Top business leaders, artists and civic leaders will testify before Congress on April 5 in Washington, D.C. as part of the 24th annual Arts Advocacy Day, during which hundreds of grassroots arts supporters from across the United States take to Capitol Hill to advocate for pro-arts legislation. Arts Advocacy Day is organized by Americans for the Arts, the nation’s leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts, and is presented this year in partnership with Ovation, the only television network devoted to arts culture.

Award-winning actor Kevin Spacey will deliver the 24th Annual Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy during this year’s Arts Advocacy Day events in Washington, D.C.  Arts Advocacy Day is presented by Americans for the Arts, the nation’s leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts, in partnership with Ovation, the only television network devoted to arts culture.

Americans for the Arts, the nation’s leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts, today announced the first update to its National Arts Index, the annual measure of the health and vitality of the arts industries in the United States. The 2010 Index  offers the first comprehensive picture of how the arts fared during the Great Recession.

Since the economic downturn and subsequent recession, fewer U.S. companies are making philanthropic contributions to the arts. Still, those companies that have continued their support actually gave a slightly greater share of their charitable dollars to the arts according to a new survey by the Business Committee for the Arts (BCA), a division of Americans for the Arts, the nation’s nonprofit organization for advancing the arts. Unlike most business philanthropy studies, the BCA report examines the giving habits of small- and medium-sized businesses as well as large ones. And according to the survey small and mid-sized companies are actually contributing a larger share of their philanthropic dollars to the arts than large companies.