How Americans for the Arts Works in this Space
Programming
- The Jorge and Darlene Pérez Prize in Public Art & Civic Design celebrates and highlights the work of individuals who support, develop, and manage the incorporation of art into the design of places and spaces across the United States. The Pérez Prize in Public Art & Civic Design program – which bears the names of internationally recognized philanthropists, Jorge M. Pérez and his wife, Darlene Boytell-Pérez – includes an annual prize that will be awarded on a rotating basis to an artist, public art administrator, or representative from the civic design field.
- Municipal Artists Partnerships developed in relationship with A Blade of Grass is a “relationship guide” to forging strong and sustainable creative partnerships between local governments and artists.
- Webinars hosted in an ongoing basis to highlight equitable practices and community-infused projects at the intersection of arts and civic design. Webinars include Investing in Local Partnerships to Address Community Goals and Artists and Planning Civic Spaces.
Advocacy
- Saving Transit Art Resources (STAR Act) has been a focus of our federal advocacy work to address language in Federal Transit Administration legislation that prohibits the use of funding for the arts and non-functional landscape. Check out the Issue Brief or Webinar to learn more.
Strategic Partnerships
Americans for the Arts builds strategic partnership with national organizations to ensure the arts are incorporated in all parts of American’s lives. Here are a few partnerships and projects that have been developed to support the integration of arts and civic design.
- Partnered with the Arts & Culture Team with Transportation for America, a program of Smart Growth America to implement a National Endowment for the Arts-funded project to educate communities on how creative placemaking techniques can help address local transportation issues. The program resulted in three local State of the Art Transportation trainings with Mariposa County, CA, Bozeman, MT, and Buffalo, NY and a Do-It-Yourself toolkit for communities who want to incorporate the arts into transportation projects.
- Collaborated with the American Planning Association and the Massachusetts Area Planning Council to build a Creative Placemaking KnowledgeBase for planners and develop a creative placemaking strategy for the town of Natick, MA to explore how to incorporate the arts into planning projects. Americans for the Arts lead the evaluation process for the creative placemaking strategy and developed this report.
Americans Believe in the Power of the Arts in Communities
Learn More About the Social Impact of the Arts