Celebrities raise public support for the arts in a #SaveTheArts video campaign

The Creative Coalition premiered a series of public service announcements  Wednesday to raise awareness on the importance of the arts.

The series is part of the #RightToBearArts campaign which aims to encourage support and civic activism for funding the arts. The release of the public service announcements comes a week after celebrity delegates lobbied congress to fund the National Endowment for the Arts.

On Tuesday, Congress presented a bill to fund the NEA and the National Endowment for the Humanities with $167.5 million. According to The Creative Coalition, this is the same amount the celebrity delegates requested during their day on Capitol Hill. It's also a $12.5 million increase from last year's funding. 

Hollywood stars such as Troian Bellisario ("Pretty Little Liars"), Nicholas Gonzalez ("The Good Doctor"), John Huertas ("This is Us") and Anthony Carrigan ("Barry") appear on the public service announcements which were directed by Eric Kaufman and Sam Daly ("Madam Secretary").

In an effort to illustrate the impact the arts has on individual lives, Carrigan shares how artistic expression helped him feel more confident. 

In another PSA, Wilson Cruz ("13 Reasons Why") shared how life imitates art by opening up about his experience with coming out to his parents. He says that his father kicked him out of the house when he found out he was gay. This happened right before he started filming "My So Called Life." In the show, he played an openly gay teenager and in one of the episodes, his TV father kicked him out of the house. Cruz said that episode resonated with his father because he ended up reaching out to him and reconciling. 

"We encourage everyone, every entity that has a social media handle, a website, a television platform or a digital platform to run these PSAs immediately," Robin Bronk, CEO of The Creative Coalition, said. "A nation that does not fund the arts is a nation that is dying a deliberate death."

According to the campaign, supporting the arts is an investment — for every $1 that a community spends on the arts, $9 is returned.

The Creative Coalition emphasizes  that funding for the arts doesn't mean funding for Hollywood. The National Endowment for the Arts supports local communities' artistic efforts.

In the series of PSAs, the stars give shout outs to people in their childhood  such as high school teachers, camp counselors and nuns that encouraged them to pursue the arts.

"If you have a child, if you know a child, if you care about future generations flourishing, please exercise your #RightToBearArts," Bronk said.