Thanks to artsjournal for noting the start of the annual debate about the National Endowment for the Arts.
Since it's that time of year again, I asked the NEA whether Presidential portraitist Simmie Knox had ever been funded individually or through an institution, for his works or an exhibit of his works, or if he had ever served on an NEA selection panel.
Answer: The NEA had no record in its database of any support for Simmie Knox.
That makes Knox's individual artistic and professional accomplishment, as a former sharecropper, teacher, and artist working from his garage, all the more impressive.
