Last week’s budget agreement for fiscal year 2012 averted a government shutdown, but also made large cuts to arts funding, including $9 million to the National Endowment for the Arts.

Still, things could have been worse: the $9 million decrease (to about $146 million) in President Obama’s proposed budget was less than the House of Representatives’ preferred $20 million cut to NEA. And the Arts in Education program at the Department of Education, eliminated entirely in earlier proposals, survived with a cut of about $1 million.

To stop and reverse these cuts to important arts programs, we need you to remind your representatives in Congress that arts and arts education matters to you. Write, call, or visit, and if you can, participate in Arts Advocacy Day this April with Americans for the Arts.