Artist Anne Percoco has created the project #TreeSpeech, a social media performance piece intended to give voice to the trees of Jersey City. 

Congressional Arts Caucus co-Chairs Reps. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and Leonard Lance (R-NJ) led a bipartisan letter requesting $155 million for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in FY 2017, matching the request of the nonprofit arts community.

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

New Jersey’s Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism & Historic Preservation Committee approved a bill that would provide tax breaks for top-billed entertainers who perform at least four shows in Atlantic City's tourism district. S2721 would exempt out-of-state performers from state income taxes on earnings from performances in Atlantic City or any others in New Jersey during the same calendar year.

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. 

Through the deft work of the Senate education committee, the leadership team of Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Patty Murray (D-WA) succeeded in crafting and maintaining a bipartisan bill to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).  Today, the Senate voted to approve the Every Child Achieves Act (S.1177), by a vote of 81-17, a remarkable finish, especially considering the number of amendments that were filed (nearly 200 in all) and several other controversial provisions that could have sunk the bill.

Health for Life, a new program created by the Office of Patient Centered Care and Cultural Transformation (OPCC&CT) at the VA, is changing the way they talk about healthcare to include the arts in healing as a valued asset to whole health care and well-being for our Veterans.

Americans for the Arts, the nation’s leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts and arts education in America, announced today that it has been awarded a $100,000 Art Works: Arts Education grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to support the State Policy Pilot Program, a three-year program aiming to strengthen the focus and attention being put on arts education through advancing state-level education policy. 

On March 16, a bill requiring the New Jersey State Council on the Arts to establish an Artist District designation for municipalities cleared an important hurdle as it was released by the Assembly of Tourism, Gaming and the Arts Committee.

Americans for the Arts has announced the recipients of the 2015 Americans for the Arts Annual Leadership Awards. Presented each year, these awards recognize the achievements of individuals and organizations committed to enriching community through the arts. 

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! 

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.

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!

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?

Americans for the Arts, a leading partner in The National Coalition for Core Arts Standards (NCCAS), will launch in partnership with NCCAS the 2014 National Core Arts Standards in a streaming webinar on Wednesday, June 4, 1:00 to 3:00 p.m. Join arts education leaders from around the country to learn more about the new standards. The event will feature interviews with a broad spectrum of arts education providers, including certified educators, teaching artists, administrators, national/state policy makers, and arts education advocates.

Film and television professionals met at the Montclair Film Festival on May 4th to discuss concerns over the New Jersey film tax credit program’s 2015 sunset date.

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.

The annual congressional letters to the U.S. House and Senate Appropriations Committees saw boosted support; the bipartisan House letter led by Congressional Arts Caucus co-Chairs Reps. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and Leonard Lance (R-NJ) received 134 signatures! Last year, the letter yielded 95 signatures. In the Senate, 29 Senators signed a similar letter led by Sen.

Congressional Arts Caucus co-Chairs Reps. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and Leonard Lance (R-NJ) are co-leading a letter requesting $154.466 million for the NEA in FY 2015. In the Senate, Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) is circulating a letter in support of NEA/NEH funding at the $155 million level for FY 2015.

Museum champions in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate are circulating bipartisan letters in support of “robust” funding for OMS in the coming fiscal year. In the House, the letter is led by Reps. Paul Tonko (D-NY), Michael Grimm (R-NY), and Arts Caucus co-Chairs Reps. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and Leonard Lance (R-NJ). In the Senate, it is led by Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) and Roy Blunt (R-MO).

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.

Representatives Frankel (D-FL), Lynch (D-MA), O’Rourke (D-TX), and Titus (D-NV) have all recently joined the Congressional Arts Caucus, which is currently co-chaired by Reps. Louise Slaughter (D-NY) and Leonard Lance (R-NJ). The caucus now has 163 members.

Since spring 2006, The National Endowment for the Arts and The Poetry Foundation have been partnering with U.S. state arts agencies to support Poetry Out Loud, “a contest that encourages the nation's youth to learn about great poetry through memorization and recitation.” Participating students recite a poem of their choice, using materials that schools receive by partnering with their state arts agency.