Join the Listserv
As a member of Americans for the Arts, you are encouraged to stay up to date on the latest news and developments from the Private Sector Network. To sign up for the Private Sector Network listserv, click here, fill in your contact information, and check the Private Sector ‘standard’ box.

Join Our E-Blast
Sign up for Arts & Business Connection, our monthly e-bulletin which delivers facts, figures, upcoming events, webinars, and more to the arts and business community. You can also view the Arts & Business Connection archive to view past stories, data, and more.

If you are interested in starting one of the following organizations or programs, contact the Private Sector Initiatives team for an initial consultation. There is a collection of documents–including manuals, feasibility studies, and supplementary materials–available to assist with the exploratory stage of starting one of these organizations or programs, and the Private Sector Initiatives staff is more than happy to assist you through the process.

Want to help your local arts community build its capacity to partner with the business community? Interested learning how to leverage the arts to advance equity and inclusion in business? Through our local pARTnership Movement workshop program, Americans for the Arts can come directly to you and your community to help you get started.

Americans for the Arts offers in-person educational workshops on an on-demand basis. Our 1 and 3 hour workshops are customizable depending on the audience and its interests, covering a range of topics including arts and business 101, relationship building, employee engagement, and program building. We can also focus on a group’s special interest area, such as partnering with businesses to further public art, arts education, arts advocacy, or economic development efforts in a community.

Whether your audience is artists, arts administrators, local business leaders, or a combination of all three, Americans for the Arts is ready and willing to lead a workshop in your community! For information and to learn about bringing a program to your community, contact the Private Sector Initiatives team.

Looking for ways to strengthen your arts and business partnerships, or just getting started? Browse through our professional development offerings that are focused on Arts & Business on ArtsU, Americans for the Arts' online education forum for arts professionals to gain new skills, knowledge, and connections to further their personal and organizational goals.

Conference Calls
Want to converse with your peers about topics like running a campaign, recognizing donors, or allocating funds? Contact the Private Sector Initiatives team for a list of conference call topics and the recordings.

Webinars
We know you are committed to expanding your professional skills and knowledge, but you can't always travel to meetings and presentations. Take advantage of our easy option for online learning to learn how to build new business partnerships or strengthen your current ones! View a list of our upcoming webinars, and browse through our archived Arts & Business webinars on ArtsU.

Blog Salons
Take a look at our past blog salons and stay tuned for information on upcoming events. In between blog salons, you can stay up-to-date with our bi-weekly Private Sector ARTSblog posts.

• Time & Treasure to the Arts: This week-long conversation on philanthropy and volunteerism for the arts featured posts from corporate supporters of the arts, United Arts funds, business volunteers, philanthropists, and more. They touch on topics such as corporate volunteerism, public funding in the arts, policies affecting arts philanthropy, and young patrons groups.
• Arts & Business Partnerships: This blog salon focused on the variety of arts and business partnerships that exist around the country, both on the national and local levels, with input from both the business and arts perspectives.
• Corporate Social Responsibility & the Arts: This blog salon featured posts from corporate and foundation leaders who have partnered with arts organizations on events and programs having a large impact within their communities. These mutually beneficial partnerships between the private sector and the arts world create positive social change within companies and the communities they serve.
• Employee Engagement and the Arts: This blog salon heard from voices in the corporate and arts communities about efforts to bring the arts to the workplace to stimulate innovation and deepen the daily practice of creativity in our lives.

The pARTnership Movement is an initiative from Americans for the Arts to reach business leaders with the message that partnering with the arts can build their competitive advantage.

News
Read news stories on great examples of arts and business partnerships, including employee engagement through the arts, sponsorships, enacting social change and the arts with corporate social responsibility goals, and more.

Success Stories
For a deeper look at real stories from successful partnerships, read our success stories that align with one or more of our 8 reasons to partner with the arts.

Ad Campaign
We have created print and web ads with the tagline “Inspired people bring creativity to work” to inform business leaders about how partnering with the arts builds their competitive advantage. These ads are meant to spark a conversation with businesses about how arts partnerships are being used as a key way to enhance the critical thinking and creativity skills of the corporate workforce and help businesses achieve goals including recruitment, retention and team building. Learn about easy and cost effective ways you can use the ads in our Using the pARTnership Movement Ad Campaign tool-kit.

