The events of November 4th provide an opportunity for state arts agency leaders to reacquaint themselves with NASAA’s goals and expectations for the incoming administration and Congress. How will election results affect the arts and state arts agencies? What challenges and opportunities will arts advocates encounter; How will NASAA engage elected and appointed officials to…
All conference photos courtesy Dan Reynolds Photography Assembly 2008 in Chattanooga, Tennessee, left nothing to be desired. Dolly Parton’s opening keynote about the genesis and evolution of her national Imagination Library initiative, which instills a love for reading in pre-schoolers by supplying them with age-appropriate books, set a high standard for inspirational presentations. Broadcast journalist…
I hope all of you plan on attending Assembly 2008 in Chattanooga. The Tennessee Arts Commission is pulling out all the stops to showcase Chattanooga, and the NASAA staff is putting together an exciting menu of sessions and speakers. Visit the Assembly 2008conference site to learn more and to register online. ASSEMBLY A gathering of…
Dick Deasy, founding director of the Arts Education Partnership (AEP), has announced he will retire later this year after 13 years of exemplary leadership firmly establishing the primary forum for advancing arts education in the United States. We are reminded that, in addition to the valuable achievements of the individual state arts agencies, they have…
The Dana Foundation is to be commended for sustaining its arts education program and connecting it with its brain research activities. The long-awaited findings of their investigation since 2004 on the relationship between study of the arts and the brain is now available. You can read or download Learning, Arts and the Brain from www.dana.org.…
I want to draw your attention to a new national survey of 1,000 likely voters that indicates great potential support for candidates who advocate arts education in connection with cultivating the imagination and stimulating innovation. The demonstration that a clear path to public value can be established by connecting the experience of arts learning to…
Arts advocates scored an impressive victory with the significant restoration of funding for the National Endowment for the Arts in the 2008 omnibus appropriations bill (see this month’s update from NASAA’s legislative counsel, Tom Birch). NASAA’s members have been key players over the years in working toward this historic legislative achievement, building relationships with their…
“Creative economy” or one of its closely-related concepts—creative community, cultural economy, creative class, creative workforce—is a topic in almost every conversation I have with a state arts agency leader. The message that artistic processes and products contribute to the public benefits of community improvement and economic development is one that artists and arts organizations believe…
The collective mission of state arts agencies has always been to broaden and deepen participation in the arts. How state arts agencies have accomplished that mission, in programmatic terms, has evolved as the environment has changed over the past forty years. One tactic of state arts agencies has been to support the development and growth…
Oregon – Arts funding up 20 percent with grants of $1.36 million to groups Gov. Ted Kulongoski announced more than $1.36 million in funding for various Oregon cultural institutions and programs. All of it comes courtesy of the Oregon Cultural Trust, a state-run trust for culture and the arts. The Oregonian, 7/30/2007 New Jersey -…
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