The Denver Post reports on what little is known about how that money will get distributed. Some of it, it seems, will just fill in some of the holes left by cuts in states’ arts agencies’ budgets:

Victoria Hutter, a spokeswoman for the National Endowment for the Arts, which is responsible for distributing the $50 million, said the agency hopes to post funding guidelines in early or mid-March.

“It’s a challenge for any of the agencies that are involved in this package, not just the NEA, to come up with funding guidelines that will allow money to be disbursed quickly and responsibly,” said Bill Ivey, chairman of the NEA from 1998 to 2001.

What is known so far is that 40 percent of the stimulus money for the arts will go to state arts agencies and the country’s six regional arts agencies, including the Western States Arts Federation. They will then redistribute those allocations via their existing funding channels….

But rather than boost the [Colorado] agency’s budget, the added federal funds will likely just help make up for an expected cut to its state funding of 25 percent or more.