It is an exciting time at Americans for the Arts, full of change and new energy. During 2022’s Strategic Realignment Process (SRP), we worked with members and other stakeholders to identify the specific and unique role of Americans for the Arts within the arts and culture community. Knowing that how we do our work is as important as what we do, we have adopted an Equitable Advocacy approach, which centers equity in all organizational practices, interactions, and programming in both approach and outcomes. While we continue to evaluate and evolve our offerings, here’s the latest update on some of our flagship events.

• National Arts Action Summit—We are reimagining the Summit as a year-long advocacy program, complete with webinar trainings, D.C.-based Legislative Fly-ins to lobby members of Congress, and Fly-outs for advocacy training throughout the country. We invite you to take a brief Arts Policy Survey and share your top five federal legislative priorities by February 22, 2023, to help us focus federal advocacy efforts on the arts policy issues that mean the most to you.
• Annual Convention—After two years of a virtual format during the pandemic, we were excited to come back together in person in 2022. For 2023, we are going to pause our Annual Convention as we recreate it for the future. Over the years, a large part of the Annual Convention was public art programming. For 2023, we also will be pausing public art programming as we evaluate our offerings.
• National Arts Marketing Project Conference—In 2022, we paused the National Arts Marketing Project Conference (NAMPC) to focus on the conclusion of the SRP. As we continue to dive deeper into how we can best serve the field, we are reviewing all our programming. At this time, we don’t see NAMPC moving forward, and we are identifying resources that will continue to support the arts marketing community.

We strive to position the arts and culture sector as a vital driver for the cultural, social, educational, and economic power of the arts. We encourage you to take advantage of the year-long advocacy trainings and offerings on ArtsU, including a new series of Member Office Hours and Member-to-Member Dialogues. 

Please visit this FAQ for more information and stay tuned to the Designing Our Destiny platform for ongoing news and content.

Pictured: Crush Funk Brass performs at the 2022 Annual Convention, photo by EPNAC.com.