On Monday, April 3, 2017, Vineyard Board Member and four-time Tony-nominated actor Judy Kuhn  (The Vineyard’s ELI’S COMIN’ and DREAM TRUE, Broadway’s FUN HOME and LES MISÉRABLES) delivered passionate testimony at City Hall before New York City Council as they resolved to call upon President Trump to fully fund the National Endowment for the Arts and other key sources of federal funding for the arts and humanities. Below is the full text of that speech, which represents why Judy believes so passionately in the importance of funding the arts, and in particular for Vineyard Theatre.

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FULL TEXT OF JUDY KUHN’S TESTIMONY AT CITY HALL:

Good afternoon. My name is Judy Kuhn. I’m a full-time professional actor, singer and teaching artist and a four-time Tony-nominee. I’m here today representing the Vineyard Theatre where I have worked as an actor and have been honored to serve on the Board of Directors for 15 years, and also as a proud member of the stage actors union, Actors’ Equity Association.

I’m here today to talk about the importance of The National Endowment for the Arts in my own life and career, my community, and to all people who are lovers of the arts.

I have worked as an actor on two productions at The Vineyard both were original musical and both were made possible through funding from the NEA. It was during the first of these shows that my long happy relationship with The Vineyard began as well as my abiding admiration for the work this company does.

Since 1985, The Vineyard has been granted over $1 million by the National Endowment for the Arts for nearly 50 projects. This support has been instrumental in making the company one of America’s preeminent centers for the creation of new plays and musicals — financing work like Kander and Ebb’s THE SCOTTSBORO BOYS, which was nominated for 12 Tony Awards and went on to a national tour; GLORIA by Branden Jacobs-Jenkins, which was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize and enjoyed a critically-acclaimed continued life in Chicago when it transferred to the Goodman Theatre earlier this year and last year Brandon was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship; The NEA has supported the work and creative development of other great artists such as two-time Pulitzer finalist Gina Gionfriddo, Broadway playwright Nicky Silver, Tina Landau, Ricky Ian Gordon, Kirsten Child, Colman Domingo, Greg Pierce, Chris Miller, Nathan Tysen, Polly Pen, Jenny Schwartz, Kenneth Lonergan, Anne Washburn, and many others.

Education

In addition to the more than 20,000 theatregoers that patronize this work, over 600 students at local public high schools are the direct beneficiaries of our NEA funding, where Vineyard plays and teaching artists make up an important part of the curriculum. Arts education programming teaches skills that are important for everyone and are essential to a democratic society: creativity, expression, collaboration, literacy, and seeing situations from different points of view.

Jobs & The Economy

Often when politicians talk about the arts they tend to make it sound like a luxury, something superfluous, enjoyed by the few. At The Vineyard our grants from the NEA put roughly 50 artists, craftsmen, administrators, teachers and technicians to work on projects that help us understand our past, define our present, and envision our future — 1,600 people since our first grant. Beyond its front door, The Vineyard has had a huge impact its neighborhood, Union Square, helping to make it a destination for tourism, bringing business to restaurants and retail stores in the area.

Nationally the arts contribute over $700 billion to the US economy, producing a greater percentage of our Gross Domestic Product than industries like construction or utilities. In recent years, the growth of culture industries has outpaced other sectors of the economy, including food services, retail trade, and transportation and warehousing.

The arts and thus the NEA is a job creator and a driver of local economies.

Conclusion

The National Endowment for the Arts supports many hundreds of institutions like The Vineyard in every community in the country. For many of these groups, The Vineyard included, NEA grants are among the largest single sources of funding they get. It is the backbone of cultural life throughout the United States, and absolutely essential to sustaining quality of life, education, and innovation nationwide.

As a working artist and as a Board member of this wonderful nonprofit arts institution, I ask that Congress and the President maintain, and I would dare say grow, our government’s investment in the country’s creativity and culture by continuing to fully fund the National Endowment for the Arts.

PHOTOS: Judy Kuhn and Wilson Jermaine Heredia in ELI’S COMIN’. Photo by Carol Rosegg. Judy Kuhn testifying at City Hall in front of the New York City Council. Jeff McCarthy and Judy Kuhn in DREAM TRUE. Photo by Carol Rosegg.