Trending Articles

Friends of SOAR

For great posts about the business of art, check out The Artsy Shark HERE!
ArtistsBillofRights.org reviews competitions and appeals seeking creative content, listing those that respect your copyrights and highlighting those that don't. Art Matters! publishes calls to artists, and not all of them may be compliant with ABoR's standards. Visit their site to learn more.
We support the Embedded Metadata Manifesto.  Metadata is information such as copyright notice and contact info you can embed in your images to protect your intellectual property, save time when uploading to social sites and promote your art. Click to visit the site and learn more.

Be a Holiday Arts Champion!

Americans for the Arts Action Fund logo

Please Contribute to The Arts Action Fund’s Year-End Campaign this Season! It was a successful year in arts advocacy. We kicked off 2022 with a set of four bold Arts Policy Platform positions that Arts Action Fund members not only voted overwhelmingly in favor of, but also made significant progress on:

President Biden issued a powerful Executive Order to reinstate the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities with a focus on equity and diversity policy issues.

National arts services organizations, the nation’s arts unions, and the Arts Action Fund made a unified ask to Congress to build a path to indexing annual federal funding for the arts and humanities to $1 per person. To that end, Congress will likely be finalizing the first substantial increase this month in an Omnibus appropriations bill. 

In the third COVID-19 economic relief package—the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)—the Arts Action Fund was

Continue reading Be a Holiday Arts Champion!

Call to Action: Congress to Address Arts Funding in November

Americans for the Arts President's FY20 Budget Calls for Termination of Cultural Agencies Again

The final FY23 Interior Appropriations budget, which specifically includes annual funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH), will be negotiated in conference soon by members of both the United States Senate and the House of Representatives. The current House version of the bill sets the allocation at an all-time high funding level of $207 million each for the NEA and NEH. However, the Senate Appropriations Committee draft set its allocation at only $195 million each for NEA and NEH. Americans for the Arts and the Arts Action Fund have set up an easy way for you to quickly send two important messages in one step to both your Senators and your House Representative with these messages: Urge your Senators to accept the higher House-set funding level of $207 million each for the NEA and NEH for FY 2023. Urge

Continue reading Call to Action: Congress to Address Arts Funding in November

Register NOW for the National Arts Action Summit!

Americans for the Arts President's FY20 Budget Calls for Termination of Cultural Agencies Again

National Arts Action SummitApril 5-9, 2021Join field experts, leading arts advocates, and members of Congress at the virtual 2021 National Arts Action Summit, the largest national arts advocacy collaboration. Here are five reasons why you should register today!

1. Thanks to the commitment from this year’s organizational partners—and in response to the financial challenges that many are facing due to the COVID-19 pandemic—unlimited opportunities for full registration support are now available. This waives the registration fee for anyone who would otherwise be unable to participate in the 2021 National Arts Action Summit. Learn more here! 2. We’ve just posted our exciting agenda full of virtual mainstage and training sessions sure to invigorate your arts policy and advocacy knowledge. We also have three networking sessions to connect you with advocates all over the country. Check out the agenda and start to plan which sessions you want to attend live! 3.

Continue reading Register NOW for the National Arts Action Summit!

2020 Congressional Arts Report Card

Arts Action Fund Logo

​​​​​October 19, 2020Election Day is November 3rd and early indicators show 2020 will reach historic voter turnout levels in every state. As a result of the Coronavirus pandemic, the great majority of states have encouraged mail-in/absentee voting and expanded in-person early voting.While the national headlines focus on the presidential election, it’s important to note that all 435 U.S. House of Representative seats and one-third of the U.S. Senate are also up for election. Thousands more state and local office holders will be on the ballots as well.The Arts Action Fund Political Action Committee (PAC) is pleased to provide you a copy of our 2020 Congressional Arts Report Card, analyzing and scoring the arts support (or lack thereof) of incumbent candidates looking to get re-elected to Congress. The Arts Action Fund PAC relies on this report to choose which pro-arts Congressional incumbents to support financially.This Congressional Arts Report Card is

Continue reading 2020 Congressional Arts Report Card

Arts Vote Free Virtual Event

Arts Vote 2020 - Americans for the ARts and the Democratic National Convention

Important Updates on CARES Act Programs

Americans for the Arts President's FY20 Budget Calls for Termination of Cultural Agencies Again

Important Updates on CARES Act Programs The deadline to apply for a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) forgivable loan through a bank or online financial institution was officially extended from June 30 to August 8, 2020. Last week, Congress unanimously voted to extend the deadline and President Trump finally signed it into law over the weekend. Please note that this is only a deadline extension and not the opportunity to apply for a second PPP. There is still more than $125 billion available for first-time PPP borrowers who are self-employed, gig artists, contractors, or a corporation or nonprofit with W2 employees. Just remember that you cannot collect pandemic unemployment if you’re also paying yourself with a PPP forgivable loan during the same covered period.

