Interview with the NEA
Jason Schupbach (JS) and Jen Hughes (JH) in conversation
JS: I am interested in a general pulse-taking of government support for arts/architecture from the perspective of those actually doing the funding. What are you optimistic about? What issues should be getting attention?
JH: From my perspective, it feels like an opportune moment for the design field. As our nation makes historic investments in infrastructure because of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Act and Inflation Reduction Act, designers have a central role to play in the design and planning work that will influence how and where infrastructure is built. As creative agents for change and visionaries for the future, designers and artists can help to ensure our built environment responds to and serves the needs of local residents. In this moment, there is an acknowledgement of the essential role that arts, culture and design play in advancing the well-being of communities; and federal funding opportunities reflect just that. In the summer of 2022, the U.S. Department of Transportation (DOT) launched the Reconnecting Communities program, which included the first ever DOT Notice of Funding Opportunity that encouraged communities to engage the fields of design and placemaking in their funding proposals for infrastructure projects.
At the same time, designers are also putting a spotlight on the many ways in which design can either help to advance or impede equity in our cities and communities. For well over 30 years, the Mayors’ Institute on City Design, a leadership initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the U.S. Conference of Mayors, has been preparing mayors to serve as their city’s chief urban designer, recognizing the legacy of their design decisions on the built environment for the decades that follow their mayoral tenure. Under the MICD Just City Mayoral Fellowship Program, mayors and designers are working together to unpack historical issues of inequity in their cities while also shifting towards a design approach that centers values of justice and equity in both the built environment and community process. Mayors are particularly well-positioned to engage the design and arts sectors in ways that help them to advance their local agenda, and the design community is showing up in ways that ensure mayors are well equipped to ensure that agenda includes considerations of equity and the built environment.
Additionally, it has been inspiring to witness the way designers are responding to the needs of people with disabilities and working to ensure their inclusion in the design process as designers, leaders, and decision-makers. In October 2021 the NEA released a report, Disability Design, including a field scan that captures emerging trends of design and disability. While there are several recommendations for how this intersecting field can be strengthened, the report also profiles the groundbreaking and inspiring work of numerous designers from nonprofit, higher education, and private sectors.
Design feels more relevant than ever in this moment, holding unique potential to advance the well-being of individuals and communities through creative and inclusive approaches that respond in new ways to the multiple challenges of our time, from infrastructure to health to climate change.
JS: The NEA is the figurehead (governmental) purveyor of support for the arts/design at a national level. What makes that position ideal? What is missing (or what should others do)?
JH: I would argue that the NEA isn’t the singular public supporter of art and design nationally. While the NEA certainly plays a significant role in convening the design field and offers direct funding to nonprofit design organizations, there are many other federal agencies that fund arts, culture, and design. For example, the General Services Administration (an agency that oversees the federal real estate portfolio) commissions artists and designers through their Art in Architecture (AiA) program. Celebrating its 50th anniversary, the AiA program has commissioned roughly $50 million worth of public art commissions since 1972, employing artists and designers to create over 500 works for federal facilities nationwide. With funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, GSA launched an additional 25 federal percent for art commissions in 2022, enabling multiple opportunities for artists and designers to engage in commissions that may range from $50,000 to over $1 million. NEA has recently been collaborating with GSA to increase awareness of this program and is working through its arts and cultural networks to specifically promote federal arts commission opportunities to diverse artists all across the country.
Throughout its history, NEA has been a leader in advancing and resourcing arts, culture, and design across the federal government. For example, the NEA Design program facilitated the panel process for the design competition, Rebuild by Design, which was led and funded by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and philanthropy. Rebuild by Design elevated the role of designers in helping local communities instill resilient approaches to rebuilding post Hurricane Sandy. Ultimately design teams and communities were funded through federal funding to implement the design ideas.
The Art in Architecture Program and Rebuild by Design initiative both demonstrate the ways in which public funding at the federal level (beyond the NEA) advances arts, culture, and design; helping those agencies meet their mission, while also unlocking additional federal dollars for design. There are countless more examples, and even additional programs across the federal family that supports arts, culture and design.
JS: Lastly, will you share a bit about how the NEA determines which design projects receive funding?
JH: The NEA’s Grants for Arts Projects program supports projects across multiple disciplines, including design, through grants to nonprofits in the U.S. Each year the program deploys roughly $1.5 million to fund design projects that take place over 1-2 years and have a public benefit or advance the design field. We engage a panel process to assess grant applications that we receive. Panelists play a central role in reviewing, scoring and commenting on applications based on our legally mandated review criteria of artistic merit and artistic excellence.
It is worth noting that panelists represent a broad range of artistic and cultural viewpoints, reflecting the diverse fields of design including architecture, landscape architecture, urban design, industrial design, communications and graphic design, and fashion. Panelists are engaged from all across the country, representing both geographic and ethnic diversity; and all panels include at least one knowledgeable layperson.
The panel process is intended to enable panelists to engage in conversation with each other as they consider applications vis a vis artistic excellence and artistic merit, ultimately making recommendations to the NEA as to which projects are funded. Following grant panels, program staff allocate funding to projects and present those recommendations to the National Council on the Arts, with ultimate sign off and approval granted by the NEA Chair.
The NEA is always looking to recruit panelists and welcomes those who are interested in serving in that capacity to volunteer on our website.
Jason Schupbach is the Dean of the Westphal College of Media Arts and Design at Drexel University. He was formerly the Director of the Design School at Arizona State University, the largest and most comprehensive design school in the United States. In this position, he started the ambitious ReDesign.School project to reinvent design education for the 21st century, and remains a key advisor to ASU on diverse projects such as the Center for Creativity and place, Roden Crater, the Creative Futures Lab, and ASU's Los Angeles downtown home. Previous to this position he was Director of Design and Creative Placemaking Programs for the National Endowment for the Arts, where he oversaw all design and creative placemaking grantmaking and partnerships, including Our Town and Design Art Works grants, the Mayor’s Institute on City Design, the Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design, and the NEA's Federal agency collaborations. Previously, Jason served Governor Patrick of Massachusetts as the Creative Economy Director, tasked with growing creative and tech businesses in the state. He formerly was the Director of ArtistLink, a Ford Foundation funded initiative to stabilize and revitalize communities through the creation of affordable space and innovative environments for creatives. He has also worked for the Mayor of Chicago and New York City’s Department of Cultural Affairs. He has written extensively on the role of arts and design in making better communities, and his writing has been featured as a Best Idea of the Day by the Aspen Institute.
Jen Hughes Jen Hughes is the senior advisor to the chair for partnerships, expansion, and innovation for the National Endowment for the Arts. In this position, she assists the chair in the development and implementation of key programmatic priorities that elevate the role of arts, culture, and design in advancing the well-being of communities and individuals. Since 2011, Hughes has held multiple positions at the NEA, most recently serving as the director of design and creative placemaking. As director, she led the evolution of the agency’s Our Town grant program and launched the Creative Placemaking Technical Assistance Program to offer more expansive support for grantees in executing NEA-funded projects. In addition, she has helped to broaden the offerings of the Mayors’ Institute on City Design and Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design, two key leadership initiatives at the NEA. She’s held prior agency positions as community solutions specialist and design specialist, playing a significant role in forging partnerships across federal and local government, and in helping to shape the agency’s design investments. Trained as an urban planner, Hughes previously worked for the District of Columbia government and is passionate about the role of arts and design in furthering community-led goals. She received a bachelor of science degree in management from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania and a master's degree in city planning from University of California, Berkeley.