Americans for the Arts today announced its October celebration of National Arts & Humanities Month (NAHM), a time for communities to come together to celebrate the power of the arts and humanities in promoting individual wellbeing, addressing trauma, connecting cultures, highlighting inequities, and making the nation’s communities healthier and stronger.

By taking preparedness actions and creating a disaster plan, cultural heritage and arts organizations can reduce the risk of disaster and minimize their losses. dPlan|ArtsReady is an online emergency preparedness and response tool for arts and cultural organizations—regardless of size, scope, or discipline—to prevent or mitigate disasters, prepare for the most likely emergencies, respond quickly to minimize damage, and recover effectively while continuing to provide services to your community.

GIVE (Growing Inclusivity for Vibrant Engagement), created by New Victory and a consortium of teaching artists and arts administrators, is a free guide that supports Teaching Artists in the creation of liberated learning environments and vibrant arts experiences within inclusion settings.

Americans for the Arts is pleased to announce that Mariaesmeralda Paguaga has joined the organization as its new Vice President of Strategic Communications. Paguaga comes to Americans for the Arts with a broad and deep cultural foundation from which to build Americans for the Arts’ strategic communications plan that meets the needs of the organization’s diverse audiences internally and externally. Bringing over two decades of social impact leadership, Paguaga has an extensive and proven record in achieving transformational change via strategic communications, program innovation, brand positioning, integrated marketing campaigns, strategic partnerships, celebrity and dignitary relations, creative production, and mission-driven events.