Tim Mikulski

Many of our loyal Arts Watch readers are familiar with Americans for the Arts' national arts advocacy efforts, but in light of recent state-level budgetary threats, we wanted to make sure that all of our members and non-members were kept up to date on the latest information in your individual states and regions.

The State Arts Action Network (SAAN), a network of over 70 arts advocacy, services, and education organizations, has been active within Americans for the Arts since 2004, when two previously independent national arts organizations (the State Arts Advocacy League of America and the National Community Arts Network) ratified an agreement to become part of our organization. Over the past few years, SAAN has also grown to include the members of the Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education Network.

However, the SAAN isn't left to its own devices, as two staff members from the Government and Public Affairs Department, Jay Dick and Justin Knabb, provide professional development, networking, and technical assistance to the organizations. Jay and Justin also monitor news and events in all 50 states, providing advocacy help to the SAAN member organizations when needed.

All of this background leads me to a brand new area of our website.

The state arts appropriations update section, officially launching tomorrow (February 24), features a clickable map that will take visitors directly to individual state pages featuring the most recent and proposed budgetary numbers for the arts. In addition, each state page will feature links to your SAAN organization(s), the state arts agency, and to either individual state action alert pages or the Americans for the Arts advocacy alert page.

This project is a high-priority one for Americans for the Arts and we are constantly updating the pages, so if you don't see the information you are looking for just yet, check back in a day or two and you'll have plenty of information to take in.

We hope that you find these new tools useful as you continue to advocate on the ground for state budget allocations throughout the country.

*Arts Watch is the weekly cultural policy publication of Americans for the Arts, covering news in a variety of categories. Subscribe to Arts Watch.