professional membership
Featured Members
Americans for the Arts members are truly diverse – from large arts organizations to small ones; from funders to presenters; from urban centers to rural outposts. Despite their differences, they share the common goal of advancing and promoting the arts in their communities. Featured Member Projects highlights some of the many interesting and innovative means our members are using to strengthen their communities through the arts.Are you an Americans for the Arts member who would like to see your organization and project featured on this page? If so, share your story with us.
Arts Council of Fairfax County
The Arts Council of Fairfax County will host children from China, Finland, Ghana, and Jordan as featured performers at the 38th annual International Children’s Festival. First conceived and produced in 1971 as International Children's Day, the International Children's Festival provides an opportunity for children throughout the world to share their cultures through the language of the arts. This is especially important since Fairfax County is one of the most diverse counties in the Washington metropolitan area. One of the originators of the festival was Catherine Filene Shouse, founder of Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts, the nation's only national park devoted solely to the performing arts. Read more »
The Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC), an agency of the Maryland Department of Business & Economic Development, recently announced Imagine Maryland: 2008–2013, a statewide community collaboration and cultural planning initiative to identify opportunities and ideas that will enhance the roles of the arts in Maryland in order to stimulate economic development, enhance quality of life, attract visitors, and nurture artists and arts organizations.
Read more »Massachusetts Department of Business Development
The state of Massachusetts has taken a bold step in recognizing the creative sector as a driving force in economic development. Governor Deval Patrick has appointed Jason Schupbach, formerly with the Massachusetts Cultural Council and a member of the Americans for the Arts Emerging Leader Council, as the Massachusetts Office of Business Development’s new Creative Economy Industry Director. The Office of Business Development is the first state-level economic development agency in the nation to embrace this innovative position, which parallels other positions dedicated to defense, biotechnology, information technology and manufacturing. Being placed on the same economic pedestal as these other powerful industries is an important step for the arts. Read more »
When the National Endowment for the Arts announced the American Masterpieces initiative, the Southern Arts Federation (SAF) considered what would fit the bill. SAF has a long history of touring exhibitions, and the Southern region is known for its craft and traditional art. So early this year, SAF launched Tradition/Innovation: American Masterpieces of Southern Craft and Traditional Art, a rich website companion to an exhibit touring nine states with the help of the American Masterpieces grant. Tradition/Innovation is a celebration of the contributions of master craftspeople and traditional artists in the South. Read more »
Bowling Green State University Public Art Committee
The Public Art Committee of Bowling Green State University wanted to create a class that would give upper-level undergraduate students the professional experience of competing for and producing a piece of commissioned public art from start to finish. Although administrators were told repeatedly that students would not be able to pull it off, they proceeded. Sculpture instructor Greg Mueller spearheaded the idea, offering with “The Poe Road Improvement Project” public art course in the fall of 2005.
St. Louis Regional Arts Commission
In an unprecedented collaboration, 19 cultural institutions in St. Louis, MO, will come together to increase ticket sales, museum memberships, and attract new audiences. Through DART, the database of the arts, the organizations will combine data from their ticket sales and memberships to develop profiles of arts buyers to whom they can target their efforts. Spearheaded by the St. Louis Regional Arts Commission (RAC), this initiative is the largest of its kind in the nation, based on similar but much smaller projects in Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Given the success of these first programs, DART certainly will not be the last. Read more »
Music making generates hundreds of millions of dollars for New York City’s economy each year. But music making is also a very tough business. The city’s professional musicians who are not associated with a well-financed music institution, an estimated 15,000 individuals, are profoundly affected by intense competition for rehearsal and performance spaces. Using an extensive online survey of musicians who perform in New York City and backed by a New York State Music Fund grant, NYC Performing Arts Spaces (NYCPAS) examined how the availability of rehearsal and performance space in the New York City area directly impacts musicians’ work patterns and productivity. With its survey and analysis, NYCPAS aimed to identify the space needs and consequent productivity constraints of professional performers, composers and music educators. Read more »
At the same time that arts organizations across the country are building gleaming, new performing arts centers like the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts in Miami, FL, and the Orange County Performing Artscenter in Costa Mesa, CA, many others are not so lucky. Nonprofit arts groups in the same communities still clamor for performance space, rehearsal locations, and meeting places. With its growing wealth in recent years, Washington, DC, has had the good fortune of building nine new, soaring performing arts palaces in as many years. So when the Shakespeare Theatre Company set out to build its second home, the impressive Sidney Harman Hall, and transform the company into a national destination, they didn't lose sight of their fellow arts groups. The new Harman Hall joins the Company's original Lansburgh Theatre to create the Harman Center for the Arts. The company has made both the Lansburgh Theatre and Harman Hall available as affordable, downtown arts venues for other arts organizations.
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