Before a crowd of 650 arts advocates from every state, including a delegation of 30 from his home state of New Jersey, Americans for the Arts and The United States Conference of Mayors recognized and thanked U.S. Rep. Leonard Lance (R-NJ) for his congressional arts leadership during the 31st Arts Advocacy Day.

Rep. Leonard Lance was honored as the 2018 Congressional Arts Leadership Award recipient. Since 2013, Rep. Lance has been the co-Chair of the Congressional Arts Caucus, where he has led funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) with former Rep. Louise M. Slaughter (D-NY).

Last year, he helped lead that bipartisan congressional effort to maintain funding for the NEA in spite of termination requests, and won! His willingness to stand up in support of federal funding for the arts is exemplary. This year, he increased those efforts, and put before a request with Rep. Slaughter to the U.S. House Appropriations Committee to fund the NEA “at least” at $155 million for FY 2019, building on the request of the previous year calling for $155 million. These bipartisan efforts have led to record numbers of support behind these key funding requests.

Read more about past congressional honorees here.

Pictured: Americans for the Arts President and CEO Robert L. Lynch presenting U.S. Rep. Leonard Lance (R-NJ) as the 2018 Congressional Arts Leadership Award recipient during the Congressional Kickoff for Arts Advocacy Day.