Americans for the Arts

The Performing Artist Companion to Animating Democracy’s framework, Aesthetic Perspectives: Attributes of Excellence in Arts for Change, offers ideas and insights to help performing artists and performance companies apply the framework to address their needs and interests.  Aesthetic Perspectives aims to enhance understanding and evaluation of creative work at the intersection of arts and community/civic engagement, community development, and justice. It offers 11 artistic attributes that elevate aesthetics in civically and socially engaged art,

In November 2007, artistic directors from four artist-led organizations (Cornerstone Theater Company, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, Sojourn Theatre, and Urban Bush Women) gathered to share ideas about community-engaged art practices, and connection with and responsibility to audiences and young artists. This report, written by Hannah Treuhaft, a company member from Sojourn Theatre and participant at the gathering, recaps and assembles themes and perspective from the four participating organizations.  Through discussion, four themes and conversations dominated: 1) methodologies and

Artists who are committed to social justice through their work must navigate a complex contemporary art world characterized by numerous political positions and aesthetic expectations. In this paper, Nato Thompson observes two overarching approaches taken by artists—strategic and tactical—that operate against a political and economical infrastructure. Thompson describes successful examples in both categories, including sustained place-based work; culturally engaged radical pedagogy; engaged museums; engaged academic institutions; and a variety of work that raises questions rather

As a long-time activist and co-founder of the Boston-based Design Studio for Social Intervention (DS4SI), Lori Lobenstine discusses making meaning and creating change in the public sphere through the integration of social justice strategies with art, design thinking, and social practice. Offering several examples from DS4SI’s own work, such as the Grill Project and Public Kitchen, as well as other domestic and international examples, she describes the creation of an energetic, new, third space—one where activists and artists come together with a shared understanding of the

Musicians are powerful allies who leverage their activities in ways that amplify the messages and strategies of social justice movements and that draw the necessary resources—creativity, targeted audiences, press, funding—to make change possible; they do this best when they have support, strategy, and tools. Inspired by a desire to work on social change and to help raise money for the causes and issues they care about, musicians are contributing publicly in powerful and concrete ways: They lend their celebrity to movements and issues. Their creativity inspires people to think

As a Detroiter and a journalist who has covered the city’s urban as well as cultural affairs, Eddie B. Allen, Jr. brings a gentle local eye to surface questions that deserve a hard look as MicroFest traverses its next locations. Allen zeroes in on participants’ examination of the role of arts inside the justice system and in building awareness and fostering dialogue about issues of the justice system, a system he has followed personally and as a concerned citizen and journalist. While the “transformational value” of art for those incarcerated was affirmed and

In this paper, Lyz Crane draws on the work of practitioners and researchers to characterize the field of arts-based community development in which arts and culture can help achieve place based change related to the physical, social, and economic dimensions of place.  From the premise that the existence of arts is considered a powerful end in itself, Crane then outlines the variety of ways that the actors and activities involved in arts and community development work can relate to and interact with each other to create sustainable communities.  Looking at the cultural ecology of

Coming to America: Immigrant Sounds/Immigrant Voices was a project of the American Composers Orchestra (ACO), exploring civic dialogue within the field of classical orchestral music.  Spanning ACO’s 2000–2001 season, the project centered around chamber music concerts and informances at schools and cultural centers in New York City, bringing immigrant and refugee composers and their music into communities, and immigrant and refugee communities into concert settings.  Through dialogue, the project sought to link the music of four immigrant or

This case study documents the pilot phase of Junebug Productions’ Color Line Project, a long-term national endeavor that combines performance and community story-collecting in an effort to revitalize Civil Rights Movement history as a valued and illuminating context for current issues of race. Using story circles methodology as a dialogue form, artist John O’Neal and a national organizing team worked over several months with local scholars, activists, and partner organizations to collect stories of local people's involvement in and understanding of the movement. Local

Museums and Civic Dialogue features exhibition projects that demonstrate how three museums have functioned as provocative and effective forums for civic dialogue. Focusing on contemporary and conceptual works of art as well as historic images, the projects highlight new and adapted approaches to curatorial practice, interpretation, and education prompted by civic intention. The case studies also offer insights regarding institutional challenges and changes in practice that necessarily occurred. Through Gene(sis): Contemporary Art Explores Human Genomics, Henry

The arts are fundamental to our humanity. They ennoble and inspire us—fostering creativity, goodness, and beauty. The arts bring us joy, help us express our values, and build bridges between cultures. The arts are also a fundamental component of a healthy community—strengthening them socially, educationally, and economically—benefits that persist even in difficult social and economic times.

Local arts agencies—arts councils, arts commissions, cultural affairs departments—are an essential tool for community leaders as they rebuild their economies and promote social cohesion. The nation’s 4,500 local arts agencies (LAAs) support, present, and promote the dynamic value of the arts. Through their partnerships and leadership, LAAs are building healthier communities through the arts in the following ways:

Local arts agencies—arts councils, arts commissions, cultural affairs departments—are an essential tool for community leaders as they rebuild their economies and promote social cohesion. The nation’s 4,500 local arts agencies (LAAs) support, present, and promote the dynamic value of the arts. Through their partnerships and leadership, LAAs are building healthier communities through the arts in the following ways:

Local arts agencies—arts councils, arts commissions, cultural affairs departments—are an essential tool for community leaders as they rebuild their economies and promote social cohesion. The nation’s 4,500 local arts agencies (LAAs) support, present, and promote the dynamic value of the arts. Through their partnerships and leadership, LAAs are building healthier communities through the arts.

This one-pager is a summary of research by Americans for the Arts and others on the human and financial impact of the COVID -19-pandemic impact on the arts. Data current as of 5/122022.