10/17/2005
Contact:
Beth Olsen
Goodman Media for Americans for the Arts
212.576.2700 ext. 243
Will Maitland Weiss to Serve as Executive Director of Arts & Business Council of New York
Washington, DC —October 17, 2005—Americans for the Arts, the nation’s leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts in America, named Will Maitland Weiss as the new executive director of the Arts & Business Council of New York, an arts and business partnership association devoted to stimulating alliances benefiting both the arts and business sectors and the communities that they serve. Weiss will oversee the New York programs of Business Volunteers for the Arts, the National Arts Marketing Project, Cultural Tourism re-grants, and the Encore Awards to corporate and arts leaders. The Arts & Business Council of New York is a division of Americans for the Arts.
“Will’s vast experience in management and communications for the arts in New York City will be a great asset to this organization,” stated Robert L. Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts.
“His close ties to New York’s arts and business leaders, his extensive strategic planning skills and his proven success in connecting to the private sector make him the obvious choice for the position,” added Gary Steuer, vice president for Private-Sector Affairs at Americans for the Arts.
Before joining the Arts & Business Council of New York, Weiss served as director of The Center for Creative Resources, a nonprofit firm providing development, marketing, and management services to small and midsized arts organizations and individual artists’ projects. Prior to that, he spent five years as vice president of development and communications for New York’s City Center, where he successfully increased its annual fundraising and sales income and secured more than $14 million in capital funding. Weiss spent 10 years as deputy director of development for the New York City Opera, where he oversaw a staff of 14 and annually raised more than $11 million. He spent four years as managing director of CSC Repertory, an off-Broadway theater, and five years with the American Stage Festival. Weiss has been a guest lecturer on nonprofit management for Brown University and New York University.
Americans for the Arts is the nation's leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts in America. With more than 40 years of service, it is dedicated to representing and serving local communities and creating opportunities for every American to participate in and appreciate all forms of the arts. The Arts & Business Council of Americans for the Arts promotes partnerships between the arts and business. Its major national programs include Business Volunteers for the Arts®; the National Arts Marketing Project, sponsored by American Express; and the MetLife Foundation National Arts Forum Series. For more information, visit www.AmericansForTheArts.org.
The Arts & Business Council of New York, a division of Americans for the Arts, stimulates partnerships between business and the arts that strengthen the New York community. It accomplishes this mission with programs that promote voluntarism, build arts management capacity, gather and disseminate relevant information, and advocate closer ties between business and the arts. A strong, vital arts community is essential to a healthy business climate, and arts organizations must be well managed to accomplish their artistic goals. Business can offer the arts more than financial resources by sharing management skills. Forging these mutually beneficial relationships in New York is critical to our long-term vitality and growth.
Established as a result of the merger of operations with Americans for the Arts in 2005, the Arts & Business Council of New York brings to its work the legacy and knowledge of 40 years of serving the community, now combined with the resources, history, and reputation of Americans for the Arts, the nation’s leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts in America.
