H.R. 2664: To amend the Higher Education Act of 1965 to provide for additional uses of funds for grants to strengthen historically Black colleges and universities, and for other purposes.

H.R. 2664 would let HBCUs spend existing federal strengthening-grant money on arts students and arts programs that often struggle to survive budget cuts.

That includes direct help for students in arts, arts education, and cultural programs, plus outreach offices, mentoring, career advising, and work-based learning. The bill also allows HBCUs to fund well-paid apprenticeships, internships, and fellowships through nonprofit arts partners.

The bill also covers something more concrete than scholarships: preserving and protecting Black art collections that many HBCUs already hold. Colleges could use grant money to exhibit, maintain, monitor, and protect those works in storage or on display.

The case for the bill rests heavily on the findings Congress included up front. Those findings cite a $12.6 billion HBCU underfunding gap over 30 years, say at least 18 colleges planned to severely curtail or eliminate arts departments in 2018, and point to sharp racial gaps in the arts world, including just 1.4% of artists in top U.S. museums being Black.

This is not a brand-new grant program — it is a narrower change that expands what HBCUs can do with money they already compete for under the federal HBCU strengthening program.