2023 Fly-Ins2024 Fly-Ins

 

Legislative Fly-ins

A targeted year-round equitable advocacy program

 

 

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(L-R) Michelle LaFlamme-Childs and Carrie Tillis advocating for the arts in New Mexico while speaking with Senator Martin Heinrich (D-NM) on Capitol Hill.

After more than 34 years of hosting large annual arts advocacy conferences, Americans for the Arts and the Arts Action Fund launched a new year-round equitable advocacy program. In 2023, the two organizations hosted three legislative Fly-Ins on April 18-19, 2023, May 16-17, 2023, and October 16-17,2023. They worked with three dynamic cohorts of smaller, more targeted constituent groups composed of influential local and state arts agency and advocacy leaders, as well as individual artists.

A full day of customized advocacy training was provided to all advocates prior to their congressional meetings the next day. Cohorts were chosen based on identifying local and state arts leaders, who are constituents of key members of congress with specific influence over arts appropriations and policy legislation.

Americans for the Arts and the Arts Action Fund will continue this program in 2024 and has already hosted its first Legislative Fly-In of the year on March 13-14, 2024 in coordination with the Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts & Public Policy. This Fly-In had 12 advocates fly-in to Washington D.C. and were given extensive training about vital arts legislation and appropriations bills. These advocates secured over 30 meetings with their key Members of Congress.

On this page, you will find information about our training days, lobbying efforts on Capitol Hill with our arts advocates, and videos of our arts advocates speaking about why arts advocacy is important to them. Please explore this page and use it as a guide for arts advocacy events in your home state!

 

Our Advocacy Goal

"Advocacy is a marathon, not a sprint. So what you need to do is build authentic ongoing relationships with your key decision makers, those elected officials, and their staffs. So you're going to build, over time, those relationships. When they see you coming down the hallway, whether it be in the grocery store or on Capitol Hill, they know who you are and they respect you and you're going to just continue to be that repository of great information about the arts. So anytime they have a question about the arts, they're going to come to you and say, 'Hey, tell me about this new piece of legislation! What is it going to do for my hometown? How is it going to affect me?' You are going to become that auxiliary arts staffer for them. You're going to be trusted and valued. That's your goal." - Jay Dick, Senior Director, Equitable Advocacy and Partnerships at Americans for the Arts

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Training Day

 

On training day, the advocates participated in both personalized meetings with our staff and group educational sessions. In their customized meetings, they were given detailed information on how they would best engage each Member of Congress. These meetings helped the advocates understand the intricacies of each arts advocacy issue and how it applied to that member's key position in the House or Senate. The full cohort educational meetings were run by different members of our staff to hone in on these four timely legislative priorities:

• Increased funding and equitable grantmaking policies for the National Endowment for the Arts and National Endowment for the Humanities through the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee.

• Targeted community arts engagement funding (arts and healing) in the Departments of Defense and Veterans Affairs Administration through the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee and the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Subcommittee.

• Increased funding and targeted equitable policies for federal arts education programs in the Department of Education through the Labor, Health, and Human Services Committee and Education Appropriations Subcommittee.

• Improved charitable and more equitable tax policies for artists (Performing Arts Parity Tax Act) and donors to nonprofit charities (The Charitable Act) through the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee.

 

 

Capitol Hill Day

On April 19, May 17, and October 17, 2023, arts leaders met more than 80 representatives and senators to advocate for the arts policy priorities we trained them on. Each meeting was accompanied by a member of the Americans for the Arts and Arts Action Fund staff. Below are testimonials from the cohorts about their experience on Capitol Hill. 

April 2023 Experience

May 2023 Experience

October 2023 Experience

 

"I want to thank the staff at Americans for the Arts for the excellent advocacy training they provided our fly-in cohort. Their research and training prepared us to effectively meet with our Congressional representatives, equipped with knowledge and confidence."

- Sarah Morgan, Director, Art Museum of South Texas

 

 

“As someone whose passion for the arts has led to dedicating my career and life advocating for their growth, I understand the importance of working with our elected officials to demonstrate the impact the arts have in our communities for all ages. The need for our representatives to vote in favor of policies that help fund the arts is crucial to the continuation of that impact. We are grateful in the state of West Virginia to have a close relationship with our federal representatives and the ability to reach out to them at any time to convey our pressing needs in the arts community.  I appreciate the new targeted approach that the Americans for the Arts’ fly-In has incorporated to ensure the support of our elected officials and look forward to participating in future fly-ins.”

- Randall Reid-Smith, Governor's Curator, West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture and History

 

"Americans for the Arts is a treasure trove of information when it comes to Arts Advocacy. As a leader at a LAA, I find that the info AFTA collates and distributes critical to our work here at the local level. Thank you AFTA!"

