Message to the Congress Transmitting Annual Report of the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Council on the Arts

To the Congress of the United States:

In recent years, the arts have come to play an increasingly important role in American life--and not as the exclusive province of a few great art centers, but in the daily lives of thousands of communities, both large and small, throughout the country.

This heightened appreciation of the arts and of America's artists has been an immensely enriching experience for us all, both individually and as a Nation. For the arts are more than a form of entertainment, or a way of filling up leisure hours. They provide an indispensable means through which the imagination can be freed, and through which we can gain new perceptions and heightened understanding. They contribute beauty and grace to our lives. They inspire us to see things in new ways. They help us to a fuller appreciation of the infinite wonder of man and his world.

The extent to which America's artistic heritage is being enriched and extended should be a source of great pride to this Nation and its people. And the extent to which its enjoyment is becoming more broadly available should be a source of great satisfaction.

Throughout the United States, poets, painters and sculptors are now at work in our schools; symphony orchestras are reaching new and larger audiences; touring companies are bringing theatre, opera and dance to communities which, until now, have not experienced these art forms at first hand. All this is being accomplished through programs funded by the Congress, and carried out by the National Endowment for the Arts and the fifty-five councils that are now at work in every State and Territorial Jurisdiction.

I therefore take particular pleasure in transmitting to the Congress the Fifth Annual Report of the National Endowment for the Arts.

RICHARD NIXON

The White House

April 14, 1971