Member News and NASAA Resources

Utah’s Victoria Bourns to Retire in July

Utah Division of Arts & Museums Director Victoria Panella Bourns will retire on July 16. Since she became the director of the agency in 2017, Bourns led the division as it navigated the COVID-19 pandemic, overseeing timely distribution of American Rescue Plan Act and Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act funding from the federal government. For this effort, she was recognized by Zions Bank and received the Sundance Film Festival 2021 Sundance Women’s Leadership Celebration award. Under her shepherding, the agency’s state grants budget and allocation from the National Endowment for the Arts increased. Bourns championed the agency’s involvement in the new Museum of Utah, and led the celebration of the division’s recent 125th anniversary.

During her tenure, Bourns chaired the Salt Lake County Zoo, Arts & Parks Tier I advisory board for two years and served on the WESTAF (currently Creative West) board. Also during her service, Americans for the Arts honored Gov. Gary Herbert with its Governors Arts Leadership Award. The division launched “Breaking Barriers,” a course about accessibility training for the cultural community. The agency received $500,000 in funding from the Institute for Museum and Library Services for a three-year measurement of museum social impact. The agency’s museum services staff, in partnership with Utah Humanities, was awarded funding from the National Endowment for the Humanities to create the Utah Community Preservation Program to train professionals across the state who manage cultural collections. The division began its creative aging program with a grant from NASAA, in partnership with E.A. Michelson Philanthropy. The agency’s visual art fellowship program expanded to offer awards to performing and literary artists as well. In addition, the division commissioned artist Heath Satow to create AMH:1898, a sculpture honoring Alice Merrill Horne, the founder of the agency. A search for Bourns’s successor is in progress.

Vital & Vibrant Creative Aging Toolkit + Webinar

NASAA’s new Vital & Vibrant Creative Aging Toolkit equips state and jurisdictional arts agencies with everything they need to champion and implement creative aging in their communities. The toolkit includes resources to support state arts agencies in making the case, building the partnerships and launching the creative aging programs that help older adults thrive. Share it widely with colleagues and partners across the aging and arts sectors.

Learn more about the Vital & Vibrant Creative Aging Toolkit during our special Learning Series webinar, Tools for Advancing Creative Aging, taking place Wednesday, May 13, from 3:00-4:15 p.m. Eastern. Former NASAA Arts Learning Projects Director Susan Oetgen and Lifetime Arts Executive Director Heather Ikemire will help state arts agencies dig deeper into how they can put NASAA’s new toolkit and Lifetime Arts’s new creative aging policy brief to work to advance creative aging and creative futures in their communities. Registration is free and open to all.

For more information, contact NASAA Arts Learning Projects Director Meghan McFerrin.

Coming Soon: NASAA Assembly 2026; Leadership Awards Nominations

Be on the lookout: NASAA Assembly 2026 registration opens this month! Don’t miss your chance to be part of this inspiring gathering of members, ideas and momentum, taking place in our nation’s capital October 7 – 9. Stay tuned for updates and be ready to secure your spot as soon as registration opens.

Also coming up: The call for nominations for NASAA’s 2026 Leadership Awards opens in a few weeks, and we’re looking forward to showcasing incredible work from across the field. Keep an eye out for your chance to nominate outstanding leaders and exemplary work in your state or region!

Congratulations to 2026 Poetry Out Loud Winners

Clockwise from left: 2026 Poetry Out Loud National Champion Jayda Dawn of Indiana with NASAA President and CEO Pam Breaux; second-place winner Damien Deen of South Dakota; third-place winner Jaden Conley of Illinois. Photos by James Kegley

NASAA congratulates the winners of the national Poetry Out Loud competition, held in Washington, D.C., in April. Jayda Dawn, an 11th grade student at University High School of Indiana in Carmel, Indiana, is the 2026 Poetry Out Loud National Champion. She garnered a $20,000 award for taking the top prize among the students nationwide who participated in the program this year. Second-place and third-place winners were South Dakota’s Damien Deen and Illinois’s Jaden Conley, respectively. In recognition of America’s 250th anniversary in 2026, the 2026 Poetry Out Loud program focused on poems that celebrate the rich tapestry of American history and culture.

The National Endowment for the Arts partners with state and jurisdictional arts agencies to support Poetry Out Loud, a contest that encourages the nation’s youth to learn about great poetry—both classic and contemporary—through memorization and recitation. The program helps students master public speaking skills, build self-confidence and grow their appreciation for poetry. Since the program began in 2005, more than 4.5 million students and 85,000 teachers from 21,000 schools and organizations across the nation have participated in Poetry Out Loud. The Poetry Out Loud National semifinals and finals were administered by Mid Atlantic Arts.

A Time for Connection

At NASAA, we see every day how creativity connects us—across communities, across perspectives and across the many stories that shape our nation. At a time when connection matters more than ever, state arts agencies are at the heart of that work, helping ensure the arts and creativity remain accessible, vibrant and valued nationwide.

In the coming weeks, we’ll be kicking off our spring campaign, part of this year’s Creativity Connects Us theme. If you’d like to get a jump start, we invite you to make a gift today to support NASAA’s work strengthening state arts agencies and the creative communities they serve. Thank you!