Americans for the Arts

The Art Institutes and Americans for the Arts are accepting entries for our 2012 Poster Design Competition through February 3. Winners will earn up to a full tuition scholarship to study at one of the more than 45 Art Institutes across the country.

This year's competition challenges high school seniors and graduates from the U.S., Canada, and Puerto Rico to design a poster that best expresses the competition's new theme, "You Can Create Tomorrow." Contestants will compete in two different categories: high school senior or high school graduate/adult. For more information, visit this website.

See how winning past contests has impacted the lives of these students:

Are you prepared for the new arts landscape—The New Normal?
 
This June, join more than 1,100 arts and community leaders from across the nation to learn how your organization can adapt to the shifting economic climate, changing demographics, and prepare your community for the future the 2012 Americans for the Arts Annual Convention.
 
San Antonio is the ideal backdrop to experience how arts and culture can shape a community. From the city’s River Walk and historic museums to its ethnic diversity, you will see how the artistic practices and traditions of the past can merge with—and help redefine—the present and future.

(San Antonio Arts from SAHEARTS on Vimeo.)

You can also dig deeper with colleagues during one of our focused preconferences, the Public Art Network Preconference or the Emerging Leaders Preconference (sponsored by American Express) on June 7 & 8.

For more information about our opening keynote speaker, ways to save on registration, and exhibiting/sponsorship opportunities, visit convention.artsusa.org.

Americans for the Arts’ President and CEO Robert L. Lynch has been appointed to a two-year term on the United States Travel and Tourism Advisory Board. The announcement was made today in conjunction with President Barack Obama’s new national strategy to make the United States the world’s top travel and tourism destination, as part of a comprehensive effort to spur job creation.

This announcement builds on Mr. Lynch’s long-standing dedication to advance and enhance cultural tourism. Through partnerships with The United States Conference of Mayors and the Destination Marketing Association International, he has made strides in boosting support of tourism and the arts and developing research and training tools that can be used by local arts agencies and destination marketing organizations around the country to strengthen tourism programs.

In addition, he has spearheaded national economic impact studies on the impact of culturally-specific tourism on regional and local economies, as well as policy mechanisms, revenue generation strategies, cultural districting, capital improvement and cultural infrastructure projects that help local municipalities and state governments enhance liveability and attract new businesses and tourists.

The U.S. Travel and Tourism Advisory Board serves as the advisory body to the Secretary of Commerce on matters relating to the travel and tourism industry in the United States. The Board consists of up to 32 members that advise the Secretary of Commerce on government policies and programs that affect the U.S. travel and tourism industry, offers counsel on current and emerging issues, and provides a forum for discussing and proposing solutions to industry-related problems.

Americans for the Arts and The United States Conference of Mayors presented 2012 Public Leadership in the Arts Awards to Illinois Governor Pat Quinn; Burnsville, MN Mayor Elizabeth Kautz; and Pembroke Pines, FL Mayor Frank Ortis today. In addition, Emmy Award®-winning actress Holland Taylor was honored with the 2012 Legendary Artist Award.

The awards honor elected officials and artists who have demonstrated outstanding leadership in the advancement of the arts. Americans for the Arts and The United States Conference of Mayors have given out the awards annually since 1997.

Throughout his public service career, Governor Pat Quinn has been a strong and vocal supporter of the arts and arts education and has remained committed to ensuring that all Illinois residents have meaningful opportunities to experience and participate in the arts. His leadership contributed to the passage of the Live Theatre Production Tax Credit Act for Illinois. Through the use of the credit, the State of Illinois has created a tool that allows the City and State to further develop Illinois as a leader in theatrical tourism. Governor Quinn included arts related projects in the Illinois Jobs Now! capital program, including a new Performing Arts Center at Western Illinois University that will create 400 jobs.

Mayor Elizabeth Kautz has insisted that art play a major role in the highly successful Heart of the City – a mixed use redevelopment project in Burnsville’s revived downtown area. In addition, she is a prime supporter of the annual city Art and All That Jazz Festival that attracts over 10,000 music fans to an outdoor concert setting. She was a central proponent of the city’s $20 million Performing Arts Center, which was constructed without any new taxes, relying instead on revenues from the Tax Increment Financing and landfill host feels.

