NASAA News and Current Information

Now Accepting Nominations: 2020 NASAA Leadership Awards

The 2020 NASAA Leadership Awards recognize outstanding leadership in our field and include two new awards centered on diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). NASAA’s new DEI Awards recognize a state arts agency and an individual associated with a state arts agency demonstrating innovative and exceptional efforts to support and advance DEI in their state. As in past years, the Distinguished Public Service Award honors the exemplary service of a state arts agency or regional arts organization council leader, while the Gary Young Award recognizes the significant contributions of an executive director. Nominations are due by August 28. Visit the 2020 NASAA Leadership Awards Call for Nominations page for more information and to nominate an outstanding leader of your choice.

People of Color Affinity Group

People of Color Affinity Group leaders are developing a plan to convene participants for two meetings this fall and winter. The group is led by cochairs Abigail Gomez, vice chair of the Virginia Commission for the Arts, and Encarnacion Teruel, deputy director of the Illinois Arts Council Agency, and advisor and NASAA board member Carla DuPree. This member-led group is open to all state arts agency and regional arts organization staff and council members who identify as persons of color. The purpose of the group is to connect people of color within the state arts agency field to each other, and ensure a safe and brave space within the larger body of NASAA membership for members of color to support each other as well as provide counsel to NASAA on topics related to our diversity, equity and inclusion portfolio. Please be on the lookout for additional information about the affinity group in the September issue of NASAA Notes. If you would like to join the affinity group, please contact NASAA’s Marisa Summers.

Register for 2020 NASAA Learning Series

Shifting Policy and Practice: Insights and Actions for States is NASAA’s new learning series that equips state arts agencies with the tools and understanding you need to manage today’s fluctuating environment for the arts. Seven sessions spread over nine weeks (August 27-October 22) cover equity in grant making, community cohesion, empowering older populations, shifting our messaging and adapting state arts agency programs in light of COVID-19. The final session brings the NASAA community together to recognize outstanding leadership in the field, to showcase outstanding diversity, equity and inclusion work, and more. Register for your preferred sessions or the full series—it’s FREE for the staff and council members of state and jurisdictional arts agencies and regional arts organizations.

Watch New to NASAA? Web Seminar

We had a great turnout last month for our first New to NASAA? web seminar. In case you missed it—or want help onboarding new state arts agency council members or staff in the future—check out the video and related resources. This 30-minute session offers a succinct overview of services NASAA offers to support your work. Learn about research resources, advocacy tools and professional development opportunities, as well as ways to plug into a supportive network of state arts agency colleagues. And don’t forget: you can reach out to us anytime.

Strengthen Your Work

If the arts are the heart of our country, state arts agencies are the heartbeat. You address the immediate and long-term needs of artists and arts organizations, you sustain the arts in communities big and small, and you improve lives through the arts. On top of all that, you are essential to the arts field’s COVID-19 response and recovery. Supporting NASAA with a gift strengthens the vital work you do—and together we advance the arts. Please consider making a gift to NASAA today. Thank you!

Upcoming NASAA Events Calendar

Many events have become virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic—including NASAA’s. As we ramp up our year-round professional development offerings, we want you to be in the know so you can stay connected with your colleagues. Upcoming NASAA events include our 2020 Learning Series, Shifting Policy and Practice, peer group convenings, and more. To help keep track of it all, refer to the Upcoming NASAA Events Calendar. If you have any questions about how you can take advantage of these programs, contact NASAA Learning Services Director Eric Giles.

David Slatery Is Acting ED in Massachusetts

Massachusetts Cultural Council Deputy Director David T. Slatery has been named acting executive director of the agency while a search is undertaken for a new director following the retirement of longtime ED Anita Walker. Slatery has been deputy director since 2012, also acting as chief financial officer and chief legal officer. After many years in law and finance, Slatery came to the arts by working to provide affordable housing for artists in his role as general counsel and deputy director of MassDevelopment, the state’s economic development authority. Over the past 30 years, he has served in many roles in state agencies, served on the boards of several community arts organizations, and privately practiced business and real estate law. In those roles, he acquired a strong interest in supporting the creative economy and arts based redevelopment. Slatery is a graduate of Allegheny College and University of Chicago Law School.

Mississippi’s Malcolm White to Retire

After nearly 15 years of public service to the state of Mississippi, Malcolm White will retire as executive director of the Mississippi Arts Commission (MAC) on September 30. His career in public service has included two stints as executive director of MAC as well as several years serving as director of Visit Mississippi. White began his career in public service as the executive director of MAC in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina in 2005, administering recovery programs to artists and arts organizations impacted by the storm. He promoted the arts as an economic driver, a means of community transformation and a powerful educational tool. White remained with the agency until 2012, when he became director of Visit Mississippi, which is Mississippi Development Authority’s tourism division. While there, he developed and implemented plans to create economic growth and opportunities through tourism and the creative economy and promoted the state as a travel destination and film location. Returning to MAC as executive director in 2016, White oversaw a digitization of the agency’s grant process, the creation of the Mississippi Writers Trail and a re-envisioning of the agency’s signature arts education program, Mississippi Whole Schools. The Arts Commission has launched a search for a new executive director.