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2009 annual convention

A World-Class Metropolis in Stunning Natural Surroundings.

Americans for the Arts explored the possibilities of innovation and responsibility in the arts during our 2009 annual convention, Renewable Resources: Arts in Sustainable Communities. At this year's convention, Americans for the Arts saw more than 1,100 arts and community leaders arrive to reflect, rethink, and renew their ideas regarding cultural and creative sustainability. Please join us in thanking our Seattle hosts, speakers, and everyone else who helped make our convention such a success!

Featured Audio and Video

Pre-session Interview	Diverse Cultures Innovator With 10 nationally published books in memoir, fiction, nonfiction, children’s literature, and poetry, Luis J. Rodriguez has emerged as one of the leading Chicano writers in the country. Luis’s poetry has won a Poetry Center Book Award, a PEN Josephine Miles Literary Award, and Foreword magazine’s Silver Book Award, among others. His two children’s books have won a Patterson Young Adult Book Award, two Skipping Stones Honor Awards, and a Parent’s Choice Book Award, among others. Listen to the complete innovavtor session.

Pre-session Interview	Private Sector Innovator Dr. Akhtar Badshah, senior director of Global Community Affairs, sheds light on Microsoft’s overall community investment strategy; including how and why Microsoft is committed to funding the arts. Listen to the complete innovavtor session.

Post-session Interview	Public Advocacy Innovator As Chairman of the House of Representatives Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, Norm Dicks (D-WA) currently wields the gavel on the congressional panel that recently oversaw the largest increases for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) in 30 years. Listen to the complete innovavtor session.

Marty Ronish, producer of the BP Chicago Symphony Orchestra broadcasts and blogger for Scanning the Dial, joined us in Seattle for the 2009 Annual Convention. In this segment, she speaks with attendees who are among the many voices representing the arts in America.

In this segment, she speaks with arts leaders on the topic of how the arts can provide creative solutions in challenging economic times.

To request a transcript of this interview, please contact Marty at mronish@flash.net.

You can also recap the convention here:


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Annual Convention Photos

For more information about this program or any Americans for the Arts programs and services, please contact us by e-mail or call us at 202.371.2830