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.

The results are in for this year’s “Art of Education” Campaign!  Congratulations to Cascade K-8 Community School of Shoreline, WA, recipient of the $5,000 grand prize.  Consumers, parents, and educators nationwide determined the grant winners by voting for their favorite K-12 public schools through the KRIS Facebook page.

Fifteen other schools around the country will receive additional grants totaling $20,000. They include:

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:

Today, nearly 50 members of the Charitable Giving Coalition, including Americans for the Arts, sent a letter to U.S. House Budget Chair Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) applauding his recent, public comments about the charitable tax deduction. On average, for nonprofit arts organizations, about a quarter of revenue comes from individual giving.

KRIS wine and Americans for the Arts have teamed up again to help support arts education through the Art of Education contest. Now in its 5^th year, the contest awards 16 schools in the US a total of $25,000 in grants to improve academic achievement through quality arts education. As more states continue to cut arts education budgets, every extra dollar towards arts education helps!

It's that time again: Americans for the Arts is seeking at least 200 partners to make this Arts and Economic Prosperity Study larger and more comprehensive than ever before--and we invite YOU to be a part of it!

Thrive Fund is making significant contributions towards Charlotte’s Arts.

Launched in summer 2012 under a low profile, Thrive Fund’s initial goal was to provide financial stability for the Charlotte Symphony Orchestra. Under the leadership of former Bank of America Chairman and CEO Hugh McColl, it soon exceeded expectations, raising $34 million in pledges to underwrite Charlotte's cultural sector.

Last Tuesday, ArtBar by Catalyst Club in Albuquerque, New Mexico, shocked arts supporters by announcing it was officially closing. ArtBar is a nonprofit club, with 2,000 members, that generates grant funds through the sale of alcohol. Back on June 11, ArtBar received a citation after it sent a press release about an event to a local paper. The event advertisement had information regarding a cover charge, which the regulation and licensing department said violated the conditions of having a club license from New Mexico.

In Youngstown, Ohio, the Power of Arts held a town hall meeting for arts supporters regarding new initiatives to raise more arts funding. Their most recent lobbying effort is to change a provision in the Ohio Revised Code which would allow counties with populations under 1.2 million to fund arts and cultural districts with a cigarette tax.

NYC Mayor, Bill De Blasio, recently announced a $23 million increase to the city’s education budget specifically for arts education. The allocation is in response to the report by city Comptroller, Scott Stringer, which found 28 percent of city schools lack even one full-time certified arts teacher, especially with the South Bronx and Central Brooklyn.

In 2013, private sector giving to the arts (by individuals, foundations, and corporations) was $16.66 billion, a 7.8 percent increase from 2012 (+6.8 percent when adjusted for inflation).  According to the Giving USA report, “Giving to arts, culture, and humanities organizations has realized strong growth since the end of the Great Recession in 2009.

On Monday, Detroit's three automakers, Chrysler, General Motors, and Ford, donated a total of $26 million to help save the Detroit Institute of Arts. The $26 million is part of the Detroit Institute of Art's commitment to raise $100 million as part of the "grand bargain," an effort by the city, state, and other groups to raise $800 million to help the city emerge from bankruptcy later this year.

The National YoungArts Foundation has announced that applications for 2015 are now available until October 17, 2014!

Consumers spend nearly $150 billion annually on entertainment and the arts. How does this breakdown to spending on the arts in your individual community?

The leadership of Intersecton for the Arts in San Franciso has issued a press release pertaining to their recent lay-offs and long-term financial struggles. The organzation has made changes recently to help combat some of the challenges, however the Board of Director Chair and Interim Director still had to make drastic descisions this week. The organzation has laid-off many of their programming and support staff, but are still moving along with their fiscal sponsored work.

On June 18, Philadelphia City Council announced that it would not decrease the Philadelphia Cultural Fund's budget. In his 2016 proposed budget, Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter announced he would decrease the Cultural Fund's budget to $1.8 million - a cut of 40 percent. The City Council has now approved an amended city budget that will keep the Philadelphia Cultural Fund's budget at $3.14 million.