Recognizing that the arts were the key to Pembroke Pines’ vitality, Mayor Frank Ortis made it his mission to build arts and cultural resources into the city. His efforts include visionary initiatives to invest in much-needed infrastructure, including theater, classroom and studio space, as well as increasing opportunities for residents of all ages to enjoy and participate in the arts. He has been instrumental in the establishment of arts resources in Pembroke Pines, including Studio 18.

Holland Taylor’s career has spanned more than four decades. She has worked extensively in film and television, appearing in Romancing the Stone, Jewel of the Nile, To Die For, Next Stop Wonderland, One Fine Day, George of the Jungle, The Truman Show, Keeping the Faith, Legally Blonde, and Baby Mama. On television, she has been nominated for an Emmy Award® seven times, winning Best Supporting Actress in a Drama for her popular rose Judge Roberta Kittleson on The Practice. Her numerous series starring roles include The Powers that Be, Bosom Buddies, and currently, Two and a Half Men. She has performed narrations for the Los Angeles Philharmonic with Essa-Pekka Salonen and John Adams, and narrated the "Harry Potter Suite," for John Williams at the Chicago Symphony Orchestra.

To learn more about the awards and see previous winners, please visit AmericansfortheArts.org.

In this current economic environment, businesses are continually seeking new ways to build their competitive advantage. To help them reach this goal, Americans for the Arts has launched The pARTnership Movement, a new initiative designed to create mutually beneficial partnerships between arts and business institutions.

The Movement demonstrates how the arts can help business achieve these goals by enhancing the critical thinking, team building, and creative skills of the corporate workforce while also enhancing communities to attract and retain employees. In addition, it prepares arts organizations to partner with businesses in new and innovative ways.

To help businesses better understand the myriad benefits of partnering with an arts organization, The pARTnership Movement—working with local arts agencies across the country—will place ads with major newspapers, magazines, and other publications that demonstrate how partnering with the arts enhances critical thinking skills and creativity within the workforce as well as strengthens community engagement.

The website gives a comprehensive description of the benefits partnering with the arts brings, provides numerous case studies and creates a one-stop shop for building out connections in the community; provides companies with a thorough overview of how and why the arts can help them realize business goals; and includes a zip code finder that will allow businesses to easily locate Americans for the Arts’ member arts organizations across the country that are ready to partner.

The Movement also offers arts organizations the tools they need to more effectively partner with the businesses in their communities including: case studies that showcase innovative ideas and program concepts and multi-channel aspects to highly successful partnerships that deepen over time; information on creating a solid business proposition for partnering with the arts and making an initial request; opportunities to connect with business leaders, gleaning valuable tips directly from the source; and chances to network with and learn from peers.

On Friday, the U.S. House of Representatives passed the final budget agreement for FY 2012, which includes $146.255 million in funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH). On Saturday morning, the same bill passed the U.S. Senate and moves to the desk of President Obama for his signature. 

The $146,255 million appropriation is identical to President Obama's proposed budget, a cut of nearly $9 million from FY 2011, and is a compromise between the House of Representatives number of $135 million and the Senate number of $155 million as previously considered by their respective subcommittees.

Also included in this bill is $24.596 million in funding for the Arts in Education programs at the U.S. Department of Education, which had been zeroed-out in a previous proposal in the House. 

This concludes the prolonged Congressional negotiations for the FY 2012 budget and prevents a government shutdown. 
After the New Year, Congress will begin considering the FY 2013 budget. Join us in Washington, DC for National Arts Advocacy Day 2012 on April 16 - 17, 2012 to let your members of Congress know the arts are important to you and your communities!   Thank you for your support of the arts! Please help us continue this important work by becoming a free member of the Arts Action Fund.

YoungArts, the core program of the National Foundation for Advancement in the Arts, has announced that Americans for the Arts' President and CEO Robert L. Lynch is the recipient of their Leadership Award (PDF). YoungArts will also honor actor Robert Redford with the Arison Award and visual artist Doug Aitken with the Alumni Award. Lynch will receive his award on Saturday, January 14, 2012, at An Affair of the Arts Performance and Gala in Miami. Learn more.

YoungArts recognizes and supports America’s most talented 17-18 year olds in the visual, literary, and performing arts. It identifies emerging artists and assists them at critical junctures in their educational and professional development, raising the appreciation for, and support of, the arts in American society.

