‘Housewives’ star Kyle MacLachlan joins advocates calling on Congress for arts funding for NEA

‘Housewives’ star calls on Congress for arts funds

WASHINGTON — “Desperate Housewives” actor Kyle MacLachlan, who plays Orson Hodge on the series, urged lawmakers Tuesday to increase arts funding, saying he got his start performing in community theaters that received federal grants.

MacLachlan joined hundreds of arts advocates on Capitol Hill to press Congress for increased funding for the National Endowment for the Arts, even as federal deficits could trigger budget cuts.

State, local and private support for the arts declined by about $1 billion last year because of the weak economy, according to the group Americans for the Arts. Some museums and arts groups have shut down permanently.

“You are our champions here in the halls of Congress, and for many of us you hold our livelihoods in your hands,” MacLachlan told a House subcommittee.

The actor found a friend in Virginia Rep. Jim Moran, who recently became chairman of the panel.

“I feel I already know you,” Moran said. “My wife and I try to get home early enough on Sunday nights to watch ‘Desperate Housewives.’”

MacLachlan said his break into film and TV, including his Golden Globe Award-winning work on the series “Twin Peaks,” came after mentors from theaters in Yakima, Wash., and elsewhere recommended his work. Many of them still depend on NEA grants to mount productions, he said.

Advocates are seeking $180 million in federal support for the NEA for 2011, hoping to surpass a high of $176 million in funding granted the NEA in the mid-1990s before its budget was slashed.

Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter said the arts have been a good investment for his city even in tough times to draw residents and create jobs.

The lobbying group Americans for the Arts awarded House Speaker Nancy Pelosi its Congressional Arts Leadership Award along with the U.S. Conference of Mayors for preserving $50 million in economic stimulus funding for the arts last year and for working to increase the annual arts budget.

“We could show this was a jobs creator,” Pelosi said, adding a pitch for the recent health care overhaul, saying it’s difficult to be a self-employed artist without insurance.

Actor Jeff Daniels, currently starring in Broadway’s “God of Carnage” and whose screen credits include “Terms of Endearment” and “Dumb and Dumber,” said the arts were critical to the economic revival of his hometown, Chelsea, Mich.

After he started the Purple Rose Theatre there in 1991, the town of two stoplights now draws 40,000 people a year to its Main Street with shows, new shops and restaurants, he said.

“Even the local funeral director thanked me for two funerals he picked up from people who happened to be in town to see a play,” he said. “I didn’t ask.”

Others said the impact of the arts goes beyond entertainment and ticket sales, though.

Retired Army Brig. Gen. Nolen Bivens testified that arts education and cultural diplomacy can boost national security by preventing conflicts or inspiring new thinking on the battlefield. Asymmetrical warfare in Afghanistan, Iraq and elsewhere requires creative and innovative thinking, he said.

“Direct combat can only do so much,” Bivens said. “The military must employ new practices to address non-state actors, terrorists and irregular warfare techniques.”

On the Net:

Americans for the Arts: www.americansforthearts.org/

National Endowment for the Arts: www.nea.gov/