The biggest news of the week for the arts field—and across the country—was President Biden signing into law the American Rescue Plan, a massive relief measure that includes much-needed support for the creative economy workforce through a variety of funding measures. Read our full joint statement with the Arts Action Fund to learn more about specific provisions in the law that will provide immediate and longer term assistance to the arts and culture sector. And don’t miss a timely and important blog post by leaders at the Dance Data Project® that illustrates the overall disproportionate impact of the pandemic on women in the workforce, drawing a direct and unmistakable line from those losses to the arts field.

Also this week: learn about a beautiful and hopeful dance project bearing witness to the 10th anniversary of the Fukushima nuclear disaster, get to know the Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen and the contributions that craft can bring to a community, and join us in congratulating former Oakland County (Michigan) Commissioner Shelley Taub, recipient of the 2020 Public Leadership in the Arts Award for County Arts Leadership.

ARTSblog

Buy Fine Craft to Invigorate your Local Creative Economy by Erika Juran
The Pennsylvania Guild of Craftsmen is one of the oldest and largest professional craft guilds in the country, born out of an effort to promote wider awareness of the contributions that craft can bring to a community through the stimulation of achievement and enrichment of cultural, aesthetic, and educational interests.

Connecting the Dots: Why the SheCession Is an Arts Story by Elizabeth Yntema and Hannah McCarthy
America is looking at a generational loss of female leadership because they must either choose between their families or their jobs. Federally mandated paid family and medical leave would offer women, especially women in the arts, the ability to maintain their jobs, destigmatize familial responsibility in the workplace, and pour billions of dollars back into the U.S. economy.

Art Performs Life on the 10th Anniversary of the Fukushima Disaster by John Killacky
Ten years after the nuclear disaster in Japan, dance artist Eiko Otake felt compelled to perform in the irradiated disrupted landscapes, and the resulting art project reminds us that the role artists play in commemorating losses can never be underestimated. “By placing my body in these places,” she says, “I thought of the generations of people who used to live there. I danced so as not to forget.”

News Room

Americans for the Arts and Americans for the Arts Action Fund React to Passage of American Rescue Plan
The American Rescue Plan will provide much-needed support to the creative economy workforce and to the many nonprofit arts and culture organizations and institutions that have faced devastating economic losses—to the tune of $15.3 billion to date and 2.7 million creative workers out of work.

Former Oakland County Commissioner Shelley Taub Receives 2020 Public Leadership in the Arts Award for County Arts Leadership
In Oakland County, Michigan, Commissioner Taub recently championed appropriating $2 million in federal CARES Act funding to support cultural institutions impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. For years she has demonstrated strong and steadfast support for the arts in the county, and is a proponent of not only the cultural value of the arts, but also its economic value.

Pictured: Dance artist Eiko Otake in an image from “A Body in Fukushima.” Photo by William Johnston used with permission.