Blog Posts for Community Engagement

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.


Theresa Cameron

Welcome to the Cultural Districts Blog Salon

Posted by Theresa Cameron, Jul 22, 2013 2 comments


Theresa Cameron

Theresa Cameron Theresa Cameron

I'm so excited to welcome you to our blog salon devoted solely to arts, entertainment, and cultural districts. Wondering what exactly we're talking about? We loosely define a cultural district as: “...a well-recognized, labeled, mixed-use area of a city in which a high concentration of cultural facilities serves as the anchor of attraction and robust economic activity.”

A few important bits of information:

  • More than 600 communities in the U.S. have designated cultural districts.
  • Some cities have formal boundary lines with specific zoning ordinances and economic tax incentives.
  • Others have more informal, unofficial boundaries that become a marketing focal point to cluster arts organizations.
  • Twelve states have enacted statewide arts, entertainment, and cultural district legislation.

Since the late 1990s, Americans for the Arts has been monitoring the growth of arts, entertainment, and cultural districts across the United States, documenting their location, and reviewing, in relevant cases, their legislation of creation. In 1998 Americans for the Arts published the Cultural Districts Handbook, a first of its kind guide for establishing and developing districts. The Handbook examined districts in 24 U.S. cities. Since the Handbook’s publication, however, the number of districts has grown. Given the phenomenal rate at which the district model has been and continues to be adopted across the country, there is a clear and compelling need for new technical assistance and training resources designed to meet the unique needs of those charged with creating, maintaining, and evaluating districts.

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Lindsay Sheridan

Placemarking: Public Art and Emergency Preparedness

Posted by Lindsay Sheridan, Jul 19, 2013 0 comments


Lindsay Sheridan

lindsay headshot Lindsay Sheridan

Doug Kornfeld knew he won the gig the moment someone mentioned Mardi Gras. He had just presented to the jury for New Orleans’ public art City-Assisted Evacuation marking project – dubbed “Evacuspots” – with his proposal for 14-foot-high, 850 lb stainless steel stick figures with one arm reached out in the universal sign for “I need a ride!” But what Doug, an artist based in Boston, MA, hadn’t counted on was that his design would have a perfectly iconic Big Easy connection: that of someone gesturing to have beads thrown at them on Mardi Gras.

This festive figure has a serious task, though. It’s part of a new solution for hurricane evacuation developed by the nonprofit philanthropy organization Evacuteer.org in the wake of the 2005 disaster Hurricane Katrina, which left more than 100,000 residents stranded in the city with no means of escape. Through an agreement with the City of New Orleans, Evacuteer.org recruits, trains, and manages evacuation volunteers – dubbed evacuteers – to run a system that is capable of picking up and transporting 30,000 residents to state-run shelters in the event of a necessary evacuation. The system was tested once in September 2008 in advance of Hurricane Gustav. While about 18,000 residents utilized the City-Assisted Evacuation Plan, many residents had little idea of where the pickup points were since they were marked by small, unnoticeable placards with a lot of text. So Robert Fogarty, co-founder and board president of Evacuteer.org, brought up a new idea: what better way to draw attention to the spots than with a public art piece?

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Susan Riley

The heART of the Core: Why the Arts Bring the Common Core to Life

Posted by Susan Riley, Jul 19, 2013 2 comments


Susan Riley

Susan Riley Susan Riley

This summer, many teachers and administrators across the country will be attending conferences and professional development sessions that focus on the Common Core State Standards in preparation for the upcoming school year.  Before many of their toes even touch a sandy beach, these dedicated educators will cross hundreds of miles and spend many hours getting ready for a whole new way of instruction.

But where are the Arts?

What happens to our arts teachers, museum curators, performers, teaching artists and arts administrators?  Are they afforded the same opportunity as their peers for rigorous, relevant professional development in unpacking the Common Core Standards for their subject areas?  As has happened so often in the past, for many the answer is a resounding “no.”

