During last year’s Strategic Realignment Process, Americans for the Arts and Arts Action Fund staff heard from stakeholders that advocacy is both a key strength and among their top priorities. Staff also heard that how we do our work is as important as what we do. Based on direct feedback from members and stakeholders, Americans for the Arts and the Arts Action Fund have adopted Equitable Advocacy as the lens through which all our decisions are made. This approach will intentionally create more inclusive, diverse, and accessible practices, relationships, and effective programming. 

Ultimately, effective advocacy cannot primarily happen during one large event, one time of year. Advocacy happens every day, in every community, and across this country. After more than 34 years of hosting large annual arts advocacy conferences, Americans for the Arts and Arts Action Fund launched a year-long advocacy program, complete with a series of webinar training, D.C.-based Legislative Fly-ins to lobby key members of Congress, and Fly-outs in different communities to do advocacy training and meet together with members of Congress in their own state and district offices throughout the country.  

We kicked off this year’s fly-ins to Washington, DC with small cohorts of local arts agencies, state arts agencies, and state arts advocacy organizations to curate tailored and targeted approaches to bring together arts advocate constituents from across the nation to meet with key legislators to help advance the top legislative asks that our stakeholders requested.  

The first of these fly-ins occurred April 18 and 19, 2023, and included 12 representatives from arts agencies in 10 states including Alaska, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Montana, New Mexico, Rhode Island, Texas, Washington, and West Virginia. 

Last week’s Americans for the Arts Advocacy participants were: 

• Heather Adams, Executive Director of Arts Missoula, Montana 

• Ben Brown, Chair, Alaska State Council on the Arts  

• Manny Cawaling, Executive Director, Inspire Washington, Washington 

• Joseph Frandoni, Deputy Director, Arts and Humanities Council of Montgomery County, Maryland 

• Wesley Gentle, President, Arts Fort Worth, Texas 

• Todd Hawkins, Executive Director, City of Irving Arts & Culture, Texas 

• Michelle LaFlamme-Childs, Executive Director, New Mexico Arts, New Mexico 

• Lynne McCormack, Executive Director, Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, Rhode Island  

• Dinah Minot, Executive Director, Creative Portland, Maine 

• Rebekah Moore, Program Director, The arts Council of Greater New Haven, Connecticut Sara Morgan, Director, Art Museum of South Texas, Texas 

• Randall Reid-Smith Governor's Curator, West Virginia Department of Arts, West Virginia  

• Fly-in participants spearheaded a total of 39 meetings to advocate on several legislative issues impacting the arts in America: 

• Fiscal Year (FY) 2024 funding for the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities.  

• Community Arts Engagement funding for active military and service members and veterans  

• Well-rounded education funding which includes funding for arts education. 

• Re-instating and expanding the charitable tax deduction for non-itemizers.  

• Expanding the Qualified Performing Arts tax deduction.  

“As someone whose passion for the arts has led to dedicating my career and life advocating for their growth, I understand the importance of working with our elected officials to demonstrate the impact the arts have in our communities for all ages,” said West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History Curator Randall Reid-Smith. “The need for our representatives to vote in favor of policies which help fund the arts is crucial to the continuation of that impact. We are grateful in the state of West Virginia to have a close relationship with our federal representatives and the ability to reach out to them at any time to convey our pressing needs in the arts community.  I appreciate the new targeted approach that the Americans for the Arts’ fly-In has incorporated to ensure the support of our elected officials and look forward to participating in future fly-ins.” 

The next set of fly-ins will occur on May 16 and May 17 in Washington, DC, and will include arts advocates from California, Florida, Idaho, and Oregon as well as at-home advocacy meetings with elected officials in California, Texas,and Washington.  

In the third quarter, Americans for the Arts and the Arts Action Fund will conduct Fly-outs, where our staff will work with our local arts agency members, district and state captains, state and regional arts agencies, and others to organize larger in-person advocacy training throughout the country in key legislative congressional districts. This will culminate with op-eds in local newspapers and community arts leaders meeting with their members of Congress back home, instead of in Washington, D.C. Additional webinar-based advocacy training will also be conducted nationwide.  

In the fourth quarter, Americans for the Arts and Arts Action Fund will host another Legislative Fly-in to Washington, D.C., that will specifically focus on the release of our Arts and Economic Prosperity 6 Study. This Fly-in will involve key local and state participants in that study that correspond with targeted federal decision-makers. Additional webinar-based advocacy training will continue to be conducted nationwide.