1979 National Endowment for the Arts
At its annual conference in Washington, DC, IDSA honored the National Endowment. NEA was established in 1965 and by 1967 offered grants to architects and designers in a Design Arts program.

In 1972, IDSA had moved its headquarters from New York to the Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC, specifically to become more involved with the Federal scene of agencies and associations influential in design-related issues. At the first Federal Design Assembly in 1973, The Design Necessity, President Nixon said in his "Federal Design Improvement Message"-- "There should be no doubt that the federal government has an appropriate role to play in encouraging better design."

In 1973 the NEA committed $30,000 to IDSA for "Design Awareness" projects and in 1975 awarded another major grant for a dozen projects. Richard Hollerith, Jr., FIDSA served as IDSA's NEA Project Director.

In 1978, IDSA opened new headquarters on "N" Street in Washington, DC. By 1979, IDSA was represented on the Design Arts policy panel, members were participating in Design Arts award panels and IDSA was proactively urging its members to submit individual grant requests, many of whom did.

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