professional membership
2007 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.
In an effort to forge a greater connection with their constituents, the Iowa Arts Council is taking their show on the road. This week they kicked off their Office on the Road program, traveling to Dubuque, IA, to meet with constituents. Two Iowa Arts Council (IAC) staff members meet with anyone who wants to talk on a first-come-first-served basis for 20—30 minutes each. "We know a face-to-face meeting can be more effective than emailing or phone calls," IAC Administrator Mary Sundet Jones said. "So we're going around the state to meet with those who don't have the time or means to visit our offices in Des Moines."
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Public art has a unique ability to reflect a community. The attitudes, heritage, humor, or spirit of a community comes alive in public places through paintings, sculpture, text-based works, or electronic media. This mirror image is often a product of involving community members in selection panels or as part of design review. In some cases, however, the connection is deeper, stemming from the roots of the community itself. That is the case with Poetry on Buses, a biannual project of 4Culture, the cultural services organization of King County, WA, located in Seattle. Started in 1992, Poetry on Buses was conceived to acknowledge the region’s many readers and writers. It features poems submitted by local poets—amateur and professional, student and adult—posted throughout the King County Metro bus fleet. Read more »
Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts
When the Baltimore Office of Promotion and the Arts (BOPA) set out to find a unique way to celebrate National Arts and Humanities Month, they thought big—very big. As in, more than 300 free arts events during October all over the city. Free Fall Baltimore is a collaboration of more than 85 arts organization in the Baltimore, MD area working together to present performances, lectures, exhibits, workshops, and hands-on creative experiences at no cost to the public. From special events and performances on select days to admission all season long at certain museums and historic sites, there is literally something to do for free every day. Read more »
With baby boomers starting to hit their 60s and medical advancements improving daily, America’s population will become more and more silver in the next couple of decades. It is widely known that this shift will that have an effect on the arts in terms of staff changes, but few in the arts have considered how it will affect programming. A few organizations are ahead of the curve, creating programs for aging adults. Montclair Arts Council in Montclair, NJ, started the Creative Aging Initiative this year, an innovative two-part program for Montclair's seniors, senior-care providers, and interested members of the public. The project's goal is to enrich the lives of the elderly through engagement with the arts, and to proclaim and support their primary place in the community. Read more »
Just over the river from Harlem and a few blocks from Yankee Stadium, Grand Concourse serves as a main street for residents of the South Bronx. Over the years, galleries, art centers, and theaters have sprung up, lining the thoroughfare and the surrounding neighborhood. When Bronx Council on the Arts (BCA) initiated strategic plan for creative economic development a few years ago, the area, with a core of arts-related businesses already in place, was a natural fit for becoming the heart of the plan; the South Bronx Cultural Corridor was born. This “Gateway to the New Bronx” was designed to be a catalyst for fostering creativity through a network of community support, maintaining a strong creative presence in the neighborhood, and branding the neighborhood with cultural vibrancy for both residents and visitors. Read more »
Talk of healthcare reform seems to be everywhere these days. In movies, newspapers, and on TV, buzzwords and statistics fly from the mouths of politicians, celebrities, and journalists. Surely you’ve heard the headline: 46 million Americans are uninsured. Among the uninsured are far too many of our peers in the arts field, with artists being the hardest hit. Many arts service organizations do what they can to assist artists in supporting themselves, but with limited resources themselves, providing health care for artists is often out of the question. One artist service organization with a nationwide reach wants to change that reality. Fractured Atlas provides its members with affordable health care options for artists in all 50 states.
Read more »Palm Beach County Cultural Council
Last winter, people all over Palm Beach County, FL were getting together to talk. Though it may seem mundane, the nature of the conversations was anything but ordinary. Through a collaborative effort between community organizations, participants used Florida Stage’s production of Thomas Gibbons' play, A House with No Walls, to break the ice on the topic of race and ethnic relations in South Florida. Gibbon’s play depicts a clash that erupts when a new museum glorifying American liberty is slated to be built on a site where George Washington's slave quarters once stood. The discussions were not intended to spark enormous change on a large scale, but rather they aimed to simply put people together. A diverse cross-section of the community met in small groups to talk about their personal experiences—where they have been and where they want to go.
Read more »Alaska State Council on the Arts
In the state of Alaska, 14 percent of the population is American Indian or Alaska Native, compared to less than 1 percent of Americans nationwide. Community organizations in the state, including the Alaska State Council on the Arts (AKASCA), take serving the Native people of Alaska with great responsibility. Last October, AKASCA joined with the Alaska Native Heritage Center and numerous other Native arts organizations to sponsor the first Alaska Native Artist Summit. Read more »
This fall, the year looked grim for arts education in Milwaukee schools. At the beginning of this school year (2006–2007), 30 elementary schools in Milwaukee were without a licensed arts specialist on staff or even a traveling artist to serve multiple schools. That’s where Arts @ Large came in. Arts @ Large is a local arts education organization that develops partnerships between artists, arts organizations, and education institutions to enhance students’ opportunities for creativity. Jennifer Morales, board member of Milwaukee Public Schools, put forth an amendment to the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS) budget that provides $1 million in funding for arts education activities after school and during the summer. Though the grant money must be used before school starts next fall, Arts @ Large is wasting no time increasing MPS arts opportunities, moving forward to serve schools without arts and music specialists. Read more »
Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance
In late 2006, Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance published an outstanding report, the first of its kind in the country, that provides a comprehensive look at the arts in the Philadelphia area. The outcome of a statewide cultural data collection project, Portfolio illustrates a cultural sector that provides 14,000 jobs at 218 local arts organizations, 17,000 volunteer positions, and produces $573 million in annual revenue. "What we found were incredible levels of community engagement, broad accessibility, and a sector that produces tens of thousands of public activities on extremely tight budgets," said Peggy Amsterdam, president of the Cultural Alliance. "But we also identified many organizations that were struggling and could benefit from expanded resources and more diverse funding." Read more »
Massachusetts Cultural Council
In greater Boston, artists have a unique ally in one of the toughest and most expensive real estate markets in the country. ArtistLink, an initiative that focuses on the advancement of an artist space agenda in Massachusetts, was created in 2003 as a means of addressing the need for space to perform, practice, and create. A broker of information and an advocate for artists' needs, ArtistLink works with real estate developers, arts organizations, municipalities, and of course, artists. Read more »
