Americans for the Arts

On February 8, Americans for the Arts launched our Arts Mobilization Center, which serves as a hub for all of our position papers. The Mobilization Center is available to the public and is intended to be a tool to help you advocate for the arts.

Then, to help our members be the most effective advocates they can be, we launched a regular member briefing series on March 23. These are 30 minute calls available exclusively to members around a specific issue statement, topic area, or program update. During each call, Americans for the Arts senior staff members and I provide background on a given topic, then we take your questions live!

The calls are a great opportunity to really zero in on the areas of expertise that our staff has to offer—I’ve learned a lot about the nuances of our advocacy work on the calls, in part through hearing the questions and comments from our smart, informed, and engaged member base! Our members are engaging with these issues on the ground, so we learn as much from the questions you ask as you do from our answers. I’ve heard our staff provide customized advocacy advice, share research tips and tricks, and preview new programming directly to members on the phone.

So far we’ve addressed:

• Americans for the Arts’ Strategy for Defending the NEA,
• Arts, Jobs, and the Economy,
• Arts & the Affordable Care Act, and
• Tax Reform and the Charitable Deduction;

and coming up we’ll chat about:

• Arts and Education,
• Arts, Immigration, and Sanctuary Cities,
• An Update on Americans for the Arts’ Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Work, and
• a Deep Dive into Arts & Economic Prosperity 5 (AEP5).

We have at least one chat each month, but we’ll add them in on an as-needed basis when we release new issue statements and have policy updates for you.

Each conversation is archived for members only and includes a follow-up email for all registrants (whether they joined the call live or not) that provides a summary of the call, links to all of the resources we mention, and information about our recommended action items.

Register for a call, check out an archive, and reach out to me if you have any questions or suggestions. Not an #AFTAmember? You can join Americans for the Arts for as little as $30 and get FREE, on-demand access to all of the member briefings, plus access to our library of archived professional development resources on ArtsU and opportunities to engage directly with other members online and in person.

Hope to chat with you soon!

Bridget Woodbury is a member of Americans for the Arts.