This report provides the most recent overview of legislative appropriations to state arts agencies. Analysis of state budget trends and information on recent appropriations changes, other agency revenue sources and line items are also included. Tables (updated June 2004) allow for state-by-state comparison, including per capita spending rankings. An essential publication for understanding the funding environment of state arts agencies. (National Assembly of State Art Agencies)

As we turned the corner into 2020, the Americans for the Arts staff put our heads together to come up with the 10 big trends tha we think are worth paying attention to this year.

The arts are fundamental to our humanity. They ennoble and inspire us—fostering creativity, goodness, and beauty. The arts bring us joy, help us express our values, and build bridges between cultures. The arts are also a fundamental component of a healthy community—strengthening them socially, educationally, and economically—benefits that persist even in difficult social and economic times.

Local arts agencies—arts councils, arts commissions, cultural affairs departments—are an essential tool for community leaders as they rebuild their economies and promote social cohesion. The nation’s 4,500 local arts agencies (LAAs) support, present, and promote the dynamic value of the arts. Through their partnerships and leadership, LAAs are building healthier communities through the arts.

Los Angeles Poverty Department (LAPD) is a Skid Row-based theater organization, founded and directed by artist John Malpede. LAPD has distinguished itself by its longstanding commitment to making change in L.A.’s Skid Row community, particularly regarding the homeless, through theater-based civic engagement work. As part of Animating Democracy’s Arts & Civic Engagement Impact Initiative, LAPD and Urban Institute senior researcher Maria Rosario Jackson engaged in research to develop a foundation to recurrently identify, monitor, and assess the cultural infrastructure of the

As a Detroiter and a journalist who has covered the city’s urban as well as cultural affairs, Eddie B. Allen, Jr. brings a gentle local eye to surface questions that deserve a hard look as MicroFest traverses its next locations. Allen zeroes in on participants’ examination of the role of arts inside the justice system and in building awareness and fostering dialogue about issues of the justice system, a system he has followed personally and as a concerned citizen and journalist. While the “transformational value” of art for those incarcerated was affirmed and

The central purpose of the book is to bring dependable information to bear on the question: Does the positive record of the American philanthropic foundations justify the continuing existence of these tax-free institutions? It seems important to spread out some characteristic parts of the record in a form which will be generally understandable and interesting. For a social instrument will in the long run be continued and supported only provided people - a very large number of all sorts of people - understand the instrument and approve of its results.

Hearings on bills to establish national foundations on the arts and humanities; held in Washington, D.C. on February 23 and March 3, 1965. Includes text of bills, testimony by government officials and arts leaders, supporting statements, related articles, letters and other documents supporting the enabling legislation.

Hearings on H.R.334, H.R. 2043, H.R. 3617 and similar bills to establish national foundations on the arts and humanities; held in Washington, D.C. February 24, March 22, 23 and 24, 1965. Includes testimony by government officials and arts leaders, supporting statements, related articles, letters and other documents supporting the enabling legislation.

Hearings on S. 111, S. 310, S. 315, S. 316 and S. 1483, bills to establish national foundations on the arts and humanities; held in Washington, D.C. February 24, 25 26, March 4, and 5, 1965. Includes text of bills, testimony by government officials and arts leaders, supporting statements, related articles, letters and other documents supporting the enabling legislation.