The NABE Foundation, the charitable arm of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE), and Americans for the Arts have awarded Xiangyu “Lucy” Wang the seventh annual NABE Foundation/Americans for the Arts Scholarship Award. Wang will receive the $5,000 scholarship to further the integration of the arts into the study and application of economics in her undergraduate career and professional development. 

Today, Bloomberg Philanthropies announced 12 finalist cities in the running to receive up to $1 million each as part of the Public Art Challenge, a new program aimed at supporting temporary public art projects that engage communities, enhance creativity, and enrich the vibrancy of cities. Americans for the Arts president and CEO Robert L. Lynch applauds Bloomberg Philanthropies and comments on the news. 

ArtsWave, one of the longest running United Arts Funds (UAF) in the country, recently announced that it exceeded its 2015 campaign goal of $12.2 million to support arts organizations across Cincinnati and the region. A particular success of the campaign is the number of people in the region who support it–most contributions to the annual campaign are individual gifts in amounts less than $150. In 2015, ArtsWave added more than 7,660 new donors to the campaign.

In his State of the City address on Tuesday New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio introduced plans to create 1,500 affordable living spaces and 500 affordable workspaces for artists across the city, according to the New York Times.

In Nashville, a $200 grant to the Nashville nonprofit the Housing Fund will provide housing assistance for artists live/work spaces. The “Make a Mark Program” is funded by the Kresge and Surdna Foundations and will provide financing to artists and creatives to live permanently in Nashville and Davidson County. 

Animating Democracy creates a series of brief papers and podcast interviews featuring funders who support arts and culture as a creative strategy to achieve community building and development goals, civic engagement, or social justice goals.

In honor of the NEA’s 50th anniversary in 2015 and the National Park Service’s centennial in 2016, a new grant initiative created in partnership by the NEA and the National Park Service celebrates the intersections between the two organizations.

Oklahoma State Representative Jason Dunnington (House District 88) composed an editorial highlighting Oklahoma Arts Day, which was presented by State Arts Action Network member Oklahomans for the Arts and the Oklahoma Arts Day Committee on May 5.

Discussing the public good that the arts provide to the state, Rep. Dunnington also wrote about the arts districts in his community—Paseo Arts District and the Plaza District. He stated, “These areas provide the finest in quality of life and serve as an economic engine for our community.”

Vickie Benson, Program Director at the McKnight Foundation reflects on how the foundation has and continues to suppport artist-centric creative placemaking through Minnesota as early as the 1980's.

This fall, the National Endowment for the Arts is giving a total of $950,000 to Washington DC based organizations, one of them being Americans for the Arts to support our Community Visions initiative, a publication that will serve as a policy guide for local arts agencies. This forward-looking blueprint for local arts development in the 21st century will acknowledge the full spectrum of the current community cultural ecosystem, bring leading-edge practice to the fore, and highlight values that underpin effective local arts leadership. 

The NABE Foundation, a partner of Americans for the Arts and the charitable arm of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) is awarding its seventh annual Americans for the Arts scholarship to encourage the integration of the arts into the economic education process.

The results are in for this year’s “Art of Education” Campaign!  Congratulations to Cascade K-8 Community School of Shoreline, WA, recipient of the $5,000 grand prize.  Consumers, parents, and educators nationwide determined the grant winners by voting for their favorite K-12 public schools through the KRIS Facebook page.

Fifteen other schools around the country will receive additional grants totaling $20,000. They include:

On Oct. 1, the Wallace Foundation announced they are launching a new six-year $40 million initiative focused on audience building for performing arts. The initiative will provide four-year grants to a select cohort of organizations around the country. Wallace will be inviting 80 organizations to submit proposals and will fund approximately 25 of them.

Wallace President Will Miller just shared the news in a webinar featuring guest panelists:

Today, nearly 50 members of the Charitable Giving Coalition, including Americans for the Arts, sent a letter to U.S. House Budget Chair Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) applauding his recent, public comments about the charitable tax deduction. On average, for nonprofit arts organizations, about a quarter of revenue comes from individual giving.

KRIS wine and Americans for the Arts have teamed up again to help support arts education through the Art of Education contest. Now in its 5^th year, the contest awards 16 schools in the US a total of $25,000 in grants to improve academic achievement through quality arts education. As more states continue to cut arts education budgets, every extra dollar towards arts education helps!

