Nina Ozlu Tunceli's popular office hours on Zoom helping artists and arts leaders navigate the complex web of relief measures in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act have been extended through July 29, 2020.

This week, COVID-related losses and challenges continue to dominate many stories about the arts and culture sector, but we're also focusing on hopeful opportunities for leadership and community engagement. Our three-part DIAL Labs series began on ArtsU; the free professional development webinars are for early- and mid-career arts leaders who want to hone skills for navigating the field. We also republished a conversation with a California arts champion who's using her dance studio and its deep community roots to keep youth and families safe and informed during the COVID-19 crisis.

On April 8, 2020, Americans for the Arts hosted a webinar titled “How the CARES Act Supports the Arts Sector” to discuss the recent COVID-19 relief package passed by Congress at the end of March. Americans for the Arts Government Affairs staff and valued guest speakers discussed the various pieces of the legislation that pertained to the arts sector.

The $2 trillion emergency stimulus package that Congress passed this week includes $300 million in economic relief to support nonprofit cultural organizations, museums, libraries, public broadcasting, and state and local arts and humanities agencies, as well as substantial additional economic relief opportunities for independent contractors like "gig economy" workers such as actors, musicians, and artists and nonprofit organizations and small businesses, including those working in the creative economy.

How do you sum up a week like the one the country has just been through? We at Americans for the Arts hope you and yours are keeping safe and healthy during the coronavirus outbreak. We are working hard to ensure that the arts and culture sector can weather this storm, together, and with appropriate and necessary financial relief from the federal government. Read on for tools you can use in this critical time for the arts.

During this unprecedented time of crisis in our nation’s cultural, educational, economic and healthy well-being, Americans for the Arts calls on our nation’s public and private sector grantmakers and individual philanthropists in the arts to help respond to the impact of COVID-19 on the infrastructure of our nonprofit cultural organizations and artists.

This week, we look ahead at education policy trends for 2020—and how the arts intersect with them all! Plus, explore with us the role of State Arts Agencies and our State Arts Action Network in increased cultural funding at the state level. Catch up on all the week's news and analysis in the Weekly Web Roundup.

The new philanthropic organization awarded prizes to nine organizations across the country focused on bringing music to young people. The prize, which is split into three categories and includes both long-term and single-year support, was founded in 2019 by the philanthropist Daniel R. Lewis. 

Americans for the Arts President and CEO Robert L. Lynch released a statement following the release of the Trump administration’s proposed fiscal year (FY) 2021 budget, which would eliminate funding for the arts. 

This week: As we looked back on last year's arts advocacy successes, including increased federal funding for the arts and new support for creative arts therapies for military personnel and arts programs for at-risk youth, President and CEO Robert L. Lynch and Artist Committee member Ben Folds once again took the case for the arts to Capitol Hill. 

Americans for the Arts President and CEO Robert L. Lynch and acclaimed singer-songwriter Ben Folds today urged the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies to support federal funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) at $170 million for fiscal year (FY) 2021, a $7.75 million increase over FY 2020 funding. With last year’s increase the largest in six years, Congress has almost restored the NEA to its funding-level highpoint of $176 million in FY 1992. 

A $200,000 grant to the Columbus Museum of Art will oversee the restoration project of the home of Columbus-native artist Aminah Robinson, part of a greater effort to preserve Robinson’s home as the future site for artist residencies.