Americans for the Arts and The United States Conference of Mayors today presented the 2017 Public Leadership in the Arts Awards to two elected officials at The United States Conference of Mayors Winter Meeting. Mayor Martin Walsh and Mayor Satish Hiremath have supported and promoted arts and culture in their communities. 

From the beginning, the goal of the NAMP program has been to connect, strengthen, and advance our nation’s growing community of arts marketers. The new website provides arts marketers with an improved and dynamic digital space to grow and connect in their community, with four distinct spaces to get smarter, get together, get involved, and get inspired. 

Vans invites high school art students throughout the country to join in the eighth annual Vans Custom Culture art competition to embrace youth creativity and support arts education. Starting today, high school art teachers can register their classes to compete for the grand prize of $50,000 towards their art program by creating their most artistic and inventive designs using blank Vans shoes as their canvas.

As Congress and the Trump Administration prepare the federal budget for Fiscal Year 2018, Americans for the Arts is working to remind our elected officials about the economic importance of federal funding for the arts, specifically through the National Endowment for the Arts. This morning, ads appeared in the New York Post and The Hill newspapers with the bold headline “The Arts Put America to Work.”

Phoenix, AZ (May 10, 2016) - The $9.6 billion fiscal year 2017 budget signed today by Governor Doug Ducey includes a $1.5 million appropriation to the Arizona Commission on the Arts. The additional funding represents a 50% increase over the 49-year-old state agency's current fiscal year budget. Derived from interest accrued on the state's Rainy Day Fund, this one-time allocation will not increase overall state spending.

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

Americans for the Arts invites all Americans to celebrate October as National Arts & Humanities Month (NAHM). Towns and communities across the country are hosting special events that capture the spirit that the arts and humanities bring to everyday life. 

Through the deft work of the Senate education committee, the leadership team of Senators Lamar Alexander (R-TN) and Patty Murray (D-WA) succeeded in crafting and maintaining a bipartisan bill to reauthorize the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).  Today, the Senate voted to approve the Every Child Achieves Act (S.1177), by a vote of 81-17, a remarkable finish, especially considering the number of amendments that were filed (nearly 200 in all) and several other controversial provisions that could have sunk the bill.

The House has postponed further consideration of the FY 2016 Interior Appropriations bill (H.R. 2822). This annual bill provides funding to cultural agencies, including the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA). The House postponed final passage due to strong controversy surrounding voice-voted provisions impacting the display of Confederate flags on certain graves in federal cemeteries and on merchandise within contractual National Park Service (NPS) gift shops.

Americans for the Arts, the nation’s leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts and arts education in America, announced today that it has been awarded a $100,000 Art Works: Arts Education grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to support the State Policy Pilot Program, a three-year program aiming to strengthen the focus and attention being put on arts education through advancing state-level education policy. 

This morning, First Lady Michelle Obama joined the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS) Acting Director Maura Marx to present the 2015 National Medal for Museum and Library Service. Ten institutions from across the country attended the White House Ceremony to be recognized for outstanding service to their communities. These organizations demonstrate significant impact and high quality of programs, services, and partnerships, and were selected among thirty finalists. Robert Lynch, CEO of Americans for the Arts, attended the ceremony today.