Americans for the Arts wants you to elect art professionals from the field to serve on one of four network advisory councils: Arts Education, Emerging Leaders, Private Sector, and
Illinois Governor Bruce Rauner closed all state museums on September 30; he cited the closures as “part of his efforts to manage state finances” while a budget deal with Democratic Legislature is still being negotiated. Chairman of the State Museum Board Guerry Suggs decried the governor’s actions and said that the closure of the 138-year-old museum in Springfield and its four satellite facilities will only save the state less than $400,000 of the Illinois' projected $5 billion budget deficit.
Americans for the Arts invites all Americans to celebrate October as National Arts & Humanities Month (NAHM). Towns and communities across the country are hosting special events that capture the spirit that the arts and humanities bring to everyday life.
Turnaround Arts and Wolf Trap Foundation for the Performing Arts announce a national partnership to support arts-integrated learning in early childhood classrooms across the country. Through in-class services for young children, ongoing training for educators, and resource development for the early childhood community at-large, the two organizations will work together to use the arts as a tool to improve student outcomes and school culture.
Illinois is entering its second month without a passed budget after Governor Rauner vetoed the Legislature’s proposed Fiscal Year 2016 budget—the Legislature did not support the governor’s reforms and surpassed state revenues by $3 billion. To cut down on government expenses due to the budget stalemate, Gov. Rauner ordered the closure of state facilities which include five state museums.
Composer Jimmy López will make his operatic debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago this winter, largely thanks to the decision to upload his vocal music onto YouTube. After an extensive quest for a composer to musically adapt Ann Patchett’s novel Bel Canto to the operatic stage, Lyric Opera came across Lopez’s samples on YouTube and immediately contacted him.
Words have the power to transform and, in the case of 16-year-old Aidan Kingwell of Oak Park, Illinois, they even have the power to save lives. Struggling with crippling depression, Kingwell read poet Mary Oliver’s “When Death Comes” and came to realize that her life was worth living, even at a time when she doubted it the most.
Livability.com has just identified the top 10 best downtowns in America. Here is the list:
1.Pittsburgh, PA
2.Minneapolis, MN
3.Indianapolis, IN
4.Greenville, SC
5.Salt Lake City, UT
6.Alexandria, VA
7.Fargo, ND
8.Lincoln, NE
9.Somerville, MA
10.Evanston, IL
In developing the list Livability.com used the following criteria:
To celebrate and thank our more than 550 advocates who are on the Hill today, and to recognize the invaluable support of our friends in Congress, Americans for the Arts placed full page ads running today in The Hill, Politico, and Roll Call. The ad highlights the more than 200 members of the Congressional Arts Caucus, the Senate Cultural Caucus, and the Congressional STEAM Caucus for their support of the arts and arts education in America. View the ad.
Americans for the Arts is gearing up for the Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy and Arts Advocacy Day—part of the National Arts Action Summit—held on March 23-24. Now in their 28th year, the events are presented by Americans for the Arts and co-sponsored by more than 85 national organizations representing hundreds of thousands of arts, culture, business, civic, and education institutions and individuals nationwide.
Americans for the Arts is pleased to be holding its 2015 Annual Convention in Chicago, a diverse city that embraces artists, creators, and innovators. The largest national gathering of arts leaders and their partners in creative business, education, and government, the convention is expected to draw upwards of 1,000 attendees.
WASHINGTON, DC—Americans for the Arts, the leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts and arts education in America, will hold its annual convention in Chicago from June 12–14, 2015. It is the largest national gathering of arts leaders and their partners in creative business, education, and government, and is expected to draw upwards of 1,000 attendees.
After 3 days of co
nsidering bipartisan legislation to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and nearly 60 amendments, the Senate HELP Committee advanced the legislation, enabling it to be next considered on the Senate floor under an open amendment process. Floor action is now expected before the end of May.
You already know Annual Convention will bring together more than 1,000 arts professionals with 150 speakers and 45 sessions, but there's a whole lot more to look forward to this year. Here’s a list of top ten things to see and do while in Chicago at the 2015 Annual Convention!
Americans for the Arts, the nation’s leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts and arts education, honors 31 outstanding public arts projects created in 2014 through the Public Art Network (PAN) Year in Review program, the only national program that specifically recognizes the most compelling public art. The works were chosen from more than 300 entries across the country and recognized today at the 2015 Annual Convention in Chicago.
Learn about how art helps transform communities AND get the opportunity to write for Americans for the Arts’ ARTSBlog this Summer!
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.
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!
Ingenuity’s "State of the Arts" progress report shows that Chicago Public Schools (CPS) have increased arts instruction, staffing, partnerships, and funding during the second year of implementing the CPS Arts Education Plan. The CPS Arts Education Plan and the effort to expand instruction in CPS is a leading goal of the Chicago Cultural Plan, issued by the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.
On November 20, Reps. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), Aaron Schock (R-IL), Cheri Bustos (D-IL), Rodney Davis (R-IL), Juan Vargas (D-CA), and Todd Young (R-IN) introduced a bipartisan congressional resolution (H.Res.761) in support of Giving Tuesday.
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:
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.
October is National Arts & Humanities Month (NAHM)! Throughout the month, several members of Congress have taken to social media to join in Americans for the Arts’ trending Instagram campaign to #ShowYourArt and encourage all Americans to partake in the vibrant and varied art happening locally and across the country, including Arts Caucus co-Chair Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), Humanities Caucus co-Chair Rep. David Price (D-NC), Rep.
The greatest month of the year is upon us - National Arts & Humanities Month!
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!
Consumers spend nearly $150 billion annually on entertainment and the arts. How does this breakdown to spending on the arts in your individual community?
President Obama visited Chicago last week to designate the Pullman neighborhood as a national monument. This designation will help to protect the remains of the Pullman Palace Car Company’s factory in Chicago, and preserve other buildings that were once part of the quintessential planned company town.
Long round-trips aboard Amtrak trains dedicated solely for the purpose of writing? This is an idea that New York City-based writer Jessica Gross tweeted at Amtrak without ever thinking it could come true. But it did come true—when Amtrak offered Gross a free “test-run” residency aboard a train that traveled from NYC to Chicago and back. Now, the idea continues to grow as hoards of writers are contacting Amtrak to find out how to participate in the innovative writer residency.
A new report was released today, profiling the state of the arts in one of the country’s largest school system – Chicago Public Schools. Ingenuity, an arts advocacy organization in Chicago, works closely with the school system to reinstate arts education in every school for every student. The report, is the first of its kind in Chicago, and will be the first in a set of longitudinal reports by Ingenuity which will track student access to the arts in schools.
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.
