Because I think it’s useful to have these numbers in your head. From Scott Lilly at the Center for American Progress:

Even if we exclude the 3 million people who work in support of art and art organizations and the 1.3 million artists who work less than full time, the remaining 700,000 full time artists constitute 0.5 percent of the workforce. That compares to the size of the NEA allocation in the stimulus, which totals six thousandths of 1 percent. In other words, artist representation in the work force is more than a thousand times greater than their representation in the stimulus package.

If you haven’t already let your senator know how you feel about keeping the $50 million NEA allocation in the stimulus package, do it here and now. It takes ten seconds. There’s a Senate vote scheduled for later today.