Emily Saunders

We are cultural ambassadors, arts advocates, civic engagers, and change agents connecting and collaborating to bring the arts into the everyday landscape. As one of many, my focus has been on how to make the arts more accessible to under-served communities. I serve Metro Arts Alliance of Des Moines as an AmeriCorps VISTA. Metro Arts of Des Moines helps make the arts more accessible through free jazz concerts preformed in city parks, and arts integration programs presented within the schools.

By engaging participants from within every neighborhood, we are able to connect the arts to all. In my work, I have seen how cultural engagement within nontraditional spaces has helped bring arts experiences to those across the spectrum. During my year of service I have coordinated 129 arts programs in 59 locations with 25 artists reaching 8,744 youth within Central Iowa.

In serving the underserved, I know how critical it is for the quality of life of a community to have the arts present. It is especially important as we bring arts access to these communities that cultural place-making and place-keeping is authentically addressed. Being able to delve deeply into these topic areas at this year’s AFTA’s Annual Convention has helped me better understand how to engage the community, address the changing landscape of arts integration, and put this work into a larger context. Program sessions at this year’s conference that I really loved included: The Power of Art to Transform Communities, In Creative Place Making Whose “Place” is it to Make, Reaching Past the Traditional Arts Nonprofits to Increase Impact, and Favianna Rodrigues on Advocating and Empowering Through Culture.

I am very thankful to Americans for the Arts for honoring me with the full-ride scholarship for serving underserved communities. Connecting to this powerful network to learn, be inspired and grow professionally has been very meaningful. I am currently applying for work in the field of nonprofit arts management, to learn more about my work please see this article written by my alma mater: http://aad.uoregon.edu/news/alumna-emily-saunders-awarded-afta-scholarship and check out my e-portfolio: http://www.emilysaunders.net/