 

The extra $600 of weekly federal Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA) is still currently set to expire on July 31, 2020. For those of you who are

Continue reading Important Updates on CARES Act Programs

2021 NEA Budget Increase Proposed

Americans for the Arts

July 7, 2020

Earlier today, the U.S House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee strongly rejected President Trump’s fourth consecutive annual budget request to eliminate both the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) by instead appropriating $170 million in funding for each for fiscal year FY 2021! This represents an increase for both agencies of $7.75 million each over the current FY 2020 funding level of $162.25 million and it is the same amount that we recommended to Congress.

Americans for the Arts and Arts Action Fund President and CEO Robert Lynch and ArtsVote 2020 Chair and Arts Action Fund Board Member Ben Folds testify before the U.S. House Interior Subcommittee on February 6, 2020.

As you will recall, Americans for the Arts and Arts Action Fund president and CEO Robert Lynch and our ArtsVote 2020 Chairman and musician Ben Folds testified in support

Continue reading 2021 NEA Budget Increase Proposed

National Arts Action Digital Summit - Participate in this First Ever event!!

Americans for the Arts President's FY20 Budget Calls for Termination of Cultural Agencies Again

Join us for the first-ever National Arts Action Digital Summit! April 27-May 1, 2020 Register Here!

Americans for the Arts is delighted to bring a brand-new experience to engage with hundreds of arts advocates from across the country virtually at the National Arts Action Digital Summit.

With Congress scheduled to return in May for further COVID-19 relief legislation and the annual federal budget, advocating for the arts is more important now than ever. Along with over 85 National Partners, we’re excited to present over a dozen plenary and issue-specific breakout session webinars live from April 27 – May 1, 2020. You can register for the entire Digital Summit, or for individual sessions based on your preference.

We’ll be presenting advocates the new COVID-19 policy requests several dozen national arts organizations are taking to Congress. Please take two minutes to send an updated e-alert to Capitol Hill with new pro-arts

Continue reading National Arts Action Digital Summit – Participate in this First Ever event!!

ArtsVote 2020 Monthly Update: April 21, 2020

Americans for the Arts President's FY20 Budget Calls for Termination of Cultural Agencies Again

ArtsVote 2020 Monthly Update: April 21, 2020

ArtsVote 2020 Monthly updates feature quick links for our members to access information to both our legislative and political efforts during the COVID-19 global health pandemic and economic crisis.

As we previously reported, Americans for the Arts and the Arts Action Fund secured key eligibility criteria changes in the first round of funding in the $2.3 trillion CARES Act. We ensured that nonprofit and commercial arts organizations are eligible to apply for SBA grants and loans in addition to supplemental direct general operating support grants with no match requirements through the National Endowment for the Arts, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Institute of Museum and Library Services.

We also helped to expand eligibility for professional artists, independent contractors, and gig workers to apply for SBA grants and Pandemic Unemployment Compensation through their states. Early reports indicate that thousands of arts and

Continue reading ArtsVote 2020 Monthly Update: April 21, 2020

Take Action TODAY: Include Arts Support in COVID-19 Federal Response

Americans for the Arts President's FY20 Budget Calls for Termination of Cultural Agencies Again

The coronavirus has already had a devastating economic impact on America’s nonprofit arts sector—financial losses to date are estimated to be $3.2 billion. Since the first U.S. case was reported on January 20, cancellations and closings have been reported in thousands of communities spanning all 50 states. In order to support the sector at this vital time, request that your members of Congress include $4 billion—to be distributed though the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA)—to help offset the losses of the nonprofit arts industry, and expand eligibility through additional federal programs to ensure artists, entrepreneurs, and small businesses in the creative economy can utilize business interruption relief.

In a national survey by Americans for the Arts, 91% of responding arts organizations indicated that they have cancelled one or more events. Many arts organizations have closed their doors for months to come. More than one-third of respondents expect to

Continue reading Take Action TODAY: Include Arts Support in COVID-19 Federal Response