March 13 (Bloomberg) -- Philanthropist and businesswoman Sheila Johnson traces her success to a violin.

Johnson, president of the Washington Mystics women's basketball team and co-founder of Black Entertainment Television, told members of Congress today that learning a musical instrument as a young girl in Chicago taught her the discipline and creative thinking that have contributed to her professional achievements.

Johnson, jazz trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and actor Chris Klein of ``American Pie'' cited the role of arts in education as they urged Congress to boost funding to the National Endowment for the Arts.

``I am what's possible when the right brain is nurtured with the same passion, with the same conviction, as the left,'' Johnson told the House Appropriations subcommittee that oversees funding to the NEA.

This year's $127 million NEA budget is ``woefully inadequate,'' said Robert Lynch, head of the Washington-based advocacy group Americans for the Arts. He urged lawmakers to boost NEA funding to $176 million in 2008, equal to the NEA's peak level in 1992. That was before Republicans took over Congress and slashed NEA funding by 40 percent.

Representative Norm Dicks, the Washington state Democrat who chairs the subcommittee, today promised ``a significant increase'' to the NEA, above President George W. Bush's proposed $131 million in 2008.

Culturally Ignorant

Dicks said in an interview Friday that he would like to restore arts funding to its $176 million peak but House Democratic leaders will determine how much the subcommittee can spend. The subcommittee also oversees funding to the Department of the Interior and other agencies.

The hearing was held on Arts Advocacy Day, when an estimated 475 representatives of arts groups nationwide spread out across Capitol Hill to urge members of Congress to support the arts.

Marsalis, artistic director of New York City's Jazz at Lincoln Center, told the breakfast gathering and the House subcommittee that the reduced funding of arts undermines democracy.

``Our kids are uncultured, and culturally ignorant, all over this country,'' he said at the hearing. ``The arts are a painless way to learn about the greatness of what we are about.''

Push for Increase

Lynch, citing Giving USA, which tracks charitable donations, said arts, cultural and humanities groups received 5.2 percent of total U.S. philanthropy in 2005, down from 8.4 percent in 1992. He attributed that drop in part to the cuts made in the mid-1990s to NEA funds, which are often given on a matching basis to encourage private giving.

Johnson, who estimated she has given $26 million to arts groups over the past seven years, said she was ``shocked at how little'' the NEA gives out.

``It should be 10 times more than that,'' she said in an interview.

To contact the reporter on this story: Laurence Arnold in Washington at larnold4@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: March 13, 2007 16:29 EDT