As part of Americans for the Arts' work to help advance the goals of The National Initiative for Arts & Health in the Military, Marete Wester, Senior Director of Arts Policy, has organized a session for the upcoming Grantmakers in the Arts 2014 Conference in Houston, Texas, October 12-15, that focuses on the challenges both military and arts funders face in supporting arts projects by and for service members, veterans, and their families.  "Charti

Robert Lynch, CEO and President of Americans for the Arts, and Jane Chu, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, wrote for a special insert on arts education and creative careers to Mediaplanet featured in today's edition of USA TODAY.

Join us as we create the first directory of organizations and individuals across the countries who are actively working to promote awareness of the arts in health, healing, and healthcare for military service members, veterans, their families, and caregivers. If you are an artist or a local arts organization who works to support the military in any capacity, please participate in our National Network and Directory now to be included in the November 2014 posting! 

For the past seven years, Barry's Blog - an independent service of the Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF) - publishes an annual list of the most influential individuals in the nonprofit arts. 

The Right Brain Initiative is releasing new data that demonstrate the impact of rich classroom arts-integrated instruction on student test scores.

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!

The LA Arts Commission recently released a report detailing arts instruction within LA County public school districts. Arts for All - an arts education advocacy organization – acquired, compiled, and analyzed data from the California Department of Education, which reported on each district and their educational offerings.

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.

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

CEO and President of the Aspen Institute and acclaimed author, Walter Isaacson, delivered the 43rd Annual Jefferson Lecture in the Humanities on May 12, 2014 at the Kennedy Center. The Jefferson Lecture is sponsored annually by the National Endowment for the Humanities.

Americans for the Arts Annual Convention kicked off unofficially on June 12^th with the preconferences and their related field trips. The Public Art Preconference included a tour of repurposed artist studios and enclaves in Nashville, Tennessee. The tour, “Reclamation as Transition - From Factories to Churches: Creating Artist Spaces and Places,” illustrated ways cities can engage the creative class for a more vibrant community.

In March 2014, the Nonprofit Finance Fund (NFF) published its annual State of the Nonprofit Sector. Our VP of Research, Randy Cohen, breaks down the findings for us on ARTSBlog. 

Emily Peck, Vice President of Private Sector Initatives at Americans for the Arts, wrote to Giving Thoughts, The Conference Board's blog, in response to their recent interview with Peter Singer in which he stated "resources we use towards museums and symphony orchestra's could do more good if used to help the global poor." She comapres and contasts reserch done by Americans for the Arts', specifcially our BCA National Survey of Business Support for the Arts, with res

Things are looking up for the nation’s state arts agencies. The National Assembly of State Arts Agencies reports that legislative appropriations increased 10.5 percent in 2014, to $306.6 million. This is the second year of growth following four Great Recession years of budget cuts.

KEY FINDINGS

1) State and jurisdictional arts agencies (SAAs) reported $306.6 million in legislative appropriations for fiscal year 2014.

On February 11, Robert Lynch, Americans for the Arts' CEO and President, co-authored a Letter to the Editor with arts advocate and award-winning actor Robert Redford on arts' potential to open doors for the less fortunate in response to an article pubished on February 4 by Patricia Cohen: N.E.A Benefits Both the Rich and the Poor, Study Finds.

On Tuesday, November 19, The Arts and Business Council of New York (ABC/NY), a division of Americans for the Arts, presented testimony at a New York City Council hearing on a proposed bill that calls for the city to develop and impleme

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.

Americans for the Arts' Vice President of Research, Randy Cohen, joined the National Endowment for the Art's Sunil Iyengar for C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal”  on Friday, November 29 to talk about federal arts funding.
 

Yesterday, the National Endowment for the Arts released this year's Survey of Public Participation in the Arts. From 2009 to 2012, musicals faced a 9% participation drop, and straight plays did even worse with a 12% drop.

United Arts Funds (UAFs) are private organizations that raise money in a combined effort, much like United Way, to broaden support for the arts. There are 59 UAFs nationwide, a decrease from 2003 when there were 66. Americans for the Arts' 2012-13 UAF Statistical Research and Revenue Trends provides the most currently available campaign totals for the nation's United Arts Funds. The 50 UAFs that participated reported aggregate FY2012 campaign totals of 97.5 million.

The significance of arts and culture to American life makes the vitality of the arts a matter of pressing interest. After all, the nation's nonprofit arts and culture organizations generates billions in economic activity every year. Further, the arts contribute not only to aesthetics and creativity, but also to prosperity, innovation, and social capital. Because it is important to understand the breadth, depth, and character of this industry, Americans for the Arts created the National Arts Index. And today, Americans for the Arts issued the Index’s latest findings.