Thank you to the many people who have been blog contributors to, and readers of ArtsBlog over the years. ArtsBlog has long been a space where we uplifted stories from the field that demonstrated how the arts strengthen our communities socially, educationally, and economically; where trends and issues and controversies were called out; and advocacy tools were provided to help you make the case for more arts funding and favorable arts policies.

As part of Americans for the Arts’ recent Strategic Realignment Process, we were asked to evaluate our storytelling communications platforms and evolve the way we share content. As a result, we launched the Designing Our Destiny portal to explore new ways of telling stories and sharing information, one that is consistent with our longtime practice of, “No numbers without a story, and no stories without a number.”

As we put our energy into developing this platform and reevaluate our communications strategies, we have put ArtsBlog on hold. That is, you can read past blog posts, but we are not posting new ones. You can look to the Designing Our Destiny portal and our news items feed on the Americans for the Arts website for stories you would have seen in ArtsBlog in the past.

ArtsBlog will remain online through this year as we determine the best way to archive this valuable resource and the knowledge you’ve shared here.

As ever, we are grateful for your participation in ArtsBlog and thank you for your work in advancing the arts. It is important, and you are important for doing it.


Priya Sircar

This is why we all need to be arts advocates!

Posted by Priya Sircar, Oct 25, 2010 2 comments


Priya Sircar

Priya Sircar

Co-authored by Priya Sircar & Jonathan Lewis

Student Advocates for the Arts is thrilled to be a winner of the Why Arts Matter video contest. Of course, we are pleased that so many people viewed and responded to our video. And we are excited because this experience has opened up a dialogue with Americans for the Arts about possibilities for future collaboration. But we truly are thrilled because it gives us the chance to advocate more powerfully and broadcast our video's message more widely: “You Need to Be an Arts Advocate!”

Student Advocates for the Arts (SAA) is a grassroots student organization dedicated to educating on and advocating for public policy affecting the arts in the United States. Founded in 2002 by graduate students in the Arts Administration Program at Teachers College, Columbia University, SAA engages students in hands-on lobbying, workshops on advocacy and cultural policy, and discussions on the American system for funding the arts.

Read More
TAGGED WITH:

Marisa Catalina Casey

Why Art Matters

Posted by Marisa Catalina Casey, Oct 25, 2010 5 comments


Marisa Catalina Casey

Students from Starting Artists

When I was 16 years old I desperately wanted to do something—something to express myself, something to make a difference. For me, that something became a fundraising calendar that I conceived of and photographed as a high school student and then again as a college student. I photographed portraits of internationally adopted children, worked with graphic designers to put them into a calendar and then sold the results to family, friends, teachers, community members and later at Barnes & Noble. The two calendars raised thousands of dollars to benefit international orphanages, including the Colombian orphanage I was adopted from at the age of three.

This project taught me that I could use both creativity and entrepreneurship to positively affect the world. Today, this is what I teach my students at Starting Artists, Inc. (SA). I founded SA in 2006 as a graduate student in the Program in Arts Administration at Columbia University Teachers College. I wanted to create a place where young people could use media arts and business skills to be just as artistic and innovative as I was at their age.

During the SA Afterschool Program, students learn the professional tools to make a statement—a statement about their lives, a statement about their communities, and a statement about their world. Through classes in photography, graphic design, printmaking, crafts, mixed media, video, animation, music mixing, and entrepreneurship students transform from passive media consumers into active media producers and catalysts for change.

Read More
TAGGED WITH:

Americans for the Arts

Philanthropy News Digest's Interview with Robert L. Lynch

Posted by Americans for the Arts, Oct 21, 2010 2 comments


Americans for the Arts

Robert L. Lynch

Recently, Philanthropy News Digest spoke to Robert L. Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts, about the state of the arts in America, what arts and cultural organizations can and should be doing to weather the Great Recession, and what the digital future holds in store for artists, arts organizations, and all who support them.

Philanthropy News Digest: For many years now, arts groups around the country have been working to develop new, younger audiences while retaining their core, older supporters. How are they doing?

Robert Lynch: Some have done it very well, and others are struggling. To a large extent, it's about marketing. Performing arts organizations have a product, but audiences have a variety of interests and ways in which they can receive information. Arts organizations that understand that, that understand the needs of multiple audiences and either market or deliver their product in a variety of ways, are building audiences. The ones that rely on the product to sell itself are having more difficulty.

PND: Are particular art forms or disciplines doing better than others? Are symphonies doing better than dance companies, for example?

RL: It's too easy to generalize. But an example of an organization that has done a good job is the Metropolitan Opera in New York City. It has a variety of mechanisms, many of them based on new technologies, for reaching a range of audiences. Similarly, many theaters, including for-profit theaters, have diversified their performance times with an eye to an older audience. And though we read a lot about the graying audience for classical music, I don't know if that's universally true. A 2008 survey by the National Endowment for the Arts found what looks like fewer people attending performances, but when I look at our own National Arts Index I see a huge increase in the downloading of classical music. My colleagues at the League of American Orchestras also tell me they are seeing a lot of positive trending in their studies of audience development. So, while we read about certain art forms that may be in trouble, let's keep in mind how difficult the economy has been for the arts in general.

Read More
TAGGED WITH:

Tim Mikulski

A Teachable Moment Through the Arts

Posted by Tim Mikulski, Oct 20, 2010 2 comments


Tim Mikulski

Tim Mikulski

Regardless of your stance on same-sex “anything,” no one wants to see young people take their own lives due to harassment inside or outside of school, but as educators know, sometimes the best place to open up young minds is beyond the front door of their home and inside the classroom.

As has been reported broadly across the media, September and October have been particularly hard months for several young people who chose to end the physical and emotional abuse they faced at school—through suicide.

Today’s campaign to wear purple to honor the memory of those students  is just one of the ways that can shed some light on a terrible epidemic going on inside schools all across America.

While some states and localities have tried to address bullying with laws, it will take true societal shifts for all types of bullying to be prevented.

And this is the perfect entry point for the arts and arts education.

Read More
TAGGED WITH:

Pages

Subscribe to RSS - blogs