Join our first ever Local Arts Agency Blog Salon December 5-9 on ARTSblog as leaders in the field tackle questions about emerging trends, surviving the economic downturn, local collaboration, model programs, and more.

The following guest bloggers are generating and leading the discussion:

Wayne Andrews, Yoknapatawpha Arts Council
Jennifer Armstrong, Illinois State Arts Council
Roberto Bedoya, Tucson Pima Arts Council
Jan Brennan, Denver Office of Cultural Affairs
Marc Folk, Arts Commission of Greater Toledo
Derek Gordon, Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge
Maggie Guggenheimer, Piedmont Council for the Arts
Libby Maynard, Ink People
Jill McGuire, St. Louis Regional Arts Commission
Maria Munoz-Blanco, City of Dallas
Felix Padron, San Antonio Office of Cultural Affairs
Michael Spring, Miami-Dade County Department of  Cultural Affairs
Richard Stein, Arts Orange County
Sarah VanLanduyt, Arts Council of Johnson County
Will Maitland Weiss, Arts & Business Council of New York
Erin Williams, Worcester Cultural Coalition

The Salon begins at 10:00 a.m. EST on Monday, December 5 with new posts added throughout each day of the week.

Emmy Award®-winning TV, film and stage actor and arts advocate Alec Baldwin will deliver the 25th Annual Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy. This leading national forum for arts policy serves as an opportunity for public discourse at the highest levels on the importance of the arts and culture to our nation’s well-being. It will be held at 6:30 p.m. on April 16 at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Baldwin’s career has spanned more than three decades. He has appeared in more than 40 films, including such memorable film performances as Captain Ellerby in The Departed and Blake in Glengarry Glen Ross. His work also includes stage and television roles, including his record-breaking 15 times hosting Saturday Night Live and current role on 30 Rock, for which he has won two Emmy Awards®, two Golden Globe Awards® and two Screen Actors Guild Awards® for his role as Jack Donaghy. As a stalwart advocate for public policy and the arts, Baldwin currently serves on Americans for the Arts’ Artist Committee. In addition, he has also provided testimony before Congress on the essential role public funds play in promoting and sustaining the arts industry.

Click here to reserve a ticket. Tickets will be available for pick up the night of the lecture at the Will Call Desk in front of the Concert Hall at the Kennedy Center.

This past Tuesday was Election Day across the nation, and the  Americans for the Arts Action Fund has compiled a  Post-Election Impact on the Arts Report of this week's state and local elections, and what impact they may have on the arts. With Election Day 2012 now less than one year away, the Arts Action Fund is officially kicking off ArtsVote2012.

The Arts Action Fund wants to educate all presidential and congressional candidates that an investment in the arts is:

• an investment in the growth of our American economy
• an investment in jobs that cannot be outsourced abroad
• an investment in well-rounded education for our children, and
• an investment in our national culture and heritage

Read more on the Americans for the Arts Action Fund website. 

The broad theme for our first ever Animating Democracy Blog Salon is the current and future role of the arts, culture, and design in cultivating civic engagement and creating a sense of place on a local level. What principles should we hold onto and what are the shifts that need to occur? Join the Animating Democracy Blog Salon November 7-11.

Then, come back for our Private Sector Blog Salon November 14-18 for a discussion about the new landscape of arts and business partnerships as the arts are being more deeply integrated in business strategy to benefit workforce development, recruitment and retention, management training, creative problem-solving, and community engagement.

Kerry Washington, the star of the ABC drama Scandalwill be greeting and serving fans from 3:00-5:00 pm at Sprinkles Cupcakes in Georgetown to raise funds for Americans for the Arts. All the proceeds from Sprinkles Red Velvet cupcakes purchased from October 29 to November 6 will go towards Americans for the Arts. Sprinkles Cupcakes is located at 3015 M Street,  NW. Kerry said "I'm just going to kind of hang out on Saturday and meet some fans of Sprinkles, and fans of Americans for the Arts and maybe one or two fans of Kerry Washington, and have a good time.”

 

The U.S. Senate Interior Appropriations Subcommittee has proposed level funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities at $155 million for Fiscal Year 2012. Americans for the Arts provided testimony to the subcommittee earlier this year calling for NEA funding at $167.5 million.

