Americans for the Arts has announced the New Community Visions Initiative, part of the large-scale Transforming America’s Communities Through the Arts, a $10.5 million suite of programs set to generate national dialogue and engage key stakeholders over the next three years. The New Community Visions Initiative will explore the future of local arts in America and the role of community-based arts that enable organizations, funders, cultural institutions, and artists to shape healthier communities over time. 

Americans for the Arts today announced Transforming America’s Communities Through the Arts, a comprehensive, three-year initiative to increase understanding of the value of the arts and investment in the arts. 

President and CEO of Americans for the Arts, Robert L. Lynch, as well as Vice President of Local Arts Advancement, Clayton Lord, participated in the third annual SphinxCon on January 30 in Detroit, Michigan as part of Americans for the Arts ongoing work in the field of arts and diversity.

Register today for the 2015 Annual Convention, taking place June 12–14, 2015 in Chicago!

The conference will take place at the Chicago Sheraton, with more than 40 breakouts, three keynotes, three preconferences, two Workshop Intensives, a dozen ARTventure Tours, and an opening reception at the Museum of Contemporary Art! 

Get the conversation about encouraging creativity and ensuring arts education in your community with a new series of videos by Americans for the Arts. These videos convey the stories behind importance of arts education, as told by children whose lives have been postiviely impacted by the arts. 

Local competitions began on January 1, 2015, that will lead to the National Veterans Creative Arts Festival in October.  Nationwide, Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) medical facilities use the creative arts as one form of rehabilitative treatment to help Veterans recover from and cope with physical and emotional disabilities. Across the country each year, Veterans enrolled at VA health care facilities compete in local creative arts competition.

Americans for the Arts celebrates its 4th year of partnering with Vans for the Custom Culture student arts and design contest.

Americans for the Arts has launched the National Cultural District Exchange this week - a new web-based resource, produced in part with the generous support of the National Endowment for the Arts, that includes a host of tools and resources specific to cultural districts. Cultural districts play an important role in helping to strengthen local economies, create an enhanced sense of place, and deepen local cultural capacity.

Continuing a long-standing partnership with Aetna in Hartford, CT, the Greater Hartford Arts Council has embarked on a project with the company that supports a local artist, raises the level of employee engagement and morale, and increases the presence of art at Aetna and in the community.

Since the Military Child Education Coalition (MCEC) began the “Call for the Arts” in 2002, thousands of military children – from all over the world, from every branch of service, in grades PreK-12 – have submitted their drawings, their poems, and their interpretations of what it means to be a military child. The MCEC takes advantage of every opportunity to display the artistic skill of these unique, resilient children.

On November 20, Reps. Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI), Aaron Schock (R-IL), Cheri Bustos (D-IL), Rodney Davis (R-IL), Juan Vargas (D-CA), and Todd Young (R-IN) introduced a bipartisan congressional resolution (H.Res.761) in support of Giving Tuesday.

On Tuesday, December 2^nd, Americans for the Arts is participating in #GivingTuesday, when charities, families, businesses, community leaders, and students around the world will come together to celebrate generosity and to give.

The NABE Foundation, a partner of Americans for the Arts and the charitable arm of the National Association for Business Economics (NABE) is awarding its seventh annual Americans for the Arts scholarship to encourage the integration of the arts into the economic education process.

In September, we held a call for nominations for our Network Councils. Now it's time for you, our members, to cast your vote to determine which nominees will be elected to the following four Americans for the Arts' Network Councils.

On Oct. 1, the Wallace Foundation announced they are launching a new six-year $40 million initiative focused on audience building for performing arts. The initiative will provide four-year grants to a select cohort of organizations around the country. Wallace will be inviting 80 organizations to submit proposals and will fund approximately 25 of them.

Wallace President Will Miller just shared the news in a webinar featuring guest panelists: