professional membership
Featured Members
Americans for the Arts members are truly diverse – from large arts organizations to small ones; from funders to presenters; from urban centers to rural outposts. Despite their differences, they share the common goal of advancing and promoting the arts in their communities. Featured Member Projects highlights some of the many interesting and innovative means our members are using to strengthen their communities through the arts.Are you an Americans for the Arts member who would like to see your organization and project featured on this page? If so, share your story with us.
When the National Endowment for the Arts announced the American Masterpieces initiative, the Southern Arts Federation (SAF) considered what would fit the bill. SAF has a long history of touring exhibitions, and the Southern region is known for its craft and traditional art. So early this year, SAF launched Tradition/Innovation: American Masterpieces of Southern Craft and Traditional Art, a rich website companion to an exhibit touring nine states with the help of the American Masterpieces grant. Tradition/Innovation is a celebration of the contributions of master craftspeople and traditional artists in the South. Read more »
Bowling Green State University Public Art Committee
The Public Art Committee of Bowling Green State University wanted to create a class that would give upper-level undergraduate students the professional experience of competing for and producing a piece of commissioned public art from start to finish. Although administrators were told repeatedly that students would not be able to pull it off, they proceeded. Sculpture instructor Greg Mueller spearheaded the idea, offering with “The Poe Road Improvement Project” public art course in the fall of 2005.
St. Louis Regional Arts Commission
In an unprecedented collaboration, 19 cultural institutions in St. Louis, MO, will come together to increase ticket sales, museum memberships, and attract new audiences. Through DART, the database of the arts, the organizations will combine data from their ticket sales and memberships to develop profiles of arts buyers to whom they can target their efforts. Spearheaded by the St. Louis Regional Arts Commission (RAC), this initiative is the largest of its kind in the nation, based on similar but much smaller projects in Pittsburgh and Cleveland. Given the success of these first programs, DART certainly will not be the last. Read more »
Music making generates hundreds of millions of dollars for New York City’s economy each year. But music making is also a very tough business. The city’s professional musicians who are not associated with a well-financed music institution, an estimated 15,000 individuals, are profoundly affected by intense competition for rehearsal and performance spaces. Using an extensive online survey of musicians who perform in New York City and backed by a New York State Music Fund grant, NYC Performing Arts Spaces (NYCPAS) examined how the availability of rehearsal and performance space in the New York City area directly impacts musicians’ work patterns and productivity. With its survey and analysis, NYCPAS aimed to identify the space needs and consequent productivity constraints of professional performers, composers and music educators. Read more »
At the same time that arts organizations across the country are building gleaming, new performing arts centers like the Carnival Center for the Performing Arts in Miami, FL, and the Orange County Performing Artscenter in Costa Mesa, CA, many others are not so lucky. Nonprofit arts groups in the same communities still clamor for performance space, rehearsal locations, and meeting places. With its growing wealth in recent years, Washington, DC, has had the good fortune of building nine new, soaring performing arts palaces in as many years. So when the Shakespeare Theatre Company set out to build its second home, the impressive Sidney Harman Hall, and transform the company into a national destination, they didn't lose sight of their fellow arts groups. The new Harman Hall joins the Company's original Lansburgh Theatre to create the Harman Center for the Arts. The company has made both the Lansburgh Theatre and Harman Hall available as affordable, downtown arts venues for other arts organizations.
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