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From National Endowment for the Arts: On Tuesday, October 17, 2023, in recognition of National Arts and Humanities Month, the White House Domestic Policy Council and National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) co-hosted a convening to discuss the Biden-Harris Administration’s whole-of-government approach to arts and culture. 

This National Arts and Humanities Month, the Biden-Harris Administration highlights its commitment to supporting the arts, humanities, and museum and library services and integrating them into federal policies and programs, including major investments in the NEA, National Endowment for the Humanities, and Institute of Museum and Library Services. A year ago, President Biden signed an Executive Order on Arts and Humanities to spur investment and alignment of arts and culture across the federal government, make art more accessible to people from underserved communities, elevate new voices through the arts and humanities, and expand opportunities for artists and scholars. The Executive Order also re-established the President’s Committee on the Arts and the Humanities. 

In the meeting, Domestic Policy Advisor Neera Tanden highlighted the anniversary of the 2022 Executive Order and discussed how arts and humanities are essential to a thriving democracy and should be integrated across federal agencies. NEA Chair Maria Rosario Jackson discussed current federal opportunities for the arts, including the administration’s focus on equity and justice, climate, the urgent need to repair our democracy, and challenges facing the arts sector in the wake of the pandemic. Senior Advisor to the President and Director of the Office of Public Engagement Steve Benjamin spoke about the value of engaging artists directly and bringing communities together through the arts. HHS Secretary Becerra highlighted the intersection of arts and health and well-being as well as NEA and HHS collaboration such as the new interagency working group on Arts, Health, and Civic Infrastructure. Senior Advisor to the President and White House Infrastructure Coordinator Mitch Landrieu discussed how we can connect artist workforce programs to the administration’s unprecedented bipartisan infrastructure law investments, ensuring infrastructure design is responsive to place and that it engages local communities. National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) Chair Shelly C. Lowe (Navajo) discussed the importance of knowing our past to strive for a better future.

Learn more about the convening here.

From the Intercultural Leadership Institute: We are excited to announce the guidelines and application for the sixth cohort of the Intercultural Leadership Institute (ILI), a collaborative program of Alternate ROOTS, First Peoples Fund, National Association of Latino Arts & Cultures (NALAC) , PA’I Foundation, Sipp Culture, First Alaskans Institute, and The International Association of Blacks in Dance.

As leaders of these organizations, we have grown together, built trust with one another over time and developed a shared analysis of the need for a leadership program of, by and for the artists and culture bearers in our communities. ILI is the result of our collaborative effort and we invite you to spread the word and encourage great potential participants to submit interest for the Year 6 Cohort.

Learn more and apply.

From Disability and Philanthropy Forum: In this excerpt from the Disability & Philanthropy Forum’s Learning Series webinar “Grantmaking for Disability: Where Are the Dollars?”, Jen Bokoff, Director of Development for the Disability Rights Fund, provides three examples of where she’s seen ableism play out in philanthropy and how the exclusion of disabled perspectives creates a “marginalization gap.” Click here to view the full webinar.

From A Collaborative Blog Presented by CERF+, NCAPER, and NYFA: The COVID-19 pandemic and other emergencies, including severe storms, drought, wildfire, and theft, require us to change how we work and communicate. That makes preparedness more critical now than ever before for artists to protect their practice. But what exactly is preparedness? It’s taking steps NOW to help protect yourself and your assets before an emergency so you’re more resilient and able to bounce back quickly. Artists in ALL disciplines have assets to be protected!

Step One: List your assets
Think through everything that allows you to carry out your artistic practice.

Step Two: Assess your risks
While it is ideal to prepare for any type of emergency (known as all-hazards planning), start by considering the types of risks and potential effects that are most likely to occur depending on where you live and work. 

Step Three: Protect your assets and minimize risks
Brainstorm ways to protect or minimize the list made in Step One with the risks you identified in Step Two.

Step Four: Create your Emergency Plan
You may need to evacuate quickly, or you may need to shelter in place. Either way, you want to decide ahead of time what steps you’ll take, what items you need, and how you’ll communicate with important people.

In closing, remember that preparedness is not just about facing the unexpected; it’s about empowering yourself to protect what matters most in your artistic journey. By following these four steps and taking proactive measures, you’ll be better equipped to navigate any challenges that come your way. Your art is a valuable part of our world, and ensuring its resilience is a commitment to your craft and the community that cherishes it. So, let’s stand together, artists and allies alike, and fortify artists and arts organization’s creative practices for a brighter, more resilient future.

Read the full article here.

From National Performance Network: During NPN’s annual Board of Directors meeting this month, Caitlin Strokosch, NPN’s President and CEO, shared reflections on three key topics shaping our organization’s operations: 

the financial crisis in the performing arts sector
the state of intermediaries and arts service organizations
and culture wars’ impact on artists, arts organizations, and our communities

At a recent Performing Arts Alliance gathering, organization leaders discussed the field’s crisis–while some face economic challenges, others are attracting new audiences and sustained funding. Conversations in Minneapolis, led by Pangea World Theater, prompted us to rethink and reorient ourselves around collective, community sustainability. We questioned how large, white organizations may define being in a state of “crisis” when faced with conditions that smaller organizations of color have always experienced. We considered if quickly proposed solutions might exacerbate inequities and how viewing arts spaces as interdependent with neighborhood wellbeing affects our assessment of organizational sustainability. 

Read the full article here. 

“Across the country, students and teachers are heading back to school. Eager to reconnect, they are also ready to learn new concepts, discover unexpected insights, and be challenged by complex ideas,” said Elizabeth Alexander for TIME Magazine.

But not everyone in American lecture halls or library stacks this fall will be allowed to learn and read freely. Due to recent bills and legislative efforts throughout the U.S., half our states censor the teaching of race and gender in public colleges and K-12 schools – especially any teaching that examines them in the context of our collective history. At the same time, books are being banned at the highest rate in our country since the American Library Association first began documenting those numbers. For students entering college, five times as many books are being challenged as when they started high school.

What will we sacrifice as a country by letting these bans stand? We cannot navigate our multicultural American society if we are operating from myth and stereotype instead of fact and shared experience – and its democratic workings slow when the education our students are taught is inaccurate and incomplete.

The truth is worth fighting for – and we can all fight for it. Those in philanthropy or the private sector can fund programs in colleges, public lending spaces, and prisons that ensure expansive and unencumbered access to books, literacy, library and information resources, digital infrastructure, and original source materials. Those in government and education can strengthen academic freedom for teachers, scholars, and professors at public schools and institutions, nourishing the very fields of research and analysis that impart endangered information about our racial heritages, our gender identities, and our shared experience as many different people in one democratic society. Each of us can seek out and support the enduringly potent and wondrously manifold stories of this country by buying and reading banned books, including those by some of the most luminous authors in American literature, who reveal so much human insight through the written word. We can lean into the good, hard questions raised by disciplines like ethnic and gender studies, exploring the unique power and perspective of the multivocal American experience. We can push back against those working to bar our access to this rich and ever-expanding knowledge. Together, we can and we must challenge book bans and educational censorship.

Read the full piece here.