As the 2023 holiday season now surrounds us, I hope that each of you will find comfort and mega-loads of joy with the folks you hold dear. I’m looking forward to abundant family time this year, as well as NASAA’s virtual holiday party thanks to inspiration and organization from elves Marisa Summers and Sandi Tun.…
NASAA President and CEO Pam Breaux addressed members at NASAA’s 2023 virtual business meeting in October. Hello, everyone. As always, it’s so great to be with you. Especially during these days of rapid change and rampant change, it’s particularly gratifying and sustaining to be in community with each of you. In fact, the warm embrace…
I recently joined state arts agency leaders for the NASAA 2023 Learning Series session, Leading in the Face of Disaster. We all know that unexpected disasters are often devastating for communities, and the arts community is certainly no exception. Whether we’re thinking about weather and climate disasters like floods, fires and hurricanes or about other…
In this month’s column, we hear from Sandy Shaughnessy, director of the Florida Division of Arts and Culture and chair of NASAA’s 2023 Nominating Committee. I love “nominating season” at NASAA! Let me tell you why. In June, everyone who is a voting member of our Assembly (state and jurisdictional arts agency executive directors…
As we move into a new fiscal year for most state and jurisdictional arts agencies (SAAs), I am struck by how many new people have joined the ranks of SAA staffers. If you are among our newer colleagues, please accept my warm welcome to the state arts agency community and NASAA! It is always a…
Earlier this year, NASAA invited state arts agency (SAA) executive directors and National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) Chair Maria Rosario Jackson to come together to begin a discussion about advancing arts based cross-sector collaborations within government—at the federal, state and jurisdictional levels. We asked ourselves: how do we build sustainable opportunities for the arts…
For my NASAA Notes column this month, I am pleased to share this space with our incomparable board chair and former chair of the Michigan Arts and Culture Council, Omari Rush. In addition to his ongoing service chairing NASAA’s board of directors and Executive Committee, Omari recently had the opportunity to join Aaron Dworkin for…
As I write, I’m thinking about recent devastating weather events and their impact on arts communities and communities generally. As our friends in rain-soaked parts of California and the tornado-stricken areas of Mississippi, Alabama and Georgia determine how best to move forward, I know that state arts agencies are showing up for their communities dealing…
With state legislative sessions in full swing across the country, advocacy is top of mind for state arts agencies (SAAs) and citizen advocates. To help your advocacy practices take flight and advance arts policy, NASAA continues to create and update a variety of tools designed to support state level work. I’m happy to share a…
In recent weeks, a number of state arts agency leaders and advocates have taken time to let me know that NASAA’s advocacy messaging guide is proving quite productive for their work. I really appreciate the feedback for a couple of reasons. First, I want all our resources to help gainfully advance and strengthen the work…
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