Arts Education supporters gathered today at the Department of Education to celebrate the unveiling of the National PTA Reflections program annual exhibit.

Frommer’s popular travel guide recently selected Asheville, NC as the number one destination in the country to visit in 2015.

“We’re picking [Asheville] this year because the sketchy riverside area has been totally redone thanks to the New Belgium Brewery, which has poured millions of dollars into this area, making new parks, artists collectives, farmers markets, bike paths,” says Frommer. “It’s just a great place to go. It has the most breweries per capita, so it’s always a party.”

In honor of the NEA’s 50th anniversary in 2015 and the National Park Service’s centennial in 2016, a new grant initiative created in partnership by the NEA and the National Park Service celebrates the intersections between the two organizations.

Oklahoma State Representative Jason Dunnington (House District 88) composed an editorial highlighting Oklahoma Arts Day, which was presented by State Arts Action Network member Oklahomans for the Arts and the Oklahoma Arts Day Committee on May 5.

Discussing the public good that the arts provide to the state, Rep. Dunnington also wrote about the arts districts in his community—Paseo Arts District and the Plaza District. He stated, “These areas provide the finest in quality of life and serve as an economic engine for our community.”

Longtime Arts supporter Stan Rosenberg was sworn in today as the President of the Massachusetts Senate.  Americans for the Arts wishes to convey our congratulations to the Senator on this great accomplishment.

He has been a constant supporter of the arts and culture over his decades of service to the people of Massachusetts. One of his greatest legislative accomplishments was the passage of the Massachusetts Cultural Facilities Fund that provides a source of funding to arts organizations for capital projects.   

Local competitions began on January 1, 2015, that will lead to the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival in October.  Nationwide, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical facilities use the creative arts as one form of rehabilitative treatment to help Veterans recover from and cope with physical and emotional disabilities. Across the country each year, Veterans enrolled at VA health care facilities compete in local creative arts competition.

Following the retirement of John Bryan this past fall, CultureWorks recently announced that Scott Garka will take the reins as the new President on January 20, 2015. Though Garka does not come from the arts field (he is currently the Senior Director for Consulting Services with Virginia Health Quality Center), he is very active in the arts community as a board member and treasurer for the Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen.

Continuing a long-standing partnership with Aetna in Hartford, CT, the Greater Hartford Arts Council has embarked on a project with the company that supports a local artist, raises the level of employee engagement and morale, and increases the presence of art at Aetna and in the community.

StubHub, the world’s largest ticket marketplace, recently announced its biggest music initiative yet to discover and support emerging artists.

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.

This week the Massachusetts Cultural Council (MCC) launched the first state initiative in the U.S. to bring music education to underserved youth through programs inspired by El Sistema.

Earlier today, Representative Aaron Schock (R-IL), co-chair of the Congressional STEAM Caucus, addressed attendees at The Atlantic’s Full STEM Ahead event at The George Washington University.

In support of those who serve wounded veterans, ArtStream, a community based arts organization in Silver Spring, MD, is proud to offer “You Are a Work of Art” (YAWA). This project, sponsored by Prince Charitable Trusts, is designed for nurses, medics, and technicians on the 4th Floor Wounded Warrior Unit at Walter Reed National Medical Military Center (WRNMMC) to practice stress-management and self-care while building friendships through the arts.

From December 1-5, the Veteran Artist Program (VAP) will hold an art exhibit in the Capitol sponsored by U.S. Senator Tim Kaine of Virginia. The VAP will bring 30 pieces of veteran artwork to the Senate Russell building to be displayed in the rotunda until Friday, December 5. Thirty pieces of work were selected from more than 400 submissions and 30 states. Artists from World War II to current conflicts are represented; showcasing the creative talent that veterans possess before, during, and after their military service.

Vickie Benson, Program Director at the McKnight Foundation reflects on how the foundation has and continues to suppport artist-centric creative placemaking through Minnesota as early as the 1980's.

The Center for Innovation, Testing, and Evaluation (CITE) is being designed in Southern New Mexico to be a city without a population, soley for the purpose of testing technologies such as cell phone towers and microwave ovens.

Adjunct professor of the University of New Mexico, Sherri Brueggemann, worked with her students, the investing firm, and the architectural firm to do a call for artists to create public art for CITE. Four winners were selected from this process and their project ideas and artist statements are on display at the Albuquerque Museum of Art and History.

Artists in Jackson Hole, Wyoming are displaying public artworks showcasing the area as an artistic community. Jackson Hole Public Art artist-in-residence Bland Hoke started the project with a call for artists to develop temporary artworks along a strip of highway that leads into the town center. Artists are using abandoned gas station signs and creating new artworks which highlight the local artist community.

