2020 Council Elections: Voting for Advisory Council Members is Now Open!

Voting Closes November 23 at 1:00 PM ET

Monday, November 9, 2020

Americans for the Arts wants you to elect art professionals from the field to serve on one of four network advisory councils: Arts Education, Emerging Leaders, Private Sector, and Public Art. Voting closes November 23, 2020 at 1:00 PM ET and is restricted to members of Americans for the Arts at the Colleague level or higher. 

Americans for the Arts Encourages National Arts and Humanities Month Participation Through #ShowYourArt2020 Social Media Campaign Celebrating the Power and Diversity of Arts in Our Lives

Wednesday, September 23, 2020

NAHM Show Your Art
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Americans for the Arts today announced its October celebration of National Arts and Humanities Month, a coast-to-coast collective celebration of culture in America. In this turbulent year, the arts and humanities have played a critically important role in getting us through the COVID-19 pandemic and in amplifying the need for racial equity across the country. National Arts & Humanities Month is the time for communities to come together in unified celebration of the power of the arts to make a difference and change our lives for the better.


Mrs. Kelly Fey Bolender


Rena A. Cohen

10 (Newer!) Arts Education Fast Facts

Posted by Mrs. Kelly Fey Bolender, Rena A. Cohen, Sep 18, 2020


Mrs. Kelly Fey Bolender


Rena A. Cohen

During this year’s National Arts in Education Week celebration, we’ve heard hundreds of #BecauseOfArtsEd stories from students, parents, and educators about the transformative power of the arts in education. The stories we share demonstrate the social and emotional impact of the arts, and are a vital part of effective advocacy. Great stories should be paired with compelling data and facts to help round out your advocacy strategy. In honor of the 10th anniversary of National Arts in Education Week, we’ve put together 10 new fast facts—exclusively featuring data collected within the last five years—illustrating the benefits of, support for, and challenges facing arts education in America today. You can put these facts to good use as part of your personal advocacy plan to make the case for arts education in your local schools and communities. 

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Anthony Beatrice


Ruth C. Mercado-Zizzo

Boston Public Schools Arts Educators Creatively Meet the Moment

Posted by Anthony Beatrice, Ruth C. Mercado-Zizzo, Sep 16, 2020


Anthony Beatrice


Ruth C. Mercado-Zizzo

Within a week of Boston Public Schools closing its schools due to COVID-19, the district’s nearly 300 BPS visual and performing arts educators quickly shifted to offering remote learning in the arts. The creativity, responsiveness, and community approach educators brought to this task have ensured the arts remain a priority for our students during the spring and moving forward into the new school year. Within days of school closures, BPS visual and performing arts educators congregated on our first Zoom meeting to take stock of the moment and build a plan going forward. In a traffic-jammed city where it can take over an hour to get from one neighborhood to another, meeting online quickly turned into a silver lining, creating a new outlet for collaboration and camaraderie. Discussions rapidly led to an action plan focused on pedagogy and approaches that would make arts learning relevant and sharing resources to do so.

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Abigail Alpern Fisch

Member Spotlight: ArtsEd Washington

Posted by Abigail Alpern Fisch, Sep 15, 2020


Abigail Alpern Fisch

ArtsEd Washington is a nonprofit organization dedicated to making arts education equitable and accessible to every K-12 student in Washington State. Danielle Gahl has been the Executive Director since 2017, but beginning in September 2020, she will be stepping down from that role and continue to run Internal Operations for the organization. Courtney Clark stepped up from the organization’s Board and became the Interim Executive Director in July 2020 after being furloughed during COVID-19 from Seattle Opera as the School Programs Manager. “It’s easy to send out an email that tells everybody what you’re doing; it’s a lot harder to do it. We’ve been focusing our efforts for a while now on walking the walk before we start talking the talk. ... The work of ArtsEd Washington is an everchanging landscape as the world of education is ever evolving. We choose to advocate through an equitable lens of equality that The Arts Matter! And FOR All!” 

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Josh Groban and Lindy Groban

Letters from Josh Groban and his mother, Lindy, in support of Arts Education

Posted by Josh Groban and Lindy Groban, Sep 14, 2020


Josh Groban and Lindy Groban

When I write to you about the importance of the arts, I know full well that I am preaching to a large and supportive choir. But we are living in unique times. We are fighting inequality, cynicism, otherism, disconnect, disease. The arts have the powerful ability to remind us who we are, to remind us how to celebrate our similarities as well as our differences. So to you, the choir, I write to you because now more than ever we need to sing our loudest. Without the arts, stories like mine, and millions more, will go untold. The connectivity that makes us who we are, that releases the better angels of our nature, will fade into the dark. Americans for the Arts is here to ensure that we never fade. They are fighting that fight from the capitol building to the streets. They are working to ensure that the mission of the arts, the millions of jobs they provide, the heartbeat they give our humanity, the spark they give our youth, is never muted. 

