NASAA News and Current Information

Don’t Miss the Chance to Double Your Impact!

Now through December 31 you can make an even bigger impact on state arts agencies by giving to NASAA’s 25 for 25 matching gift campaign. We’re halfway to our $25,000 campaign goal—and to earning the additional $25,000 matching grant from the Windgate Foundation. We need your help to raise the rest! Every dollar makes a real difference to the support NASAA can provide to state arts agencies in 2018. Double the value of your gift now! Thank you.

NEA Reports on Arts, Design, and Innovation in Rural America

Rural Arts, Design, and Innovation in America is a new paper from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) that compares rural and urban arts organizations and explores factors related to innovative and/or design-integrated businesses operating outside of metro regions. The report, which is the product of a formal research collaboration between the NEA and the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service, draws on data from the latter’s 2014 Rural Establishment Innovation Survey and from the U.S. Census. The NEA published four research briefs to accompany and expand on the findings of the report: Rural Versus Urban Arts-and-Cultural Organizations, Exploring Rural Communities by the Presence of Performing Arts Organizations, Innovation and Design Use by Small Manufacturers, and Local Arts and Entertainment as a Draw for Businesses and Their Workers.

State Fiscal Trends: Expenditures, Revenue and Personal Income Growth

Three organizations recently published updates on state fiscal conditions, providing a mixed and uncertain account of states’ financial health. According to the most recent State Expenditure Report from the National Association of State Budget Officers, aggregate state spending from fiscal years 2016 to 2017 shows substantial growth at 5.2%. All regions experienced growth in the last two fiscal years, though the far west and southeast experienced the highest rates of growth in FY2017. At the same time, state revenue collection, according to the Center for Budget and Policy Priorities, has come in below projections for a majority of states: 30 states have had to address budget shortfalls in FY2017 or FY2018. Personal income taxes account for 45% of state general revenues, and a new report from Pew’s Stateline finds that personal income is growing at a slow rate, still not commensurate with prerecession levels.

Survey of Choral Conductors

In a new report, Choral Conductors Today, Chorus America explores the findings from its 2017 survey of more than 600 maestros, which included questions about their professional training, career path, salary and current responsibilities. It also compares the survey’s results with those from Chorus America’s last survey of this cohort of conductors, which took place in 2005. The report is a useful resource for conductors, chorus managers and others interested in how the profession has changed over the past 12 years.

Strategic National Arts Alumni Project’s 2017 Annual Report

The Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP), a collaboration between the Center for Postsecondary Research at the Indiana University School of Education and the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts at Arizona State University, has released the SNAAP 2017 Annual Report, which maps the career trajectories of art school graduates. It summarizes the results of SNAAP’s 2016 and 2015 on-line surveys of more than 65,000 arts alumni hailing from 84 postsecondary institutions and 6 high schools in North America. The report—which is designed to be used by prospective students, educators, researchers, funders, policymakers and other stakeholders—highlights findings about alumni involvement in the arts, skills development, access to career resources, use of social networks and overall satisfaction with an arts education.

Philip Horn of Pennsylvania to Retire in January

Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (PCA) Executive Director Philip Horn will retire effective January 2018. Horn has been PCA’s executive director since 1993. Under his leadership, PCA expanded the reach of state arts funding across the commonwealth and developed its regional partnerships and initiatives to form a robust statewide arts infrastructure. Horn oversaw launch of the nation’s longest and most comprehensive state arts agency program serving diverse communities, as well as the first statewide partnership of Pennsylvania’s major public/private funders in support of the arts. During his tenure, PCA established innovative cultural tourism strategies, deployed an electronic grant application and fostered the development of the Pennsylvania Cultural Data Project. Horn was instrumental in the establishment of the Center for Arts Management and Technology at Carnegie Mellon University. Among his awards are NASAA’s 2005 Gary Young Award and the 2013 Sidney R. Yates Award for Outstanding Advocacy from the Association of Performing Arts Presenters. The national and international boards and committees on which he has served include the National PTA Board, the Mid Atlantic Arts Foundation, the Executive Committee of NASAA and the Japan/U.S. Cultural Trade Network, of which he was cochair. PCA is conducting a national search for a new executive director.

Beth Klingenstein to Depart North Dakota Council on the Arts

Dr. Beth Klingenstein will depart the North Dakota Council on the Arts (NDCA) in January, after serving as executive director since 2014. While at NDCA, Klingenstein worked to expand partnerships with other state agencies, arts organizations, and local and state officials, and championed the arts in North Dakota communities of all sizes. Her accomplishments as executive director include oversight of a new agency website, implementation of a new on-line grants management system, participation in the Arts & Economic and Prosperity 5 Study and publication of the award-winning Guide to North Dakota Art and Cultural Destinations. Klingenstein presented the NDCA budget at two legislative sessions during which she shared videos of the arts in North Dakota and maps of grantees (by county and district) that were created specifically for state legislators, highlighting arts participation in communities across the state. For the 125th anniversary celebration of North Dakota’s statehood, the agency created the exhibit Under the Dakota Sky. In addition, a 50th anniversary booklet highlighting the history of the agency was produced, as was an award-winning catalogue, Art50!, showcasing the agency’s two 50th anniversary art exhibits. During Klingenstein’s tenure, the NDCA grant structure was reorganized, with particular care taken in arts education. NDCA received a Bush Foundation Community Cohort grant and expanded its Art for Life program, and released the arts and creative aging toolkit, which reaches 1,200 organizations in North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota, as well as every state arts agency in the country. A search for her successor is under way.