Cultural districts can be an invaluable tool for states seeking to promote economic and community development. NASAA often receives information requests about the variety of strategies that leverage the economic strengths of the arts in cultural districts and the practical policies enacted that make them work. The following examples of state-led cultural districts highlight the…
Arts and culture partnerships can help public health programs achieve their goals with higher levels of participation and efficiency. In an effort to utilize the value of arts to educate communities and build confidence in both COVID-19 and influenza vaccines, the CDC Foundation, a nonprofit that is mobilizing the philanthropic efforts of the Centers for…
The American Rescue Plan (ARP) contains nearly $200 billion in emergency funding for states and territories to support a continued public health response, build infrastructure and promote equitable recovery. This state-led funding gives states and territories the ability to use these dollars in the ways that are most effective for each state. As with the…
COVID-19 continues to have an adverse impact on students, families, educators, and school communities across the nation. Recent studies suggest that suspension of face-to-face instruction in schools during the pandemic led to learning loss, with the effects on students of color and kids from low income families being especially pronounced. Educators and health experts also…
With a $1 million Civil Monetary Penalty grant from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services and the Tennessee Department of Health, the Tennessee Arts Commission (TAC) is implementing Music & Memory Tennessee, a model therapeutic-music program that will serve at least 2,200 patients in 147 nursing homes over the next three years. Music &…
The Mississippi Arts Commission (MAC), through its Dille Fund for Visual Art Acquisition, encourages the growth of publically accessible art collections to better enable Mississippians from across the state to engage with and enjoy the visual arts. Based on a 1993 bequest from a constituent honoring the memory of his parents, the Dille Fund underwrites…
Thanks to recently enacted legislation, the Nevada Arts Council (NAC) will benefit from an additional $150,000 each year in dedicated revenue from the state’s live entertainment tax (LET). Introduced to “clean up” existing LET laws, S.B. 266 was monitored by Nevada advocates for amendments that would affect nonprofit arts organizations. In a legislative session challenged…
The South Carolina Arts Commission (SCAC) and the South Carolina Arts Foundation have partnered since 1972 to support artists, arts organizations and communities in a number of ways. The foundation’s South Carolina Art Sale is a particularly effective means of promoting artists statewide and building markets for their work. Held in conjunction with the South…
Arizona Art Tank is a new Arizona Commission on the Arts (ACA) initiative that harnesses the spirit of crowdsourcing to make strategic investments in arts based entrepreneurial ventures. Through the program, funded by a portion of ACA’s one-time additional budget allocation of $1 million, applicants were invited to pitch, at public and participatory Art Tank…
The California Arts Council (CAC) has created six new programs with an extra $2 million in one-time funds from the California State Assembly. The $2-million supplement, which was allocated from a discretionary fund via a budget bill passed in July, brought CAC’s total fiscal year 2014 budget to $7 million. With the boon of its…