Since the Military Child Education Coalition (MCEC) began the “Call for the Arts” in 2002, thousands of military children – from all over the world, from every branch of service, in grades PreK-12 – have submitted their drawings, their poems, and their interpretations of what it means to be a military child. The MCEC takes advantage of every opportunity to display the artistic skill of these unique, resilient children.

Americans for the Arts' congratulates and thanks Jonathan Katz for his 30 years of dedicated service to the global arts community through his leadership of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA). We celebrated his many achievements and long standing partnership with Americans for the Arts at a reception in our Washington, D.C. office on November 10. 

Wish you could be an art collector but can never afford the price tag of the pieces you'd truly want? There is hope for those attending the world-famous Southeby's Paris this week. Today, December 12, they will be raffling off a $1 million dollar original Picasso masterpiece - the 1914 cubist drawing L'homme au Gibus, Man with Opera Hat - for only 100 euros, or $130.00.

Americans for the Arts' Artist Committee member and American artist, Jeff Koons, helps push forward public charity in the arts world with his $4million dollar piece, auctioned off by Project Perpetual on Nov. 9. The piece, based on Picasso’s La Soupe and titled Gazing Ball (Charity), stands six feet tall and is slung with donated Hermès handbags. 

With everyone celebrating our nation's veterans today, Americans for the Arts' President and CEO, Robert Lynch, writes to the Huffington Post about the connection between the arts and the healing of our nation's veterans. Americans for the Arts has been engaged in this work through our National Initiative for Arts and Health in the Military, in collaboration with the American Legion Auxiliary and more than 16 national partners, working for policy that supports these programs and services and towards serving as the national nexus for knowledge and connection. 

Americans for the Arts isn’t the only organization working to transform STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) into STEAM (science, technology, arts, engineering, mathematics). Some top tech companies have been hiring artists-in-residence to assist engineers in design and open the box of ideas and creativity. The artists, hired for a specific period of time and provided a stipend in many cases, offer a creative perspective on the science of engineering and manufacturing technology.

The Annual Healing Arts Exhibit opened October 16 in the America Building pavilion at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center (WRNMMC) in Bethesda, Maryland.  The exhibit, jointly sponsored by the John P. Murtha Cancer Center and ground-breaking Creative Arts Program of WRNMMC, featured poetry, and music, accompanied by the artists explaining the role that art is making in their recovery.  The show is given each year in “memory of those who lost their battle or were lost in battle; and in celebration of those who continue on…”

This fall, the South Dakota Board of Education announced that they are seeking to change state standards for fine arts – as well as science and technology – to keep their students on par with other states and help them succeed. 

Recent studies over the past year all point to one key finding: music education is insanely beneficial; to children and adults alike.  Through studies by the Northwestern University Auditory Neuroscience Lab, the Boston Children’s Hospital, the University of Toronto and many others, researchers have accumulated tactile evidence that music training – learning to play an instrument or to sing – for children has large and wide-reaching impact.  Specifically, neuroscientists and psychologists point to how music training can improve the brain’s abilities, help c

This August, the US Department of Education revealed the Obama administration’s Preschool Development Grant Program, which – for the first time – now includes the arts as a required activity for early childhood education programs.  This great addition of the arts into preschool curricula is in large thanks to the Grantmakers in the Arts’ Arts Education Funders Coalition (AEFC) – and Americans for the Arts as an advisory committee member – who worked to advocate that t

Way back in 2011, The Kennedy Center selected Tulsa, Oklahoma to participate in their “Any Given Child” program; an initiative dedicated to ensuring unique arts education for students throughout every grade level in K-8 schools.  Through a partnership between Tulsa Public Schools and the Arts & Humanities Council of Tulsa, local students just recently completed their first year of an arts curriculum in May of 2014 and are now entering a secon

On Oct. 1, the Wallace Foundation announced they are launching a new six-year $40 million initiative focused on audience building for performing arts. The initiative will provide four-year grants to a select cohort of organizations around the country. Wallace will be inviting 80 organizations to submit proposals and will fund approximately 25 of them.

Wallace President Will Miller just shared the news in a webinar featuring guest panelists:

Back in 2010, the principal of an inner-city school in Boston, Massachusetts took a massive leap of faith and redirected his entire school to focus around arts education. The school, Orchard Gardens, was a K-8 school facing challenges and one of the lowest rankings of Massachusetts schools. Principal Andrew Bott decided to redirect school resources and refocus the school – in a year he fired the school’s security guards and brought on new teachers and a curriculum centered on the arts.