Americans for the Arts mourns the loss of artist Luchita Hurtado, who died at her home in Santa Monica, California, on August 13, at age 99. Hurtado was awarded the Carolyn Clark Powers Lifetime Achievement Award at the 2019 National Arts Awards.
Especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, the health needs of artists and creative workers are critical to preserve and maintain. That’s why we love this week’s story about the O+ Festival, which was hatched after a dentist and a painter mulled over the idea to exchange visual art and musical performances for healthcare. Also this week: employers love creative skills, Chambers of Commerce write to Congress in support of the arts, and it's time to take the ArtsVote Pledge to Make Your Vote Count!
A second letter of support for arts and culture in the new COVID-19 relief package has been completed by 204 local Chambers of Commerce in 50 states! This is a substantial increase from a similar May letter, which garnered 140 signatories from 39 states. If your chamber is listed in the final letter, please take a moment to reach out and thank them.
We are excited this week to have launched #ArtsCreateHope, a new social media campaign designed to remind the public that the arts are essential to the fabric of our lives. We hope you will watch and share our short, uplifting video with your networks and friends, and please take to social media to share your stories of how the arts create hope for you. We could all use a little lift from each other!
As we close out July and begin to round the corner toward the end of summer, things are heating up on the arts advocacy front. Congress is currently negotiating a new coronavirus relief bill, and two letters asking for relief for the arts went to Capitol Hill this week: one signed by one of our longest-standing strategic partners, the U.S. Conference of Mayors, and another led by our Artists Committee and signed by more than 260 artist advocates.
Cultural equity is at the heart of this week's roundup. Read on to learn more about Eddy Kwon, a musician whose work is centered in equitable community development; to meet this year's Diversity in Arts Leadership interns; to explore self advocacy and self care for artists and administrators of color; and to see how civil rights hero Rep. John Lewis was true champion of the arts.
The coronavirus has had a devastating impact on America’s arts sector. Nationally, financial losses to nonprofit arts and cultural organizations are an estimated $9.1 billion as of July 13, 2020, and 62% of artists have become unemployed. An analysis by Americans for the Arts reveals the how the arts and creative economy sector performed in securing Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans.
“Without the arts, without music, without dance, without drama, without photography, the civil rights movement would have been like a bird without wings.” These were the words the late Representative John Lewis of Georgia shared the many times he addressed crowds of arts advocates of all ages at Americans for the Arts’ annual Arts Advocacy Day in Washington, D.C. Americans for the Arts feels deep loss at the passing of Rep. John Lewis, a civil rights hero and a true champion for the arts, and we celebrate the vast contributions he made to our country.
This week: read up on pay equity, community-focused public art, performance art as a catalyst for change, national partnerships that bring about local advocacy, and more. Plus, check out the brand-new Arts Education Action Kit, a free resource that provides tools so that anyone can become an arts education advocate.
The kit features information on advocacy strategies, messaging, and research to improve the availability and quality of arts education in schools and communities. With these resources, anyone can become an arts education advocate and make the case for why arts education is essential.
Thanks to the July 4th holiday weekend, our Weekly Web Roundup is super-sized this week! Catch up now on two weeks’ worth of news and blogs, and don’t miss the next DIAL.studio webinar series for young professionals: a “101” education on the history of arts administration and organizations.
Creative Forces®, an initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts, presents “Advances in Creative Forces Clinical Research,” a virtual panel discussion and demonstration of the new online National Resource Center (NRC) on July 15, 2020, at 3:00 p.m. ET. This online resource will feature public materials for researchers and practitioners in the arts, health, and military and veteran care settings.
Americans for the Arts remembers arts leader and Chicago native Joan Small, who passed away last week. Joan served nearly two decades with the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and was an Americans for the Arts Board Member from 1994 to 2008.
The theme of this week is the Annual Convention + Public Art & Civic Design Conference! More than 850 of you attended our first-ever virtual convening June 23-25, which featured 100 panelists speaking in 50 breakout sessions and four keynotes, plus presentations of our Annual Leadership Awards and the announcement of a brand-new public art prize.
Rick Lowe is a Houston-based artist and professor of art at the University of Houston, best known for his Project Row Houses community-based art project that he started in Houston in 1993. President Barack Obama appointed Rick to the National Council on the Arts in 2013; in 2014 he was named a MacArthur Fellow.
