Regional arts organizations (RAOs) are 501(c)(3) nonprofit organizations that serve six distinct regions; together, they represent all states and jurisdictions in the United States. RAOs develop and lead both regional and national arts initiatives, encourage multistate collaborations, support the state arts agencies in their region, and leverage both public and private dollars to accelerate the arts and cultural policy. RAOs conduct a wide range of grant programs and service initiatives to enliven the arts in their respective regions and celebrate the cultural distinctiveness of different parts of the United States.
For more information on the roles and programs of RAOs, see:
State arts agencies (SAAs) shepherded the development of the RAOs in the 1970s. At that time, SAAs had no mechanism for supporting work that crossed state lines, such as performing arts touring. SAAs realized that they would benefit from the presence of partners with a complementary capacity to flexibly distribute public dollars in ways that SAAs themselves could not. If states could pool their resources, they could more efficiently foster regionally significant artistic disciplines, services to artists, touring and other regional arts development functions.
A team of state arts agencies and arts leaders came together to strategize about how such a multistate collaboration could be beneficial to arts agencies, artists and audiences in the region. Those discussions gave birth to the first RAO, Mid-America Arts Alliance. With the encouragement of SAAs, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and community arts leaders, other RAOs were created throughout the 1970s and early 1980s. Starting in 1975, allocations for RAOs were included in the partnership percentage of the NEA’s budget. RAOs became significant partners for the NEA, leading national programs that promoted specific artistic disciplines (notably dance, literature and Shakespearean theatre), facilitated touring to underserved communities and coordinated special initiatives.
As the RAOs grew, their roles diversified beyond touring to include many different multistate, national and even international initiatives. SAA executive directors and council members originally served as the governing boards of RAOs. Over time, those governing bodies diversified, as did the missions and the resource bases for RAOs. Today, RAOs receive significant private funding and generate earned income as well as receiving support through SAAs and the NEA.
SAAs and the NEA remain active stakeholders in RAOs. Like SAAs, RAOs apply to the NEA for Partnership Agreement funding. Regional Partnership Agreements include support for each RAO’s plan as well as funds designated for historically underserved communities, folk and traditional arts, and accessibility services.
