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.”

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. 

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:

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. 

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!

A note from Susan Molinari, Vice President for Public Policy at Google, about an incredible project Google's Cultural Institute just completed commemorating the 70th anniversary of the Normandy landings:

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

What role do the arts play in the founding of our country and the winning of our independence? Americans for the Arts' CEO and President, Robert Lynch, answers this question today in the Huffington Post, in honor of Independence Day.

A group of community leaders in Grand Forks, North Dakota are creating a public art program using the development of 42nd Street as a catalyst. The proposed commission of arts and culture, which includes representatives from the city’s Urban Development department, the Grand Forks Park District, North Valley Arts Council, North Dakota Museum of Art, the Chamber of Grand Forks and East Grand Forks, an architect, and three local artists, is looking into the long-term future to make polices for public art and to review current artworks located in public spaces.

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.

With a goal to continue expanding the art-buying community in Grand Forks, the North Dakota Museum of Art held its 15th annual Autumn Art Auction on November 8, 2013. The pieces ranged from Armando Ramos’ clay sculpture of a neon red dog, to Helen Otterson’s small ceramic sculpture of a cactus, to Vivienne Morgan’s large-scale digital print of a nurse stump. The largest piece of work in the show was Albert Belleveau’s “Outcropping house,” which is7 feet tall by 42 inches wide and 56 inches deep.

Americans for the Arts, in conjunction with the Congressional Arts Caucus and 86 national co-sponsors, celebrates Arts Advocacy Day 2010 today. More than 500 arts advocates from across the country are meeting with their representatives on Capitol Hill, calling on Congress to support arts-friendly legislation and policies. A highlight of the day is a congressional hearing entitled “Arts Build Communities” hosted by Rep. James P. Moran (D-VA), Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior. Advocacy has been at the core of Americans for the Arts’ history and is one of the many milestones being celebrated during the organization’s 50th anniversary year. Arts Advocacy Day 2010 brings together a broad cross section of America’s cultural and civic organizations, along with hundreds of grassroots arts activists.