- Heather Adams, Executive Director of Arts Missoula

 

 

 

MEET THE ADVOCATES

Heather Adams Executive Director of Arts Missoula, MT	Ekhlas Ahmed Co-Chair, Cultural Alliance of Maine
Adam Braatz Executive Director, Imagine MKE, WI	Ben Brown Chair, Alaska State Council on the Arts, AK
Manny Cawaling Executive Director, Inspire Washington, WA	Omar Columbus Board, Poetic Theater Productions’ Veteran Voices, Riverside, CA
Madeline Dalton Outreach Coordinator, Inspire Washington	Philip Dunlap Director, Broward County Cultural Division, FL
Kristen Dolan Executive Director, California Desert Arts Council	Jennifer Evins President & CEO, United Arts of Central Florida
Joseph Frandoni Deputy Dir., Arts & Humanities Council Montgomery County, MD	Wesley Gentle President, Arts Fort Worth, TX
Karen Hanan Executive Director, ArtsWA	Todd Hawkins Executive Director, City of Irving Arts & Culture, TX
Jeff Hawthorne Arts Program Manager, City of Portland, OR	Adriane Jefferson Director of Cultural Affairs, City of New Haven Arts, Culture, and Tourism, CT
Anne Katz Executive Director, Create Wisconsin	Neil Kirschling Executive Director, Delaware Arts Alliance
Michelle LaFlamme-Childs Executive Director, New Mexico Arts, NM	Lynne McCormack Executive Dir., Rhode Island State Council on the Arts, RI
Nate McGaha Executive Director, Arts North Carolina	Dinah Minot Executive Director, Creative Portland, ME
Rebekah Moore Program Director, The Arts Council of Greater New Haven, CT	Sara Morgan Director, Art Museum of South Texas, TX
Deb Polich President & CEO, Artrain & Creative Michigan	Randall Reid-Smith Governor's Curator, West Virginia Department of Arts, Culture & History, WV
Jennifer Stevens Director, Boise City Department of Arts and History, ID	Amanda Still Arts and Culture Program Manager, City of Georgetown, TX

 

 

MEET OUR ARTIST IN-RESIDENCE

Americans for the Arts Action Fund is thrilled to be working with Tennessee artist Carrie Tillis (daughter of renowned country singer Mel Tillis) as our first-ever artist in residence to create original artwork for each state’s “Why the Arts Matter” state arts factsheet. Carrie will bring to life a unique tapestry of each state's cultural assets by participating in interviews with state arts leaders in all 50 states and U.S. territories. Carrie has already completed original artwork for several states. In partnership with our Fly-In advocates, Carrie has presented these state customized works of art on Capitol Hill to New Mexico Senators Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Luján and West Virginia Senators Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito and U.S. Representatives Mike Simpson of Idaho and Betty McCollum of Minnesota. The responses from these Members of Congress have been incredible with each piece serving as an advocacy reminder of why the arts matter in their state. Each member agreed to hang the paintings proudly in their Capitol Hill offices.

 

 

Artist Bio

Daughter to country legend Mel Tillis and sister to country star Pam Tillis, Carrie Tillis’ talents and experience stretch beyond the world of country music into an even broader sphere of creativity.

Her music resume has a wide range from opera to The Grand Ole Opry, songwriter festivals to Broadway, and even big band. She first gained notoriety alongside her father, but later took center stage as a principal performer in her own right in theatre and with orchestras around the world. Her credits include starring roles in THE HIDING PLACE, GUYS AND DOLLS, BIG RIVER, THE MUSIC MAN, and SHOW BOAT, as well as a guest starring role in the hit TV series NASHVILLE and a supporting role in the feature film THE VIOLENT HEART.

While music and theatre were a focus for much of her professional career, the imprint of visual art was ever present. Her mother, Doris Tillis, helped foster Carrie’s love of all things color and hands-on creation from an early age. Growing up surrounded by unedited and eclectic art making in their home, she followed her mother’s lead in whatever was the medium of the day and made it her own.  Even at the age of 5, her family recalls Carrie introducing herself by saying, “Hi, I’m Carrie Tillis and I’m an artist.” In time, her youthful drawings progressed to large-scale murals, and eventually into the realm of fine art.

In the Fall of 2022, during a visit to Washington, DC, she met members of the leadership team with Americans For The Arts, who, upon recognizing her skills as a multi-faceted artist coupled with her passion for encouraging art in all facets of life, invited her to join their efforts in the advocacy arena. This led to a commission to become the first ever artist-in-residence for the Arts Action Fund with a mission to create 50 original paintings of Why the Arts Matter for each state. These paintings are being shared with Members of Congress as encouragement for their support of much needed arts funding for communities and education across America.

This project has allowed Carrie to tap into all of her artistic gifts, collecting and sharing stories about real people and real places, and bringing these stories to light in colorful tapestries on canvas.

Through it all, Carrie has discovered yet another creative calling- helping educate and advocate decisionmakers on the importance and value of supporting artists and arts organizations in every corner of our nation.

 

You can learn more about Carrie and her artistic process by watching this video of her Legislative Fly-In experience.

 

 

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