Americans for the Arts honored Christo and Jeanne-Claude at the 2003 National Arts Awards with the Artistic Excellence Award to commend their artistic contributions to American art and culture. Their epic-scale environmental works often took years or even decades of careful planning, public and political persuasion, permits, and environmental solutions, which the artists considered part of their artistic process. 

To the Black community: we see you, we hear you, and we support you.

This week: it's time to register for the 2020 Annual Convention and Public Art & Civic Design Conference! Plus, we're diving into COVID response and recovery from various angles, including PPP loan forgiveness, innovative audience engagement, planning for beneficial artist-municipal partnerships, and more. 

Registration is now open for the 2020 Annual Convention and Public Art & Civic Design Conference! This newly virtual convening, happening June 23-25 from the comfort of your home, is the chance for arts leaders across the country to gather virtually and better understand the current health crisis, how we are responding to it, and how the arts field can move toward recovery. 

This week: Meet exemplary artists who are transforming their communities, find inspiration for the challenging road to recovery from arts & culture chief executives, learn about the power of crowdfunding, follow the evolution of the next coronavirus relief package on Capitol Hill, and more!

The coronavirus pandemic continues to gnaw away at the nation’s arts and cultural infrastructure. Nearly every arts organization has postponed or outright cancelled performances, exhibitions, and events. Similarly, there is a great number of working artists who have lost work. Americans for the Arts continues its tracking of the human and financial impact of the COVID-19 crisis on the arts through its four national studies.

If you have applied for CARES Act funding, please help us collect data on the process and whether you were successful. This will help Americans for the Arts quickly inform Congress and other decision-makers how the CARES Act impacted the arts sector—and what the needs are for the future. 

This week, we hosted the latest in our Supporting Individual Artists monthly "coffee chat" series on ArtsU, a project supported in part by the Emily Hall Tremaine Foundation; explored the challenges of fundraising amid the COVID-19 pandemic; and extended two online engagement opportunities.

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.

Americans for the Arts has extended the deadline for voting on the 2020 Robert E. Gard Award top 10 finalist projects through Friday, May 29. All Americans for the Arts members are eligible to review the 10 finalists on our website and vote.

This week: We made the difficult but necessary decision to go virtual for Annual Convention and the Public Art & Civic Design Conference; released updated results from our three major COVID-19 Arts Impact surveys; and explored a Black arts and community center in a privately owned home in Seattle’s Central District neighborhood.

The coronavirus has had a devastating impact on America’s arts sector. Since the first U.S. case was reported on January 20, 2020 cancellations and closings are taking place at thousands of arts organizations across the country, and two-thirds of the nation’s artists are now unemployed. Americans for the Arts leads the three premier national studies tracking the human and financial impacts of the COVID-19 crisis on the arts.

Americans for the Arts is transforming the 2020 Annual Convention and the Public Art & Civic Design Conference into a virtual convening. While we will miss gathering in person, we are excited to deliver the same quality breakout sessions, keynotes, and networking opportunities directly to your home. 

This week, we virtually convened arts advocates from across the country at the National Arts Action Digital Summit. Plus: new research on Local Arts Agency partnerships, blogs from more Arts & Culture Leaders of Color Fellows, and a new poem by Johnson Fellow Hannibal Lokumbe to close out National Poetry Month.

On Tuesday, May 5, join Americans for the Arts’ celebration of Giving Tuesday Now, a global day of unity and generosity, by sharing how you are using the arts to stay connected. Post your examples on Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, and tag @Americans4Arts with the hashtag #GivingTuesdayNow, and we will share some too! 

It's been a busy week! Catch up on the week's research news, including two survey results and a new one you can participate in. Plus: blogs reflecting on the COVID pandemic, a powerful story on cultural organizing, a webinar exploring how to navigate conversations on cultural equity, and much more.