americans for the arts news

• George Irwin—recipient of the Selina Roberts Ottum Award for making a meaningful contribution to the arts through local arts leadership.
• Julia Kirt—recipient of the Emerging Leader Award for her innovative thinking, a commitment to the advancement of the arts and exemplary leadership.
• Joan Adams Mondale—recipient of the Public Art Network Award for her creative contributions and commitment in the field of public art.
• Marilyn Moosnick—recipient of the Michael Newton Award for leadership in united arts fundraising for efforts to raise money for multiple community arts institutions.
• The New Victory Theater—recipient of the Arts Education Award for changing public education through the arts, and producing the visible results to be seen as a national leader in the field of arts education.
• Judith Kaufman Weiner—recipient of the Alene Valkanas State Arts Advocacy Award for affecting the political landscape through arts advocacy efforts at the state level.

Peggy Amsterdam also received the Ray Hanley Innovation Award for her outstanding contribution to arts and culture in Philadelphia. Congratulations to all the winners who continue to inspire us with their passion and perseverance.  Additional information on the honorees is available in the Press Room.

While director of Arts Councils of America, Mr. Burgard wrote “Arts in the City” (1968), a book in which he argued that decentralized, local cultural institutions “rooted in local history and traditions” could transform not just towns and cities, but also neighborhoods in large urban areas.

“I’ve always believed that the arts are the antennae of the human race,” Mr. Burgard wrote.

Two years after publishing the book he started Burgard Associates, a planning company that helped develop arts programs in several cities, including Charlotte, N.C., and Santa Cruz, Calif.

Concerned about the lack of arts education for children in poor communities, Mr. Burgard started the A+ Schools Program in 1988. Its comprehensive arts curriculum is now offered to 18,000 students in 42 public schools in North Carolina.

Visit the campaign’s homepage at www.AmericansForTheArts.org/public_awareness to view all the ads, get information from the Online Resource Center, and learn how you can be a local partner in the campaign.

The 2008 MetLife Foundation National Arts Forum Series—New Frameworks for The Changing Face of America—looks at how both arts and business are addressing the issue of increasing diversity in this country as it relates to workforce development, leadership and management, and product offerings through a new theory being advanced by keynote speaker, author and cultural analyst Patricia Martin.  The first event in each series will feature Martin; the second forum will be a follow-up discussion among community arts and business leaders tailored specifically to each community.

For more information and a schedule of Forums, visit: MetLife Foundation National Arts Forum Series

Patricia Martin's book, RenGen: The Rise of the Cultural Consumer and What It Means to Your Business, is available in the Americans for the Arts store.

For more information, visit: www.americansforthearts.org/events/2008/convention/default.asp.

In this provocative lecture, Pink makes what he calls a “hard-headed case for arts education.”  He explains how three powerful forces in the economy are making logical, linear, rule-based, “left-brain” abilities necessary in the workforce, but no longer sufficient.  And he shows how these three forces—what he calls abundance, Asia, and automation—are making artistic, empathic, big picture, “right brain” abilities the most important abilities in just about every profession in industry.

Daniel Pink’s books A Whole New Mind and A Free Agent Nation are available in the Americans for the Art Store.

For information, transcripts, and podcasts of previous Hanks lectures, visit here: http://www.artsusa.org/events/nancyhanks.asp

Keynote and plenary speakers include:

• Ed Keller—CEO, Keller Fay Group and word-of-mouth guru
• Karen Brooks Hopkins—President, Brooklyn Academy of Music
• Alan Brown—Principal, WolfBrown
• Patricia Martin—President, LitLamp Communications Group, Inc.

Also on November 8, two preconferences are offered: The Pricing Institute and Sponsorship Bootcamp.

For more information, visit: http://www.artsusa.org/events/2008/abc/namc/default.asp

• Robert Redford
• John Legend
• Kerry Washington
• Jonathan Spector
• Honolulu Mayor Mufi Hannemann
• Robert L. Lynch

And be sure send your member of Congress a message on Arts Advocacy Day: http://www.capwiz.com/artsusa/home/

The entire Creative Industries 2008: The 50 City Report, as well as additional reports on states and U.S. Congressional Districts, are available online at: www.AmericansforTheArts.org/CreativeIndustries.

A list of participants and the full recommendations report is available online at
www.AmericansForTheArts.org/go/PolicyRoundtable.

Each year, Americans for the Arts and NLGA present a Public Leadership in the Arts Award to a lieutenant governor who demonstrates outstanding leadership in the advancement of the arts at the state level. Read more...

New This Year
For 2008, the NAMP Conference is about fundraising too! In addition to the marketing track, there is now a fundraising track, and a track focusing on where the two areas interact. We encourage you to propose sessions in marketing, fundraising, or the intersection of both. Topics of interest include: branding, social networking, sponsorships, young philanthropists, dynamic copywriting, loyalty programs, and more!

You can share your experience in any format-choose from three types of sessions. Applications for conference sessions, exemplary practices presentations, and roundtable discussions will be accepted. Americans for the Arts welcomes proposals from:

Each track will be divided into two levels:

• 101 Level for beginner/intermediate skill level and small organizations
• 201 Level for intermediate/advanced skill level and larger organizations

View the entire session proposal document and more information on the conference.

Watch the website for registration and hotel information along with the program.

"On the heels of signing the largest Congressionally-initiated funding increase for the arts in 28 years, President Bush has proposed a senseless $16.3 million cut for FY 2009 for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)—from $144.7 million to $128.4 million. After three years of minimal, but incremental, funding growth, we are sorry to see an attempt at this progress erased. Americans for the Arts calls on Congress to restore full funding to the NEA at its FY 1992 level of $176 million .... In May 2007, the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee, led by Chairman Norm Dicks (D-WA), approved $160 million in funding for the NEA—$32 million more than the White House’s FY2008 proposal. We applaud Congress for its continued and significant support of federal arts and culture funding."

To read the full statement visit the Press Room. For more information on the FY 2009 budget, visit the online Arts Action Center.