ArtsVote 2020 is a Nationwide Campaign to Advocate in Local, State and Federal Races for Arts Funding in America’s Communities and Schools
WASHINGTON, DC – Ben Folds, celebrated American singer-songwriter and former front man of the alternative rock band Ben Folds Five, has been appointed Chairman of ArtsVote2020, a nationwide two-year initiative of the Americans for the Arts Action Fund (Arts Action Fund) that will advocate for better public policies for the arts and arts education. ArtsVote2020 will specifically bring national attention to the important role of the creative economy to our nation’s political candidates running to improve the economic, educational, and social welfare of our nation.
The Arts Action Fund is the grassroots advocacy affiliate of Americans for the Arts and is the largest arts advocacy organization in the U.S. with more than 400,000 grassroots members across all 50 states. The Arts Action Fund builds awareness in the political arena of the importance of the arts and arts education to American culture and our economy. While Americans for the Arts conducts valuable research and nationally recognized programs and professional development training, the Arts Action Funds runs grassroots advocacy campaigns for its members; organizes candidate forums; and registers, educates and mobilizes voters.
“The ArtsVote2020 initiative is a timely call for accountability and commitment to the arts by our federally elected officials and those who are seeking public office in this coming election cycle. Recent and multiple national budget cuts attempting to terminate the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, Institute of Museum and Library Services, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting would cut at our very soul in America,” said Folds. “I’m honored to serve as Chairman of this initiative and look forward to growing our national membership and advocating to protect the arts in all aspects of our society.”
Folds is also a new member of the Arts Action Fund Board, and was recently interviewed on the Brownstein Podcast Series about his experience navigating the political arena. Americans for the Arts Board of Directors Chairman Julie Muraco commented, “Ben will bring great energy, innovative ideas and connections to Arts Action Fund’s mission to advance recognition of the arts in America. As Chair of ArtsVote2020, Ben’s goal is to increase the political clout of the Americans for the Arts Action Fund by helping to expand its Free Advocate grassroots membership from 400,000 to one million members.”
Folds is joined by three other new members of the Arts Action Fund Board: telecommunications lobbyist Lyndon K. Boozer of Capital Counsel LLC; Mike Kopp, artist manager to Folds and a veteran of more than 250 political campaigns on the national and local levels; and Ann Sheffer, secretary and treasurer of the Betty R. and Ralph Sheffer Foundation, a family foundation devoted to the arts, education, and community care.
About Ben Folds
Ben Folds is widely regarded as one of the major music influencers of our generation. He’s created an enormous body of genre-bending music that includes pop albums with Ben Folds Five, multiple solo albums, and numerous collaborative records. For over a decade he’s performed with some of the world’s greatest symphony orchestras, and in 2017 was named as the first ever Artistic Advisor to the National Symphony Orchestra at the Kennedy Center.
In addition to touring, Folds has written his first book, described as a collection of interrelated essays and anecdotes about art, life, and music, set for release in July 2019.
An outspoken champion for arts education and music therapy funding in our nation's public schools, in 2016 Ben held the distinction as the only artist to appear at both national political conventions advocating for arts education, and has served for over five years as an active member of the distinguished Artist Committee of Americans For The Arts.