Arts News

Dear Arts Leader,

April 16 - 17, 2012 is the National Arts Advocacy Conference and Advocacy Day in Washington DC, sponsored by Americans for the Arts.  Arts leaders from across the United States will travel to our Nation’s Capital to attend the conference (16th) and meet with state representatives on Capitol Hill (17th). The National Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill is free.

The Arts Council of Fairfax County is the State Captain for this year’s Advocacy Day.
If you plan to attend the conference and/or visit with your representative, please let us know by Wednesday, April 4, 2012.  As a State Captain we will assist our arts representatives by providing National Advocacy Day information, legislator contact information, and talking points.

It can be difficult for arts organizations to come up with the budget and the time to prepare each board member for the tasks that lie ahead.

The Arts Management Program at George Mason University can help with that process through the Board Member Institute. The GMU Arts Management Program has two different informational offerings: (1) our semiannual New Board Member Orientation—a half-day training session designed for new board members in arts organizations offered once in the Fall and again in the Spring and (2) Financial Responsibilities session offered in the Spring.

As many of you may have read, Peggy Baggett, Executive Director of the Virginia Commission for the Arts (VCA), is retiring as of December 1, 2011.

Ms. Baggett has been with the Commission for 35 years, 31 of which as Executive Director and has worked for over three decades with artists, arts administrators, board members, and thousands of volunteers throughout the Commonwealth of Virginia, including nine different Governors. She led the creation of the Virginia Heritage Awards as part of the ongoing efforts of building the arts across the state and helped to make possible the unprecedented collaboration within the cultural community of MINDS WIDE OPEN; Virginia Celebrates Women in the Arts, which included over 10,000 arts events in 400 locations across the state on the theme of women in the arts.  
To quote Ms. Baggett,"I am grateful to have had a career that I continue to love and am richly rewarded to have had a small role in the flourishing of the arts across Virginia."

In the Virginians for the Arts latest newsletter, they published some very interesting points on the economic impact of the arts in Virginia. For those organizations who receive VCA grants, we hope that some of you will come down to the ArtWorks Conference & Reception sponsored by the VA Commission for the Arts on January 24-25, 2012 and the Arts Advocacy Day sponsored by VFTA January 26, 2012. Enjoy the read.

It is important for elected officials to understand the huge economic impact - as high as $1.13 billion, based on Virginia's current population and the results of the last economic impact study - that the arts have on the Commonwealth.

From: Thomas L. Birch, Legislative Counsel, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies

Senate Appropriators Set 2012 NEA Funding at $155 Million

Here is an interesting study by Craig Newmark, the founder of Craigslist, on which social media tools and intensity of online activity, non-profits are deploying to talk to their constituents.

The study shows that income doesn’t necessarily increase a nonprofit's interactions on social media. Some of the most engaged organizations on social media are not the one’s with the highest income on the list, yet they are doing a good job with their social media. Why? Because they are fostering conversations and interactions.