This draft appropriations bill is not expected to be considered by the subcommittee as time is running out for Congress to complete FY12 appropriations work. Currently the Senate is trying to pass a “minibus” funding bill which includes spending for a few departments (including transportation and commerce). If that effort is successful, then the Interior bill may be included in a second "minibus" effort. These efforts are designed to avoid an end-of-year showdown with a larger “omnibus” bill.

The appropriations status in the House remains unclear at this moment. An amendment to strike $10 million from the House Interior Subcommittee mark of $135 was defeated on the floor in late July, but that was the last vote on the uncompleted Interior bill. That measure remains in limbo until the House determines how they will move their own bills and reconcile them with the Senate versions.

No timeline has been established for this reconciliation process, though with the Continuing Resolution set to expire on November 18 the appropriations process should be moving forward soon.

On October 17, Americans for the Arts presented the 2011 National Arts Awards in New York City.

This year’s honorees were:

• Frank Stella - Isabella & Theodor Dalenson Lifetime Achievement Award
• Beverley Taylor Sorenson - Eli & Edythe Broad Award for Philanthropy in the Arts
• Jenny Holzer - Outstanding Contributions to the Arts Award
• President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities - Arts Education Award
• Gabourey Sidibe - Bell Family Foundation Young Artist Award
• Wells Fargo & Company - Corporate Citizenship in the Arts Award

The annual awards recognize those artists and arts leaders who exhibit exemplary national leadership and whose work demonstrates extraordinary artistic achievement.

They are organizations and individuals—artists, business leaders, and patrons—who understand that the arts and arts education enrich people and communities alike.

Americans for the Arts is hosting a national Creative Conversation webinar titled, "Community Engagement in the Arts," from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. EST on October 25, 2011.

The webinar will address how communities can leverage their local arts resources to engage residents and increase participation in community events. Conversation participants will see examples of how arts leaders are getting creative with community engagement and connecting the arts with larger community initiatives. In addition, participants will have the opportunity to discuss ideas for enhancing engagement in their own community as well as the myriad opportunities and challenges arts organizations experience when they collaborate with their local community leaders.
 
Americans for the Arts’ Creative Conversations program brings together local arts and community leaders to discuss challenges and issues regarding the arts in their communities and generate increased energy around the grassroots movement to elevate the profile of the arts in America. Creative Conversations are part of National Arts and Humanities Month, the nation's largest collective annual celebration of the arts.

Those interested in attending other Creative Conversations can visit our interactive map detailing where Creative Conversations are taking place across the country.

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE MicrosoftInternetExplorer4 /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} One of America's fastest growing Italian wines, KRIS, is teaming with Americans for the Arts as part of its second annual "Art of Education" program. KRIS will award 16 schools in the United States a total of $25,000 to improve academic achievement through quality arts education.

When the program concludes on November 30, the school with the winning number of votes will be awarded $5,000. The next five schools receiving the top number of votes will receive $2,000. Schools that rank sixth through 16th in total number of votes will receive $1,000. Visit KRIS Wine's Facebook page to vote for your favorite K-12 public school to win funding for arts education programs. Participants must be 21 years or older and can vote up to one time per day for multiple schools throughout the duration of the program.

"Over the last several years we've seen a significant decrease for arts funding in our nation's public schools," said Robert L. Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts. "This is an alarming trend given the well documented and far-reaching benefits a quality education in the arts provides. Students who engage in arts programs are more literate, exhibit better school attendance and achieve higher grades in all subjects. School leaders and business leaders alike, when surveyed, say that arts in the schools leads to creativity and creativity is what is needed in America's 21st century workers. We are grateful to have a partner such as KRIS Wine that understands the important role art plays in our lives and the welfare of our communities."

KRIS winemaker and seven-time Gambero Rosso "Tre Bicchieri" award winner, Franz Haas, is passionate about the arts. Haas not only considers winemaking an art in itself, but also brings art to the exterior of his wines with labels designed by Italian artist and long-time family friend, Riccardo Schweizer (1925-2004). Schweizer, who studied under Pablo Picasso and Joan Miro, showcases his modern, expressive style in the unique and timeless KRIS labels.

"We are very excited to support the advancement of arts education programs for young people," said Haas. "As our family has created hand-crafted wines for seven generations, we understand and appreciate the importance of artistic production in determining the ultimate character of our wines."