean, it's been a cornerstone of

(04:42):
what has driven not only our economy, but our culture,
which we export all over the world because it's so
varied and interesting. And the thing is that creativity and
imagination are muscles, and if those muscles aren't ex exercise,
they atrophy like any other muscle. And the arts are

(05:03):
the gymnasium for those for the creative mind and the
imaginative mind. So I remember in two thousand and eight
we were at the White House in a very small group.
We were being asked to talk about STEM education, and
I got pissed off, frankly, because I thought, where is
the First of all, Stem's a terrible acronym. It's either

(05:25):
stem cell research or like a florist convention. And second
of all, where's the a? It should be steam, science, technology, engineering, arts,
and math, because arts are the thing that not only
put technology into a human context, but they do exercise
the creative and imaginative mind. So the next great product,
the next great idea, those things are going to come

(05:49):
from someone with a vivid imagination and the ability to
think critically. And the way to train people with those
traits is through arts. And I think you'd actually be
hard pressed to find people in the tech industry, or
in almost any industry who wouldn't value the arts as

(06:10):
part of what got them to where they are. I mean,
when you think about small businesses and entrepreneurial business those people,
it involves a lot of ingenuity and creative thinking in
order to make a successful small business. So arts are
critical to our culture and our society, and especially to

(06:31):
our children because you know, the statistics show that children
are three times more likely to graduate from high school
if they study arts, which means that they're going to
be more likely to go to college, make more money,
and you know, have a platform on which to build
a productive life and become tax paying, productive citizens rather

(06:51):
than people that you know, draw off the you know
that suck things away from our society, or god forbid,
wind up in a penitentiary. So do we want citizens
or inmates? Your choice? Teach arts.

Speaker 2 (07:06):
Our guests are Tim Daley, President of the Creative Coalition
and Robin Bronk, CEO of the Creative Coalition on protecting
federal arts funding in the face of threatened cuts. You
can find out more at the Creative Coalition dot org.
You're listening to get connected on one oh six point
seven light FM. I'm Ina del Rio. I want to
go back to the intro for just a moment. In
the fall of twenty twenty four, the NEA. I know

(07:28):
we're talking about the NEA funding projects in smaller cities,
but we're in New York City, so I want to
talk about the impact here briefly. In the fall of
twenty twenty four, the NEA awarded grants of up to
one hundred thousand to three hundred and twenty seven organizations
across New York State, including two hundred and sixty six
in New York City. Many of those organizations received letters

(07:49):
canceling those grants again earlier this spring. Among those affected
in the city, Central Park Summer Stage, Tricia Bound Brown
Dance Company, the Brooklyn Conservatory of Music, the Drama Lee,
the Classical Theater of Harlem. I don't know if you
can speak to those cuts specifically or New York City specifically,
but what do you know about the impact of some
of those cuts to date, either of you.

Speaker 4 (08:11):
Well, some of those cuts are going to create the
extinguishing of these programs.

Speaker 5 (08:17):
Because it's not just that they were funded.

Speaker 4 (08:20):
By that piece of the NEA grant, it's those of
their other funders. The NEA grant is seed money, and
when the seed goes away, the foundation goes away. This
is it's going to directly impact these programs. Now, the
people who are detractors from public funding for the arts,
do you say, why not private, why not all private funding? Well,

(08:43):
we know that public private funding partnerships work, and the
NEA is the biggest success story in public private partnerships.
Why would we extinguish that this is success, this is
money in the bank, this is successful outcomes.

Speaker 5 (09:01):
We have all that.

Speaker 3 (09:03):
You know, the reality is that Americans are very generous
and they donate a lot of money to arts organizations.
But the problem is that so much that money and
this kind of supports people's false idea about what's arts,
what arts are The majority of the of that that
altruism goes to organizations that are already hugely established. So,

(09:29):
you know, identifying the smaller organizations that are deserving of
a little bit of public support is critical to having
a wide variety of arts organizations that are funded, not
just Carnegie Hall and not just Lincoln Center, but the
smaller organizations that you just delineated. So keeping that ability

(09:55):
of these, you know, these smaller organizations that serve little
are parts of our community for people who maybe can't
afford a ticket to go to Lincoln Center is vital.

Speaker 2 (10:06):
I want to follow that thread for a moment though,
of why fund the arts? So we don't have an
advocate for any cuts here, So I'm going to ask
another question from that perspective, why should the government fund
the arts if the work is controversial or antithetical or
antagonistic to any administration's platform.

