From ADC Consulting: Primarily serving individual artists and artmaking entities, ASOs frequently provide the greatest benefits to the least resourced artists and groups through capacity building, networking, advocacy, grantmaking, arts education, and/or industry research.
The importance of this role became more pronounced during the pandemic, as ASOs became first responders to a crumbling arts economy and an avalanche of needs, the most pressing coming from individual arts workers who immediately lost work both inside and outside of the arts and were unable to pay for basic necessities.
A better understanding of their story, typology framework, service roster, support structure and ongoing evolution is necessary as the field recovers and transforms.