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David Smith

Donations to Arts on the Rise (from The pARTnership Movement)

Posted by David Smith, Jul 18, 2013 0 comments


David Smith

David Smith David Smith

In terms of raw numbers, the news looks pretty good. A report by the Giving Institute says contributions to the arts grew faster than any other sector of philanthropy in 2012, increasing by almost 8 percent from the previous year to a total of $14.44 billion. (Giving to educational enterprises was second place on the list with a 7 percent increase.) For the first time, the levels are now back up above where they were before the recession.

Giving to the arts isn’t just about contributions by individuals, of course, and the news looks better there, too. Americans for the Arts reports that business contributions to arts and culture groups are now up 18 percent from a low in 2009. More than 
80 percent of those contributions, moreover, are from small and mid-size businesses.

The Business Committee on the Arts has recently released its annual top ten best businesses for the arts, and this year it includes a skiing company in Aspen, Colo.; a salt company in Staten Island, N.Y.; and banks in Buffalo, N.Y., Pittsburgh, and Dubuque, Iowa. Indeed, local businesses of all sizes are regularly approached each year by arts organizations asking them to help support everything from symphony seasons to arts festivals. At the same time, businesses that are accustomed to dealing with the bottom line can be understandably skeptical about getting involved in a field so subjective and amorphous as the arts.

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Sahar Javedani

From Penny Pinching to Penny Pitching…

Posted by Sahar Javedani, Jul 16, 2013 0 comments


Sahar Javedani

Sahar Javedani Sahar Javedani

After a recent lunchtime trip to the food trucks, a colleague of mine began placing pennies facing heads up along the sidewalk on the way back to our offices. When I asked what he was doing, he replied, “I’m pitching pennies…maybe one of these will bring good luck to someone today.”

After reviewing Americans for the Arts' recent salary report on Local Arts Agencies coupled with Fast Company’s Steven Tepper’s article “Is An MFA the New MBA?”, like many, I’m reminded of my creative and critical worth on the job. Having spent well over a decade honing my inherent multitasking skills, I take some comfort in knowing how much I’ve “saved” the nonprofit organizations I’ve worked for by, in essence, tackling the work of five+ professional staff members as a simultaneous Grant Writer, Accountant, Teaching Artist, Web Designer, Program Administrator, Event Planner, etc.

When asked by my mentees on how one is able to sustain this frantic pace, I’m reminded of a college professor sharing with me the importance of self-care while handing me a copy of “Meditations for Women Who Do Too Much.” I was nineteen-years-old. Had I only known then the great adventures and challenges I’d face working in nonprofit administration!

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Robert Bush

Looking Like the People We Serve

Posted by Robert Bush, Jul 12, 2013 0 comments


Robert Bush

Robert Bush Robert Bush

Reading Americans for the Arts’ 2013 study on Local Arts Agency Salaries took me back. Way back to 1981 when I took my first position as executive director, and only employee, of a county arts council in North Carolina at what I thought at the time was an incredible sum of $16,000 per year, plus health benefits. Now my parents thought I was crazy for leaving the classroom with its pay (not much more than then LAA job) and benefits. I was still young enough to see the change as a great new adventure. Nearly 30 years later and a wonderful career, I know I made the right decision.

On the plus side, salaries and benefits have come a long way since the early 1980s. On the whole, salaries and benefits are better across the board. Some highly skilled positions demand a higher level of compensation, and rightfully so, than one might expect.  For example, Senior Public Art professionals are required to be a planner, have a keen aesthetic/artist eye, project manager, legal negotiator, financial wizard, and more importantly are hard to find. It is right that their compensation levels are rising. I know some of my colleagues still struggle with wages that are not commensurate with their education and skill level or the demands of what we all know can be a 24/7 job. So we shouldn’t take the survey results as any more than a snapshot in time and hopefully provide information to help boards and commissions understand how peer agencies are compensating their employees.

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