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!

Thrive Fund is making significant contributions towards Charlotte’s Arts.

Launched in summer 2012 under a low profile, Thrive Fund’s initial goal was to provide financial stability for the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra. Under the leadership of former Bank of America Chairman and CEO Hugh McColl, it soon exceeded expectations, raising $34 million in pledges to underwrite Charlotte's cultural sector.

Last Tuesday, ArtBar by Catalyst Club in Albuquerque, New Mexico, shocked arts supporters by announcing it was officially closing. ArtBar is a nonprofit club, with 2,000 members, that generates grant funds through the sale of alcohol. Back on June 11, ArtBar received a citation after it sent a press release about an event to a local paper. The event advertisement had information regarding a cover charge, which the regulation and licensing department said violated the conditions of having a club license from New Mexico.

In Youngstown, Ohio, the Power of Arts held a town hall meeting for arts supporters regarding new initiatives to raise more arts funding. Their most recent lobbying effort is to change a provision in the Ohio Revised Code which would allow counties with populations under 1.2 million to fund arts and cultural districts with a cigarette tax.

NYC Mayor, Bill De Blasio, recently announced a $23 million increase to the city’s education budget specifically for arts education. The allocation is in response to the report by city Comptroller, Scott Stringer, which found 28 percent of city schools lack even one full-time certified arts teacher, especially with the South Bronx and Central Brooklyn.

In 2013, private sector giving to the arts (by individuals, foundations, and corporations) was $16.66 billion, a 7.8 percent increase from 2012 (+6.8 percent when adjusted for inflation).  According to the Giving USA report, “Giving to arts, culture, and humanities organizations has realized strong growth since the end of the Great Recession in 2009.

On Monday, Detroit's three automakers, Chrysler, General Motors, and Ford, donated a total of $26 million to help save the Detroit Institute of Arts. The $26 million is part of the Detroit Institute of Art's commitment to raise $100 million as part of the "grand bargain," an effort by the city, state, and other groups to raise $800 million to help the city emerge from bankruptcy later this year.

The National YoungArts Foundation has announced that applications for 2015 are now available until October 17, 2014!

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

The leadership of Intersecton for the Arts in San Franciso has issued a press release pertaining to their recent lay-offs and long-term financial struggles. The organzation has made changes recently to help combat some of the challenges, however the Board of Director Chair and Interim Director still had to make drastic descisions this week. The organzation has laid-off many of their programming and support staff, but are still moving along with their fiscal sponsored work.

On June 18, Philadelphia City Council announced that it would not decrease the Philadelphia Cultural Fund's budget. In his 2016 proposed budget, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter announced he would decrease the Cultural Fund's budget to $1.8 million - a cut of 40 percent. The City Council has now approved an amended city budget that will keep the Philadelphia Cultural Fund's budget at $3.14 million.

On June 17, California Governor Jerry Brown approved an increase of $8.3 million from the state’s general fund to the California Arts Council, which is $2.1 million more than what he originally proposed for the 2015-2016 budget.

With its additional funding revenues—$1.1 million from the National Endowment for the Arts and $2.5 million in projected donations from its specialty arts license plate program—the California Arts Council’s budget will be $11.9 million, its largest budget since 2004.

Senate Commerce and Tourism Committee Chairwoman Nancy Detert (R-Venice)’s sponsored bill to expand the Florida film tax credit program by $20 million was cut from the state budget. At present, the film tax credit program is due to end in 2016 and has already exhausted its $269 million budget.  Senate Appropriations Chairman Joe Negron (R-Stuart) and Sen. Andy Gardiner (R-Orlando) notified Senator Detert early last week about the cut; the budget did not allow for extra spending towards film tax credits.

Can art fuel a movement?  ArtPride NJ and the Printmaking Center of NJ have teamed up to campaign that art is as much a part of life as food, water, and air.  The two organizations have teamed up with artist Lunar New Year (LNY) and printer Jase Clark to create limited edition silkscreen and digital prints entitled FOOD WATER AIR ART. The art piece promotes the need to prioritize, fund, and support the arts.