Tool-Kits
The pARTnership Movement website includes a set of tool-kits that cover everything you need to foster or strengthen partnerships with businesses at your arts organization! Learn how to

• Defining the Creative Economy
• Build partnerships with businesses
• Use the pARTnership Movement ad campaign
• Speak the language of business leaders
• Work with small and midsize businesses
• Use the Creative Industries reports with a business audience
• Use our Arts & Economic Prosperity report to strengthen your case to businesses
• Partner with businesses to enact social change
• Engage employee resource groups by developing collaborative programming
• Partner with your local chamber of commerce
• Work with businesses to advocate for public funding and support for the arts
• Engage employees through the arts
• Bring the arts to the workplace
• Work with volunteers
• Establish a Business Volunteers for the Arts® program

Americans for the Arts Reports
Business Contributions to the Arts: 2018 Edition
Americans for the Arts, in partnership with The Conference Board, conducted this survey which examines business support and employee engagement for the arts. The survey draws on 123 responses from companies of all sizes that participate in corporate philanthropy, employee engagement, volunteer programs, or sponsorships.

Creative Industries
A comprehensive research tool, Creative Industries: Business & Employment in the Arts, analyzes national business and employment data for both the nonprofit and for-profit arts sectors. The reports offer a new, facts-based approach to understanding the scope and importance of the arts to the nation's economy, giving businesses valuable data to advocate advancing the arts.

Arts & Economic Prosperity 5
Arts advocates can use this report to demonstrate how the nonprofit arts and culture industry is an economic driver, strengthening our nation’s economy by supporting jobs, generating government revenue, and acting as a cornerstone of the tourism industry. Learn how to use the report with a business audience in our pARTnership Movement tool-kit, Arts & Economic Prosperity: Using the Report’s Data to Strengthen Your Case to Businesses.

The BCA Survey of Business Support for the Arts is the nation’s largest survey of its kind, delving beyond pure numbers into the motivations behind and goals of business partnerships with the arts. The specific findings from the survey are used to project national trends in support for the arts by businesses large and small across our nation.

Profile of Local Arts Agencies: In 2018, Americans for the Arts commenced the Profile of Local Arts Agencies, a new annual survey designed to illuminate the ever-adapting role of local arts agencies (LAAs). The Profile will track and examine trends in the programs, budgets, and operations of the LAA field. Each year, the survey includes a pair of supplemental modules that will take a deeper dive into specific topics—in 2018, the supplemental topics included (1) Grantmaking and Equitable Investment, and (2) LAA Salaries and Compensation. For a closer look at issues affecting the united arts fund network, take a look at the LAA Profile Dashboard and compare United Arts Funds against the rest of the LAA field.

Public Opinion Poll: A national sample of 3,023 adults were polled online by Ipsos in May 2018 on topics such as the importance of arts education, support for government arts funding, personal engagement in the arts, and personal and community benefits that come from engaging in the arts. The last public opinion poll by Americans for the Arts was conducted in 2015.

Private Sector Network Reports
United Arts Funds: There are currently 40 United Arts Funds (UAF) operating in the United States, which we survey each year to learn about their fundraising tactics and goals. If you are not a UAF member but would like to view stats from our most recent report, learn more from our United Arts Funds Fiscal Year 2018 Fact Sheet.

Business Volunteers for the Arts®: How active are BVAs across the country? Find out from our Business Volunteers for the Arts® National Report for Fiscal Year 2013 Fact Sheet.

Speakers Bureau
Looking for a dynamic and engaging speaker to talk about arts and business partnerships? We keep and regularly update a list of speakers from both the business and nonprofits worlds, including business leaders, arts administrators, and artists. To be directed to potential speakers in your area, contact the Private Sector Initiatives team with your location, topic, and the type of person you’re seeking for the event.

Arts & Business Council Logo & Branding Guide
If you are an Arts & Business Council (A&BC) that wishes to update its logo, or are a new A&BC seeking logo requirements, please download our Arts & Business Council Logo & Branding Guide. For more information contact the Private Sector Initiatives team.

Research from the Field
Ready to Innovate: Are Educators and Executives Aligned on the Creative Readiness of the U.S. Workforce?
Americans for the Arts and the Conference Board, in partnership with the American Association of School Administrators, surveyed public school superintendents and American business executives to identify and compare their views on creativity and innovation. While creativity is increasingly important in the workplace, there is a gap between that recognized importance and the hiring practices of companies.

Employee Engagement, Diversity & Equity Resources

• Engaging Employee Resource Groups Tool-kit
• Embrace Diversity and Team-Building Essay
• Embrace Diversity and Team Building Success Stories
• pARTnership Movement news items addressing diversity