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Nominations Open for Advisory Council Members

Tuesday, September 1, 2020

Do you or someone you know want to support and advise Americans for the Arts on the services we provide to the field? If yes, we invite you to nominate yourself or a colleague for one of Americans for the Arts’ Advisory Councils! Nomination deadline is Sept. 21, 2020.


Rena A. Cohen

Adaptation and Reimagination: Engaging Youth in Arts and Social Justice Virtually

Posted by Rena A. Cohen, Jul 30, 2020


Rena A. Cohen

As public health guidelines limited social gatherings and encouraged social distancing, arts education and social justice programs needed to reconsider their traditional in-person activities—creating a collaborative activist mural, for example, or performing an original play—for the safety of their communities. How did they bring together young people in meaningful, socially engaged arts experiences without being together physically? I had the opportunity to speak with representatives from three organizations who have fearlessly navigated the complicated world of re-envisioning onstage performances, keeping students of various ages engaged over Zoom, and creating a sense of community among young people who may have never met in person. In their interviews, each leader explained how their organization has adapted and reimagined programs to engage youth in arts and social justice virtually and offered insight on how your community can do the same.

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Introducing the Arts Education Action Kit: Make the Case for Arts Education In Your Schools

Monday, July 13, 2020

The kit features information on advocacy strategies, messaging, and research to improve the availability and quality of arts education in schools and communities. With these resources, anyone can become an arts education advocate and make the case for why arts education is essential.

New York City’s 2021 Budget Slashes Already Modest Funding for Public-School Arts Education by 70 Percent

Monday, July 6, 2020

Kelly Garcia’s art class at Manhattan Bridges High School. Photo by Kelly Garcia.
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New York City's budget plan for the 2021 fiscal year includes devastating cuts to art education in the city’s public schools, despite a celebrity-backed campaign, Arts are Essential, to keep funding in place. These funding cuts further deprive all students of receiving an equitable education through the public school system. 

Arts Education Network

2020 Honoree -

Biography

Americans for the Arts Honors Six Arts Leaders for Enriching Communities Through the Arts

Wednesday, June 24, 2020

Americans for the Arts logo
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Americans for the Arts announced today the recipients of the 2020 Americans for the Arts Leadership Awards at Americans for the Arts’ digital Annual Convention and Public Art & Civic Design Conference. Given annually, the awards recognize the achievements of individuals and organizations committed to enriching their communities through the arts.

Helen Eaton Honored with Arts Education Award

Americans for the Arts Annual Leadership Awards presented as part of Annual Convention + Public Art & Civic Design Conference

Friday, June 19, 2020

Helen Eaton has served as Settlement Music School’s CEO since 2010. One of the largest community schools of the arts in the country, Settlement has a 112-year history of arts education without barriers, providing over $2.6 million in financial aid every year to its students. 

Registration Open for Virtual Summer Conferences

Tuesday, May 26, 2020

Registration is now open for the 2020 Annual Convention and Public Art & Civic Design Conference! This newly virtual convening, happening June 23-25 from the comfort of your home, is the chance for arts leaders across the country to gather virtually and better understand the current health crisis, how we are responding to it, and how the arts field can move toward recovery. 

Weekly Web Roundup: April 13-17, 2020

Friday, April 17, 2020

This week, we invited you to join a virtual roundtable conversation with three local arts agency leaders, made plans for virtual celebrations of the arts, and opened registration for the online version of our National Arts Action Summit—because even a pandemic can’t cancel the need for the arts! 

Student Organization Launches ‘Worldwide Day of Gratitude’ to Honor COVID-19 Heroes Through the Arts

Thursday, April 16, 2020

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Music has long served as a unifying force during challenging times. For Worldwide Day of Gratitude, teachers and students of all ages, as well as the general public, are invited to learn and share the iconic Bill Withers song “Lean on Me,” which has emerged as a rallying cry for the COVID-19 pandemic. 

National Arts Action Summit Goes Digital – Register Now!

Monday, April 13, 2020

Americans for the Arts presents a brand-new experience for arts advocates to engage virtually at the first ever National Arts Action Digital Summit with three plenary and ten issue-specific webinars live April 27 to May 1, 2020. 

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