Americans for the Arts

Theresa Cameron

Perseverance and imagination.

These are two words that successfully describe what rural and small arts organizations continually do.

I was once again reminded of this first-hand as I listened to the rural and small arts organization peer group discussion at our Annual Convention in San Diego last week.

It’s been a few years since Americans for the Arts held a rural and small local arts agencies gathering and attendees were excited to talk to, and learn from, each other.

A sketch of Jean by blog post author Hoong Yee.

I love listening to smart women and being surrounded by many of them this weekend at the Americans for the Arts Convention in San Diego. There are ballrooms filled with people who are committed to working in the arts and with the arts to make life better.

Of course we know how the arts affect how we live together in this world. We are the arts people. However, I often forget that sometimes we need to think of ourselves as creative industries and creative exports especially when working in a global mindset.

After I stumbled out of the sunlight, properly caffeinated and ready to begin my conference blogging for the day, I  found myself in a session entitled, "Building Bridges: International Cultural Exchange" featuring two innovators, Jean A. Bonilla and Stephanie A. Madden. 

Lex Leifheit

It’s almost here … the “Half  Century Summit.” Sounds impressive, doesn’t it? What can one see from the summit? Where does one go?

In the arts sector, most of us haven’t had the privilege of a summit perspective for a long while. I think that’s changing, and at this summit I’m surveying the landscape for tales from the field: others, like me, who have broken through to the Other Side:

• the Other Side of leadership, moving from emerging leader to executive or artistic director.
• the Other Side of recession, taking advantage of new funding, partnerships and earned income strategies to expand programming.
• the Other Side of advocacy, having successfully made a case to preserve and increase government funding.
• the Other Side of Client Relationship Management, utilizing cloud-based audience development strategies (yes I’m a geek)
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Tim Mikulski

By a mere 8 votes in the House of Representatives, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) FY2011 budget was cut down to $124.5 million yesterday-the same level of funding as FY2007.

Rep. Tim Walberg’s (R-MI) amendment passed 217-209, but it wasn’t a case of party line politics as 23 Republicans voted against the measure and 3 Democrats voted in favor of it.

The good news is that the two amendments to eliminate the NEA altogether were introduced, but never offered up for a vote by the sponsors on Thursday. That is a testament to the advocacy efforts  of the arts community and the strong supporters for the arts in the Congress, including Rep. Louise Slaughter (D-NY), who gamely handed our Creative Industries maps out to House members on the floor before the vote.