The California Arts Council (CAC), in partnership with the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), is heading up a revived state commitment to bringing the arts into correctional facilities in effort to reduce inmate recidivism, improve inmate behavior, and foster the development of life skills such as self-discipline, patience and conflict resolution. Through its…
Thirty state arts agencies award fellowship grants to individual artists, but only two of them also offer arts administration fellowships. These programs recognize the achievements—and advance the leadership and management skills—of the hardworking, talented people who make sure theatre curtains rise, gallery doors stay open and communities have opportunities to thrive creatively. Through the Elizabeth…
Innovative ideas may come easily to artists, educators and arts organizations, but funding opportunities to realize them can be more elusive. In West Virginia, this dilemma spawned a unique collaboration to create the Full STEAM Ahead grant program. Through it, the West Virginia Commission on the Arts (WVCA), the Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation and the…
Through a new series of Arts and Inclusion (A&I) Conversations, the Tennessee Arts Commission (TAC) is working with another state agency, the Tennessee Council on Developmental Disabilities, to increase participation and inclusion in the arts for all Tennesseans. The conversations, coordinated and facilitated by the Council on Developmental Disabilities, bring together representatives of local disability…
No matter the medium or discipline, crafts develop through contemporary practice as much as preservation of tradition. The Arkansas Arts Council (AAC) realizes this through its Arkansas Made Living Treasure Films Series, through which it collaborates with the Historic Arkansas Museum and filmmakers to produce documentaries about the artists and craftspeople who have received AAC’s…
To celebrate this year’s bicentennial of the national anthem, the Maryland State Arts Council (MSAC) and Star-Spangled 200, the nonprofit group organizing this September’s Star-Spangled Spectacular celebration, are holding the Star-Spangled Sing-off. This statewide competition has a grand prize of $1,814, a governor’s citation and the opportunity to perform at a public event during the…
The Mississippi Arts Commission (MAC) has taken its commitment to strengthening the state’s creative economy, places and communities to the next level with the recent launch of its Creative Mississippi Institute (CMI). Building off MAC’s 2011 Mississippi’s Creative Economy study, the new CMI is an on-line and broadcast-radio clearinghouse of technical assistance for creative economic…
Through its participation in the National Park Service and Amtrak’s Trails & Rails Program, the North Dakota Council on the Arts (NDCA) cultivates audiences and opportunities for local performing artists while simultaneously introducing travelers to the state’s cultural and geographic diversity. The national Trails & Rails Program, which began in 2002, aims to connect Amtrak…
New Jersey recently marked a national milestone when it became the first state to include arts education in its annual assessment of public schools. While the State of New Jersey Department of Education’s comprehensive evaluation—its second ever—does not measure students’ grades or test scores in the arts, it does report on the percentage of high…
With the conclusion of the Arts Participation Leadership Initiative (APLI), a four-year experiment to bolster audience engagement and arts participation conducted by the Washington State Arts Commission (ArtsWA) and The Wallace Foundation, ArtsWA remains committed to sharing the knowledge the project created and to growing a learning community around it. ArtsWA’s APLI web portal now…
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