NASAA News and Current Information

Assembly 2018 Sessions Designed to Enrich & Inform

NASAA has designed an exceptional program of substantive learning sessions for state arts agency staff and council members at Assembly 2018, November 1-3 in Baltimore. Choose among sessions with an equity and inclusion focus—grants management, rural communities, indigenous engagement, inclusive dialogue. Discuss how arts advocates can advance civility and bridge divides. Get coached on your media communication skills and get pointers on branding for visibility. And … Flashes of Inspiration is back, with two sessions full of succinct showings of state arts agency successes! Please join us: register today and reserve your room at our discounted rate.

Help Us Showcase Your Work

Your service with your state arts agency strengthens the arts in communities large and small—and makes life better for men, women and children in every corner of the country! This is why NASAA works so hard for you—to lift up the positive impact of the arts on communities, policies, economies and lives. Please make a gift to NASAA today, to help us keep shining a spotlight on state arts agencies and the huge difference you make on American communities. We have just $4,200 left to raise to meet our $10,000 goal by August 31. Your support makes a real difference. Thank you!

Elevating the Influence of Arts and Culture

The Cleveland Partnership for Arts and Culture released a new advocacy playbook: Elevating the Influence of Arts and Culture. This monograph tells the story of how advocates in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, succeeded in passing a tax levy to fund the arts. After years of strategizing and learning through trial and error, voters and elected officials came to embrace this initiative, which ultimately yielded $158 million in support for culture. Cleveland, once a symbol of postindustrial urban decline, has since become a thriving example of creative placemaking. The report offers advocacy insights—about communications, coalition-building and persistence—that are relevant to state policy work.

NEA Publishes Five-Year Arts & Military Research Agenda

In Creative Forces Clinical Research: A Strategic Framework and Five Year Agenda, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) lays out its plans for adding a research component to its military healing arts partnership with the U.S. Department of Defense and state arts agencies. The NEA developed the new research agenda in response to the clinical needs of military service members and veterans coping with traumatic brain injury and post-traumatic stress. Forthcoming research will focus on targeted deployment of arts therapies interventions, arts therapies in integrated care and cotreatment, and measurement of patient characteristics vis-à-vis treatment variables and outcomes. This work will add to the collection of research and scholarly manuscripts already produced or being developed by the Creative Forces clinical team and its research collaborators.

How Principals Can Support Arts Education

A new resource from the Arts Education Partnership, What School Leaders Can Do to Increase Arts Education, describes three strategies that school leaders can implement to foster arts education and arts-integrated education. Building on a 2011 report, the brief outlines the action steps school leaders can take to establish schoolwide commitment to arts learning, create an arts-rich learning environment, and examine the use of time and resources for the arts.

Mary Taufetee Is ED in American Samoa

In July, Dr. Mary Lauagaia M. Taufetee became executive director of the American Samoa Council on Arts, Culture and Humanities. For 10 years previously, she was the American Samoa College American Samoa Territorial/State Forester in the Forestry Division of the American Samoa Community College (ASCC) & Agriculture, Community, Natural Resources. Prior to this she was instructor, counselor and adjunct instructor for the ASCC Planning Career Leadership Course. She has been a U.S. congressional staffer for the American Samoa Congress Office, as well as criminal assistant for the Criminal Division of the American Samoa Legal Affairs Department. For the Methodist Church, Taufetee has been a certified lay preacher since 2010 and is a music conductor and musician for the Methodist Church choir.

Kristina Newman-Scott Departs Connecticut

Kristina Newman-Scott, director of culture for the Connecticut Department of Economic and Community Development (DECD), has accepted a new position as president of the Brooklyn based arts organization BRIC. One of New York City’s biggest presenters of free cultural programming, BRIC is a multipurpose arts hub that offers exhibitions and performances as well as a public-access network, Brooklyn Free Speech TV. Newman-Scott was appointed as the director of culture in Connecticut, overseeing both the arts and historic preservation, in 2015. Prior to accepting that post, she was the city of Hartford’s first director of marketing, events and cultural affairs. Newman-Scott is a visual artist who grew up in Kingston, Jamaica. She said, “Connecticut has strong and vital arts and historic preservation communities and I am encouraged by its willingness to double down on relevance, equity, access, diversity and inclusion (READI) as a model to empower the citizens of our state.” DECD will initiate a national search for Newman-Scott’s successor. Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Catherine Smith will serve as the Connecticut Office of the Arts’s primary contact during the leadership transition.

Feby Varghese Joins NASAA Staff

Feby Varghese joined NASAA in July as executive associate to the chief program and planning officer. She assists members with technical assistance requests and coordinates NASAA’s onboarding and orientation activities for new state arts agency leaders. She also leads special projects, conducts research, and manages events relating to advocacy, communications and strategic planning. Feby first joined the NASAA team in 2017 as special projects manager, coordinating advocacy, strategic messaging and convenings in conjunction with a major communications grant. Before joining NASAA, Feby founded an artist management company in India and led public relations initiatives for Sangeet Natak Akademi (National Academy of Performing Arts) under the Ministry of Culture in India. She has been a congressional fellow at the office of Congressman Jim McDermott. A Fulbright scholar, she has two master’s degrees, in arts management and English literature, and a postgraduate diploma in copywriting. Feby speaks more than five languages. As a cross-cultural arts manager, she has worked in three capital cities of the world.