Amy: I'm glad that you corrected me on my casual statement about NEH's grass-roots impact. Actually, I am reasonably familiar with the NEH's Museums Program, being the project developer, writer, and director for planning and implementation grants that are running at the NY Botanical Garden right now. Our program is indeed intended to make NYBG more accessible on different levels to different audiences. I am much less familiar with State Humanities Council programs that I am with local arts councils. I just have an intuitive sense that concerts, theatre, dance, etc outside the major urban concentrations are a stronger selling point for Congress. That intuition seems to have been reinforced by the House of Representatives' hearings, where the NEH was lambasted for the academic/curriculum side of its work (the history standards it funded), and the NEA was praised for its democratizing influence (though it also came in for its share of knocks.) Or at least thats how it came across in the local press. Amy, thanks again for calling me on that, I stand corrected. Eric Siegel [log in to unmask]