This morning, First Lady Michelle Obama joined the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Acting Director Maura Marx to present the 2015 National Medal for Museum and Library Service. Ten institutions from across the country attended the White House Ceremony to be recognized for outstanding service to their communities. These organizations demonstrate significant impact and high quality of programs, services, and partnerships, and were selected among thirty finalists. Robert Lynch, CEO of Americans for the Arts, attended the ceremony today. 

KRIS Wine and Americans for the Arts are proud to announce that Pete Beeman, creator of the Hampline Exploration Stations in Memphis, Tennessee, is the grand prize winner of the KRIS Wine “Art of Giving” contest.

Register today for the 2015 Annual Convention, taking place June 12–14, 2015 in Chicago!

The conference will take place at the Chicago Sheraton, with more than 40 breakouts, three keynotes, three preconferences, two Workshop Intensives, a dozen ARTventure Tours, and an opening reception at the Museum of Contemporary Art! 

In September, we held a call for nominations for our Network Councils. Now it's time for you, our members, to cast your vote to determine which nominees will be elected to the following four Americans for the Arts' Network Councils.

WASHINGTON, D.C.—Americans for the Arts, the leading organization for advancing the arts and arts education in America, announces its annual National Arts Awards honorees. The awards recognize artists and arts leaders who exhibit exemplary national leadership and whose work demonstrates extraordinary achievement. They are individuals who share a common belief in the power of the arts and arts education to enrich individual lives and communities alike.

This year’s National Arts awards recipients are:

Yesterday, American voters turned out to the polls to vote for federal, state and local candidates and ballot measures. With many headlines focusing on control of the U.S. Senate or trends of state legislature leadership, arts education was central to several races throughout the country.

State Superintendent of Education

In the United States, there are 13 states which publicly elect their state education chief. In 2014, seven of the thirteen were up for election. The results are below:

The greatest month of the year is upon us - National Arts & Humanities Month!

Roberto Bedoya, cultural activist and Executive Director of the Tucson Pima Arts Council, recently wrote on creative resilience in communities of color, highlighting the Chicano practice of Rasquachification as a method of this resilience.  

Canyon Ranch Institute, announced the October 1, 2014 application deadline for the Canyon Ranch Institute (CRI) Healthy World Scholarships. Twenty-five CRI Healthy World Scholarships, each of which includes a five-day, four-night stay at Canyon Ranch Health Resort in Tucson, Arizona, will be awarded to people who work or volunteer in low-income and medically underserved communities, helping to enhance the health and well-being of their local populations.

WHAM is a non-profit art organization in the West Valley - Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area.  In addition to public art murals, art festivals, art walks, and community art programs, WHAM is offering a free one year art program for veterans.  The program, "Art: A Path to Healing"' features twelve four hour sessions in which participants will learn from professional artists.  Classes range from drawing, painting, and other mediums.  The goal of the program is to assist veterans of all ages to cope, through art and collaboration, with Post Traumatic Stress D

Artist Elizabeth Egbert, recently director of the Staten Island Museum, passed away on Saturday at the age of 69. She had worked around the country as a public artist with pieces in Mesa, Arizona and shown at the Socrates Sculpture Park in New York City. She was an artist, sculptor, and community activist. She was also an educator and taught at Hunter College and the College of the Arts in Philadelphia.

It's that time again: Americans for the Arts is seeking at least 200 partners to make this Arts and Economic Prosperity Study larger and more comprehensive than ever before--and we invite YOU to be a part of it!

Americans for the Arts announced today that ten state teams would join a three-year pilot program to strengthen arts education by advancing state policy. Announced at the National Conference of State Legislatures’ legislative summit in Minneapolis, the ten states entering the pilot program are:

Consumers spend nearly $150 billion annually on entertainment and the arts. How does this breakdown to spending on the arts in your individual community?

As part of Americans for the Arts' ongoing initative to support our veterans and their families by helping them heal through the arts, we have recently partnered with We Are Veterans, a collaboration of local PBS stations, partner organizations, veteran service organizations, and communities to leverage resources to raise awareness about the well-being of veterans and their families.

With 2013 ending, we at Americans for the Arts find ourselves grateful for so many great arts achievements this year. There are so many partners doing amazing work in towns, cities, and states across the country--and in reflecting on this work, we wanted to especially thank the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and its staff for serving as the national lynchpin for the whole US arts field.

Join our first ever Local Arts Agency Blog Salon December 5-9 on ARTSblog as leaders in the field tackle questions about emerging trends, surviving the economic downturn, local collaboration, model programs, and more.

The following guest bloggers are generating and leading the discussion:

Brunswick Acres Elementary School in Kendall Park, NJ was very dedicated to winning the third annual "€œArt of Education"€ contest sponsored by KRIS Wine and Americans for the Arts.