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Thank you for being a dedicated supporter of the Americans for Arts Action Fund. Throughout this year, your contributions have directly funded our efforts to serve artists, arts organizations, and communities across America. We know that you count on us to educate elected leaders on how the arts make our communities more livable, improve the quality of our lives, and inspire children to be creative.
With Congress politically split between the House and the Senate and within the GOP itself, we are experiencing significant legislative challenges and obstacles in advancing policies and funding for the arts. We have had to become more nimble and targeted. As a result, we took action by elevating the voices of Arts Action Fund members by leading with more constituent-focused, equitable advocacy. That means matching the right arts constituent (the messenger) to deliver the right arts message to the right elected officials at the exact right time.
To do this, we hosted three dynamic “Fly-Ins” in April, May, and October in Washington, D.C., featuring influential local and state arts agency constituent leaders, as well as individual artists. A total of 33 Arts Action Fund members from 28 states had 95 meetings with targeted Members of Congress to help advance timely federal arts funding and policy legislation. ArtsActionFund.org/Fly-In2023
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“As someone whose passion for the arts has led to dedicating my career and life advocating for their growth... I appreciate the new targeted approach that the Arts Action Fund Fly-In has incorporated to ensure the support of our elected officials...”
Randall Reid-Smith, Governor’s Curator, West Virginia Dept. of Arts, Culture & History
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Thank you for your continuous support because it helped us implement this new Fly-In strategy. Many of our Fly-In advocates came from rural and suburban areas as constituents of both Republican and Democratic members of Congress, who oversee key appropriations and authorizing committees on Capitol Hill.
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Jennifer Stevens
Director, Boise City Department of Arts and History, Boise, ID
In May, Jennifer met with Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID-2) Chairman of the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior (NEA arts funding) and Sen. James Risch (R-ID) Member of the Senate Small Business & Entrepreneurship Committee (SVOG funding).
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Omar Columbus
Artist, Poetic Theater Productions’ Veteran Voices, Riverside, CA
In May, Omar met Rep. Ken Calvert (R-CA-41) Republican Chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee (arts therapy programs) and Rep. Mark Takano (D-CA-39) Ranking Democrat of the House Veterans Affairs Committee (arts therapy programs).
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Dinah Minot and Ekhlas Ahmed
Executive Director, Creative Portland, Maine
Co-Executive Director, Cultural Alliance of Maine
In October, Dinah and Ekhlas met with Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-ME-1) Chairman of Congressional Arts Caucus and Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) Co-Chair of Senate Cultural Caucus.
Our year-round advocacy approach with its focused Fly-In strategy worked!
On November 2nd, we collectively and soundly helped to defeat two Freedom Caucus amendments on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives that attempted to zero-out future funding for the arts and humanities. By a decisive vote of 129 to 292, Congress made a clear BIPARTISAN declaration that it supports the arts and culture!
We also incorporated art itself into our advocacy efforts this year by inviting artist Carrie Tillis to be our artist in residence. Carrie supports our lobbying efforts by creating artwork that showcases the power of the arts in each state. Her dynamic and storytelling artwork helps us to amplify our collective advocacy message for each Fly-In. So far, representatives and senators from West Virginia, New Mexico, Minnesota, Idaho, Rhode Island, and Maine have proudly accepted Carrie’s pictorial tapestry of the arts in their state to hang prominently in their offices on Capitol Hill. ArtsActionFund.org/MeetCarrie
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“It’s amazing being an artist and then becoming an arts advocate. We present the best facts and my job is to visually depict the human story.”
Carrie Tillis, Artist, Nashville, Tennessee
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Many of you are also Arts Action Fund Political Action Committee (PAC) donors. When you contribute to our PAC, 100% of your contribution goes directly to pro-arts candidates and never to overhead. Your contributions not only support the reelection of pro-arts candidates, but they also help us identify and support up-and-coming pro-arts candidates running for an open seat. Your contributions have supported several pro-arts candidates this year, including:
This is why we need you. Your support is not just a contribution to our organization, it is an investment in the future of the arts in America.
We’re represented by high-level political insiders. This fall, Arts Action Fund PAC Chairman Lyndon Boozer hosted our first in a series of Zoom quarterly insider political and policy briefings. These Arts Insider Briefings are an opportunity for our PAC donors and members to ask questions or just listen in on a robust 30-minute Zoom discussion about what’s happening in Congress. ArtsActionFund.org/InsiderBriefings
Your contributions are especially important because we do not put up financial barriers for artists, arts advocates, and young people to become members of the Arts Action Fund. In fact, a great majority of our members are free e-advocates who want to contribute with their actions and voices. This means the contributions you provide become that much more meaningful in supporting an inclusive and equitable membership where young people and those with financial barriers can participate and be HEARD. You are helping to steward the next generation of arts advocates!
We need funds by January 1, 2024 for the upcoming presidential election. There is a lot at stake in terms of control of House, Senate, and White House. We will continue our new Fly-In strategy in addition to our ArtsVote 2024 campaign which will engage voters, educate them on making their vote count, and more. We have a lot of work to do and we need your financial support.
Nina Ozlu Tunceli
Executive Director