Americans for the Arts

Issued by the United State Government Accountability Office this report outlines details of the Smithsonian Institution's contract with Showtime networks.

In 2000, Terry Semel served as lecturer for the Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy.

In 1974, Jean Kennedy Smith founded Very Special Arts to provide people with disabilities opportunities for integration and self-expression through drama, dance, music, creative writing and the visual arts. Now, in a series of candid and revealing interviews conducted by Smith and edited by George Plimpton, sixteen artists talk about their lives - and discuss how art has made a difference to them.

For too long the theatre community has gone along with the rest of society in ignoring a large group of our citizens. For the most part, this failure has not been intentional or out of malice, but simply from ignorance. How could we handle a blind group in our audience? What would we do with a deaf person? We don't have the money to build ramps or widen doors, or....what can we do? These are questions that come to mind. What are the barriers in your theatre? Usually the greatest barriers to the world of the disabled are those built by attitudes - not concrete or wood.

Enjoying and being enriched by art is a basic part of a full and productive life for everyone, sighted and visually impaired alike. Many arts organizations have recognized the importance of making art available to all members of society. Through planning and careful effort, they have provided everyone with opportunities to enjoy the arts. What Museum Guides Need to Know: Access for Blind and Visually Impaired Visitors is intended to help other organizations make their facilities and programs readily available to blind and visually impaired people. We hope the material it contains

Directory of performing arts companies and organizations in Canada and the U.S. with emphasis on major and medium scale professional companies. It includes some of the more notable smaller scale companies, particularly in dance, because of the international touring opportunities afforded them. (Introduction)

At the time this survey project was undertaken, the Tacoma-Pierce County area had neither the comprehensive arts programs nor ongoing specific arts programs for special populations. The net result was that uncoordinated and sporadic programming efforts were and still are happening in the attempt to expand arts to non-traditional audiences. This attempt has been hindered by a lack of information on the special needs of the audiences and on the activities that most interested these Special Populations. In the interest of providing a means for responsible and comprehensive arts programming to

An analysis of the Philadelphia cultural sector generated by the Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance published by the Pew Charitable Trusts and the William Penn Foundation. The report reviews data from 218 organizations and finds that the art and cultural sector provides 14,000 jobs and more than 12 million visits to the area annually. Findings also indicate that the portion of the cultural sector with the greatest need for financial investment are smaller and emerging organizations.

American museums have always had to struggle to raise funds from many sources to survive. This helped them to avoid over-dependence on a single source (as is the case in many European countries where museums are often dependent on government support). Art museums have an uneasy relationship with democracy: according to research in the and France they still attract largely the highly-educated public. (from abstract)

Although the artists' organizations have played an important role in the arts explosion in this country, they have not received the recognition and support they deserve. (from abstract)

Access to Art: A Museum Directory for Blind and Visually Impaired People is a compilation of art and other museums and facilities such as historical societies that make their exhibits and programs accessible to blind and visually impaired visitors. It contains the results of a questionnaire sent out to 5,000 member museums of the American Association of Museums. Of the 1,100 facilities that responded over 300 are listed here. They include all museums, galleries and exhibits that currently provide accessibility for blind and visually impaired visitors as part of their programs, either through

Paper presented at the Arts Edge Conference on cities and cultural planning, sponsored by the National Endowment for the Arts, Partners for Livable Places, the American Council for the Arts and the City of Pittsburgh, held in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, October 4-7, 1981.

The Mini-Conference on Creativity and Aging in America sought to develop recommendations for the 2005 White House Conference on Aging. Convened May 18-19, 2005, at the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington, DC, it focused on the importance and value of professional arts programming for, by, and with older Americans as a quality of life issue.

The meaning and significance of life is intimately related to the ability of each of us, regardless of his status in the society, to manifest his uniqueness. Dr. Edwin Martin, the Deputy Commissioner of the Bureau of Education for the Handicapped, U S. Office of Education, DHEW has reminded us that as educators (we must) focus more carefully on the individual and his or her uniqueness.

The authors discuss some barriers to senior citizen participation in arts audiences. Older Americans, survey data indicate, are three times less likely to attend an arts performance than the thirty-something crowd. The authors present the results of a nationwide study of arts administrators about older people as audience members.