Less than three weeks after President Obama signed into law the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA), the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) announced its plans to dispense the $50 million provided for direct support of the arts, setting the NEA apart as one of the few federal agencies to dispense funds in a timely manner. According to NEA’s website, these funds are to be distributed “in direct grants to fund arts projects and activities which preserve jobs in the nonprofit arts sector threatened by declines in philanthropic and other support during the current economic downturn.” The NEA will select arts organizations for the stimulus grants by July of this year.