Speaker 3 (10:23):
Well, so here's the deal. My analogy always is that
artists like food. You're not going to like everything you tay.
Something you're going to think is gross, something you're going
to think is absolutely delectable. But we can't live without it,
you know. Food is what keeps us alive. And I
think that not to go down a whole other road,
but it's also becomes a free speech issue. You know,

(10:46):
we need to listen to other points of view, and
one of the great benefits of arts is that sometimes
it solidifies our point of view about something. Sometimes it
makes us question our assumptions about something, sometimes it changes
our mind. And it's really important to keep those three
balls in the air because that way we're not just

(11:10):
blindly rubber stamping an opinion or a point of view
or even a definition of beauty. We need to look
at everything and decide what we like and not have
someone else decide for us.

Speaker 2 (11:26):
You have both been deeply involved in advocating for the
arts for some time. Pastor public administrations have called for
the NEA's reduction and closure in the past. Why did
the NEA survive during those periods? And why is this
climate particularly risky or why does it feel so we're
on the precipice of something.

Speaker 3 (11:46):
Well, we've saved the national down for the arts multiple times,
and I think that over the years we've cultivated colleagues
and supporters on both sides of the aisle who really
understand this issue and they understand the importance of the
NEA and that has been I think the reason that
we've we've had success. You know, this is a difficult

(12:09):
time for a lot of reasons that you know, we
could talk to about, you know, in a more politically
oriented show, But we are a non partisan organization. We
believe that the arts are a non partisan issue and
we've you know, so far been quite successful in getting
people to see it that way and to understand that

(12:33):
it's important to their communities and especially in places that
that wouldn't normally be in need of that kind of
nurturing small grant support.

Speaker 2 (12:46):
So, Robin, what is the timeline? I feel like we
have an urgency when it's Congress vote.

Speaker 4 (12:51):
Yeah, that's a great question. And your question about why now,
why what? What makes what is different about this time around?

Speaker 5 (12:59):
I feel like there's this lack of.

Speaker 4 (13:03):
Enthusiasm among constituents that we can make change. And there's
this you know why bother And here's a little slice
of life that impacts everything that you do, where all
you have to do is make a phone call and
it does count.

Speaker 5 (13:21):
So why now?

Speaker 4 (13:22):
Because the vote's coming up in a couple of months,
and once the NEA is gone, if it is, if
God forbid, it is gone, it's going to be very
hard to get it back. So even though the budget
is currently cut and it's kind of on life support,
the patient.

Speaker 5 (13:37):
Is still alive.

Speaker 4 (13:39):
So and I was looking at some of the stats
from you know, New York City is a big place
and Queens is way different from Manhattan. So many of
the smaller programs and Queens they give those constituents life
are threatened. It's not about Lincoln Center, which is also

(14:00):
something that is supported and should be supported, but it's
about that small project in Queens on the corner. So
we're asking New Yorkers to be New Yorkists and call
that number two two two two four three one two
one and just say that we need to support the

(14:21):
National Endowment for the Arts.

Speaker 2 (14:23):
You can support it through social media and all those things,
but the call to your actual congress person does the most.

Speaker 5 (14:28):
More social media. Whatever's easiest for.

Speaker 2 (14:30):
You, Tim, is there anything else you want to add?

Speaker 3 (14:33):
I just want to say that the Creative Coalition is
a tremendously patriotic organization. We believe in the creative power
of this country, and you know, a culture without imagination,
without creativity, is a dim gray place, and we need

(14:58):
to support not only our art, but anyone who has
the need to be a critical and imaginative and creative thinker. So,
you know, just for anyone that thinks that you know
we're a fringe organization, you're wrong. We get nothing out

(15:18):
of this except that we want to help the population
of the United States be exposed to and participate in
the arts for their own economic benefit and for their
own sort of, you know, more spiritual and emotional benefit.

Speaker 2 (15:33):
You can find out more at the Creative Coalition dot org.
Our guests are Tim Daly and Robin Bronc of the
Creative Coalition. Thank you for being on to Get Connected,
Appreciate it, Have great day, Take care, Thanky bte.

Speaker 1 (15:46):
This has been Get Connected with Nina del Rio on
one oh six point seven Light FM. The views and
opinions of our guests do not necessarily reflect the views
of the station. If you missed any part of our
show or want to share it, visit our website where
downloads and podcasts at one O six seven lightfm dot com.
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