ASC announced the new grant in August 2015 in response to the Charlotte-Mecklenburg community’s interest in arts, science, history, and heritage programming, and a desire to experience more community-focused and innovative cultural programs.
Americans for the Arts releases a statement in response to the executive order signed by President Trump that denies entrance into the U.S. by immigrant and non-immigrant visitors from seven Muslim-majority nations.
Americans for the Arts is pleased to release a new guide, Arts Deployed: An Action Guide for Community Arts & Military Programming, for local arts organizations and artists interested in bringing creative arts programming to military and Veteran communities, their caregivers, and families. Arts Deployed honors the highly effective and robust arts and military programs that exist all across the country and seeks to help close a critical gap, as the demand for these services far exceeds their number.
The Heritage Foundation formulated a number of arguments against the NEA decades ago. These arguments are listed below with corresponding rebuttals.
Americans for the Arts knows that engaging business employees through volunteerism and the arts is key to fostering a desirable work environment, increasing efficiency and morale, and doing good in the community. We're pleased to announce the release of our fourth workbook in a series dedicated to helping nonprofits start arts-based employee volunteer and engagement programs, focused on Berea College's AIR Institute arts incubator program.
Today's The Hill newspaper carried a disturbing but not unexpected article related to funding for the arts in the incoming administration. The article said that policy advisors to the President are calling for the elimination of the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities and privatizing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
From the beginning, the goal of the NAMP program has been to connect, strengthen, and advance our nation’s growing community of arts marketers. The new website provides arts marketers with an improved and dynamic digital space to grow and connect in their community, with four distinct spaces to get smarter, get together, get involved, and get inspired.
Vans invites high school art students throughout the country to join in the eighth annual Vans Custom Culture art competition to embrace youth creativity and support arts education. Starting today, high school art teachers can register their classes to compete for the grand prize of $50,000 towards their art program by creating their most artistic and inventive designs using blank Vans shoes as their canvas.
As Congress and the Trump Administration prepare the federal budget for Fiscal Year 2018, Americans for the Arts is working to remind our elected officials about the economic importance of federal funding for the arts, specifically through the National Endowment for the Arts. This morning, ads appeared in the New York Post and The Hill newspapers with the bold headline “The Arts Put America to Work.”
Today, at an event held at the National Intrepid Center of Excellence (NICoE), part of Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Department of Defense (DoD) announced the expansion of their partnership and military healing arts program into Creative Forces: NEA Military Healing Arts Network.
Reps. Alcee Hastings (D-FL) and Walter Jones (R-NC) led a bipartisan letter in support of the military bands of the United States Armed Forces. Americans for the Arts endorsed the letter, along with 19 organizations.
Vans and Americans for the Arts envision a country where every child has access to—and takes part in—high quality learning experiences in the arts, both in school and in the community. As such, the two organizations partnered to create the Custom Culture Grant Program to promote awareness and support arts education in public schools. Today the partners announced that eight schools across the country that have been awarded a $2,500 grant for the 2015-2016 school year.
Today, the U.S. House of Representatives formally agreed to form a conference committee to reauthorize the federal K-12 education law (Elementary and Secondary Education Act, ESEA), which has been expired since 2007.
The rule in today’s House floor debate formally allowed the House to request a conference with the Senate.
Inspired by meeting Curtis Bean, a veteran and founder of Art of War Project, and our ongoing work in the area of arts & healing through the National Initiative of Arts & Health in the Military, Bob Lynch published an article with the Huffington Post for Veterans Day 2015.
Nothing could have been finer than the arts in Carolina during the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival (NVCAF) held in October at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Presented by the Veteran Administration, the US Department of Veterans Affairs, and the American Legion Auxiliary, this year’s event was hosted by the Durham VA Medical Center. This year 3,345 Veterans from 130 VA medical facilities entered the art, music, drama, dance, and creative writing competitions at the local then state levels.
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
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.
Launching today, the third essay in The pARTnership Movement essay series, Foster Critical Thinking, demonstrates how arts partnerships can help a company encourage critical thinking and thereby boost innovation among employees.
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.
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.
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.
On May 18, the North Carolina House of Representatives released its budget plan. In the plan, the House has proposed to revive the state’s tax credit for restoring historic and cultural buildings, which was allowed to expire last legislative session.
The Arts & Science Council's (ASC) 60-minute documentary, Spiral Bound, follows a group of high school students in ASC's Studio 345 program–an out-of-school youth development program for high school students in Charlotte, NC–in their quest for social justice through the nation's education system. After premiering on its home turf at the end of 2014, Spiral Bound was chosen to be shown at the 2015 Newport Beach Film Festival.
In this month’s Smithsonian.com magazine you will find their top picks for amazing small towns across the United States. These towns all have populations under 20,000, and were selected because of their number of cultural and historic attractions, food and drink destinations, and nature opportunities. The article states: “Think of this list not as a ranking but as a menu, with something for every taste—whether it’s country bluegrass, Florida’s white beaches, or Alaska’s blue mountains.”
On Sunday, July 12, 2015, Americans for the Arts, in partnership with the National Association of Counties (NACo), presented the 2015 Public Leadership in the Arts Award for County Arts Leadership to Riverside County, California. The award was presented at NACo's annual conference in Charlotte, North Carolina.
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!
Get the conversation about encouraging creativity and ensuring arts education in your community with a new series of videos by Americans for the Arts. These videos convey the stories behind importance of arts education, as told by children whose lives have been postiviely impacted by the arts.
