Funding arts and cultural projects in all 50 US states particularly in rural and minority communities, the NEA promotes local creative activity in the pictorial arts, literature, dance, theater and music. Threatened budget cuts could endanger or eliminate much of this.

From 2007-2016, the NEA supported opera performances to the tune of $11 million (10.4 million euros) as well as free ballet training. In the visual arts, grants have gone to renowned and little-known artists and to war veterans undergoing art therapy. The NEA also funds music lessons for minority students, poetry reciting competitions and jazz musicians on tour.

Museums and archives, libraries and universities, public radio and TV as well as individual scholars have received NEH support. A particular focus are the languages and cultures of Native Americans and documentation of the civil rights movement. Digitizing these artifacts is an ongoing project. Adjusted for inflation, the NEA budget has already declined by 70 percent between 1979 and 2014.

7,000 books have been published with NEH help in 52 years; 16 won Pulitzer Prizes. 38 million Americans viewed Ken Burns' documentary "The Civil War" and 63.3 million pages of historic newspapers have been preserved. The NEH funded the first comprehensive autobiography of Mark Twain and the papers of ten American presidents. Ten out of 44 previous presidents: clearly, there's more work to be done.

Veterans of US military engagement in Afghanistan and Iraq have often found it difficult to talk about what they've experienced - but the program encourages them to write about it. Beyond the therapeutic value, the 74 essays in this collection have fostered community building among war veterans.

Do you know what a garboon, a gardaloo or garget is? You can look it up in this dictionary, compiled through NEH-funded field research since 1971 to collect the many odds, ends and quirks of the American language. The dictionary is complete, but a lexicographer's work is never done.

The largest source of funding for non-commercial radio, television and related online and mobile services, the CPB supports over 1,100 radio and 365 television outlets. Dozens of stations in smaller markets depend on the CPB to fund their operations. The corporation also encourages content development through grants, shielding stations from political influence or commercial considerations.

The network provides 1,200 hours of programming per year - primarily children's, educational and cultural broadcasts - but also news. Live from Lincoln Center has transmitted classical music and jazz concerts for over 40 years - and DW News as well as the Deutsche Welle programs Focus on Europe and Euromaxx can be seen on hundreds of PBS stations.

Morning Edition and All Things Considered are the network's signature programs, but there are many others from news to jazz and classical music. NPR and PBS receive little in federal funds but could hardly exist without the public television and radio infrastructure supported by the CPB.

Individual public radio stations in the US produce 40 percent of their content locally. The rest comes from national sources like NPR and international producers including Deutsche Welle, whose news and information programs Inside Europe and World Link and its classical music series DW Festival Concerts can be heard on stations coast to coast.