NASAA News and Current Information

We Did It—Thank You!

Because of your generosity, NASAA met our year-end fundraising goal! We raised $25,000 by December 31, which means we’ll receive a $25,000 matching grant from the Windgate Foundation. That’s $50,000 for NASAA! Many, many thanks to all of our supporters who made this happen. Individual support will help NASAA in 2018 to provide new advocacy resources to protect public funding for the arts, customized research to help you make the case for funding, and so much more. Thank you!

Performing Arts Ticket Buyer Media Usage Study

A new report from Capacity Interactive and WolfBrown considers performing arts patrons’ use of mobile devices, patterns of digital media consumption and ticket purchasing preferences. The report, which is based on a survey of patrons of 58 performing arts organizations in the United States and Canada, also reveals the relationship between consumption preferences and age. While its findings are most relevant to the organizations that participated in the study, the report provides useful information on technology use and digital marketing strategies for organizations wanting to engage with and expand audiences.

Diversifying Art Museum Leadership Initiative

Based on their shared commitment to help art museums better reflect—and serve—communities with evolving demographics, the Ford Foundation and the Walton Family Foundation have invested $6 million ($3 million each) in a new grant program designed to increase the diversity of upper level museum curators and managers. Over three years, their Diversifying Art Museum Leadership Initiative will fund projects that develop strategies and programs that work toward the program’s vision of, by 2025, 30% of mid and senior level art museum curators and managers hailing from historically underrepresented and diverse backgrounds. The program will foster racial as well as socioeconomic, sexual identity, gender, physical ability and other forms of diversity. Eligible projects include those focused on existing as well as future museum professionals.

Arts Education Prevents School Dropouts

The National Dropout Prevention Center/Network at Clemson University has released The Arts and Dropout Prevention: The Power of Art to Engage, detailing the importance of arts education to prevent students from quitting school. The paper offers recommendations for research and for instruction. It suggests, among other things, that longitudinal studies should include schools from low socioeconomic status communities and that research models should account for demographic, background, and environmental elements as well as cognitive, behavioral, and socioemotional factors. For classroom practice, it recommends that students become involved in arts education by at least nine years of age, that out-of-school and after-school arts education opportunities be available, and that arts educators foster long-term partnerships with community stakeholders.

The Bottom Line Report

The latest release from the National Center for Arts Research at Southern Methodist University, The Burden of Rising Expenses in the Arts: The Bottom Line Report, examines changes in arts organizations’ revenues and expenditures between 2013 and 2016. Using data from 4,800 organizations, the report found that the average organization’s bottom line is currently just breaking even and that, over recent years, revenue growth has fallen short of expense growth on the aggregate. When taking into account depreciation, the average arts organization has a negative surplus, meaning many organizations are not reserving sufficient funds to maintain their fixed assets. The full report contains interactive charts, which allow viewers to select specific arts sectors, organization sizes and regions.

Lance Schrader Joins West Virginia as Arts Section Director

Lance Schrader was appointed by West Virginia Division of Culture and History Commissioner Randall Reid-Smith to be the director of the agency’s Arts Section in December. Schrader has more than 25 years’ experience working in West Virginia’s film industry in a variety of capacities, having served as the location coordinator for the West Virginia Film Office from 2016-2017. He worked on notable media and broadcast projects including We Are Marshall, The Montel Williams Show, Inside Edition, The CBS Evening News, What the Night Can Do, and NBC’s My Brother, My Brother and Me. Schrader has a background in visual arts and maintains a strong interest in drawing, and has been involved in theater productions for many years. He owned a production company and was previously director of events at Huntington’s Big Sandy Arena, director of event services at Seneca Communications, and creative director for American Technology Rentals and Lee Hartman & Sons. He has a passion for West Virginia Radio’s Mountain Stage and has been on its technical crew for a combined 15 years. Schrader has a master’s degree in radio/television broadcasting from the William Page Pitt School of Journalism at Marshall University and a bachelor’s degree in communications, with a double-track emphasis in film and theater (and a minor in art), from West Virginia State College.