Vans and Americans for the Arts envision a country where every child has access to—and takes part in—high quality learning experiences in the arts, both in school and in the community. As such, the two organizations partnered to create the Custom Culture Grant to promote awareness and support arts education in public schools at a time when budget cuts threaten arts education programs across the country.

Americans for the Arts is excited to collaborate with Cuseum on Ink For The Arts, a new initiative to unite people in the fight against the elimination of federal arts programs. The campaign comes in reaction to the ongoing threats to cut funding for the arts, which would put the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, and other programs at risk.

According to a new survey by The Conference Board and Americans for the Arts, nearly a quarter of companies expect to increase their funding for the arts in the next 12 months and only 7 percent expect a decrease. These increases will likely be driven by increased overall philanthropy budgets. The study also found that nearly all companies are engaged with the arts community, complementing the support for the sector delivered through the National Endowment of the Arts.  

Under the leadership of Chairman Ken Calvert (R-CA) and Ranking Member Betty McCollum (D-MN), both the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) are proposed at $155 million for FY 2019 in the U.S. House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee bill, a $2 million increase from 2018.

Arizona Citizens for the Arts rallied its advocates over Governor Doug Ducey's plan to eliminate $2 million in funding for arts grants, and the state legislature and governor heard from over 1,000 constituents speaking out against zeroing out state arts funding.

The U.S. Department of Education announced a new round of grants for the newly-named “Assistance for Arts Education Development & Dissemination” grant program. In total, about $14 million will be awarded to 20-25 grantees, each receiving about $575,000 per year during their 4 year project cycle. 

Called "Tennessee: State of the Arts," the program is an unprecedented public-private partnership to provide school districts statewide the opportunity to apply for funding to improve or develop their music education programs for the 2018-19 school year. 

Americans for the Arts President and CEO Robert L. Lynch offered a statement in reaction to last night’s proposal by Congress to fund the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) at $152.8 million each. 

The latest report showed that arts funding increased from the corporate community between 2014 and 2016. The results align with Americans for the Arts and the Conference Board’s survey of Business Contributions to the Arts released in June. Both corporate giving surveys demonstrate that businesses are recognizing the role the arts play in advancing corporate goals, including increasing employee engagement and creativity.

The latest congressional plan for advancing tax reform continues calls for preserving the charitable tax deduction, a key provision and an important inclusion. The framework, however, also proposes to double the standard deduction, which would have the impact of moving taxpayers away from itemizing their deductions (like charitable giving). Americans for the Arts has joined a large and diverse coalition of non-profits in support of a universal charitable tax deduction that could be made available to all taxpayers.

As the Trump administration and Congress begin to work on tax reform, Americans for the Arts releases a statement about the importance of preserving tax deduction incentives for charitable giving to all nonprofit charities in the United States.

To kick off National Arts Advocacy Day on Tuesday, March 21, Americans for the Arts sent a message in three frequently read newspapers to legislators and staffers on Capitol Hill about the importance of the National Endowment for the Arts.

Nonprofit organization Americans for the Arts, the pre-eminent national advocate for the arts and arts education and leader of the fight to #SAVEtheNEA, will receive all net proceeds from the sale of the single.

Throughout the summer of 2017, the Americans for the Arts Private Sector Initiatives department solicited responses to the FY2016 United Arts Fund Campaign Survey. In FY 2016, the 37 participating UAFs reported aggregate campaign revenue of $85.5 million during their campaigns that ended during 2016. These findings suggest that the united arts fundraising sector is continuing its recovery from the Great Recession.