Americans for the Arts
Americans for the Arts is the nation’s leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts in America. With a 40-year record of objective arts industry research, we are dedicated to representing and serving local communities and creating opportunities for every American to participate in and appreciate all forms of the arts.
Art in the Public Interest
(API) is a nonprofit organization that supports the belief that the arts are an integral part of a healthy culture, and that community-based arts provide significant value both to communities and artists. They are involved in significant programs, including: Community Arts Network. The Community Arts Network (CAN) supports the belief that the arts are an integral part of a healthy culture, providing both intellectual nourishment and social benefit, and that community-based arts provide significant value both to communities and artists. Their monthly newsletter, APInews, is their monthly newsletter covering the field of community-based art.
Art of the Rural
Art of the Rural is a collaborative organization with a mission to help build
the field of the rural arts, create new narratives on rural culture and community, and contribute to the emerging rural arts and culture movement. They work online and on the ground through interdisciplinary and cross-sector partnerships to advocate for engaged conversation and policy that transcends imposed boundaries and articulates the shared reality of rural and urban America.
Arts Midwest
Arts Midwest enables individuals and families throughout America’s heartland to share in and to enjoy the arts and cultures of our region and the world. Arts Midwest connects the arts to audiences throughout the nine-state region of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, and Wisconsin. One of six non-profit regional arts organizations in the United States, Arts Midwest’s history spans more than 25 years.
Front Porch Institute
The Front Porch Institute, created by Patrick Overton in 1996, is dedicated to exploring the role of the arts and culture in the community-making process, especially focusing on the essential role the arts play in engaging citizens in the democracy of civil discourse.
National Assembly of State Arts Agencies
The National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA) is the membership organization of the nation’s state and jurisdictional arts agencies. NASAA’s mission is to advance and promote a meaningful role for the arts in the lives of individuals, families and communities throughout the United States. We empower state arts agencies through strategic assistance that fosters leadership, enhances planning and decision making, and increases resources.
PlaceStories.com
The Rural Arts and Culture Map is a project coordinated by Art of the Rural, in collaboration with Appalshop, Feral Arts, and the M12 Art Collective. With these collaborators’ expertise in media-making, design, and community-engagement, Art of the Rural will utilize this dynamic open source Map to present new perspectives from rural America, with a focus on rural youth, rural-urban exchange, and a sustaining interest in the changing face of rural America: the next generation, and their membership in diverse ethnic and cultural communities.
PlacesStories.com and the Robert E. Gard Foundation Mini-grant Stories
In 2010, to mark the 100th birthday of Robert E. Gard, the Wisconsin Arts Board and the Gard Foundation co-sponsored a symposium based around Gard’s ideas. He believed that every human being has an important story to tell, one that can be powerfully told through writing, music, dance, or any art form. He believed that the arts can be catalysts for community growth and change, and in The Arts in the Small Community he has sections that we’ve called the “Arts And” pages – Arts & Business, Arts & Religion, Arts & Health, Arts & Ethnic Groups, and more. He was passionate about the power of place, believing that from a consciousness of place can spring powerful creative insight. Board members capped the Symposium by identifying projects that captured some of these ideas, or by participating in national conversations using Gard’s perspectives.
portalwisconsin.org
Portalwisconsin.org is a non-profit web site created by the Cultural Coalition to promote culture, arts, humanities and history in Wisconsin. Using a variety of web based media, Portal Wisconsin will serve as a gateway to the rich content of the Cultural Coalition partner organizations, as well as other cultural entities throughout the state. Content will include a statewide events calendar, news articles, course listings, organizational listings, streaming video and audio, moderated online chats, online galleries, and Web links. Visitors will be able to search for content by keyword, geographic area and interest area. Content will be dynamic and constantly evolving.
Wisconsin Writers’ Association
The association is a statewide group of writers, amateur and professional, dedicated to self-improvement, service to others, and to the writer’s craft. It was founded in 1948 by Professor Robert E. Gard of the University of Wisconsin. The purpose of the organization was to draw together the many diverse creative elements in the state and provide an opportunity and an outlet for that creative writing talent.
Wormfarm Institute
At the Wormfarm Institute, we work to build a sustainable future for agriculture and the arts by fostering vital links between people and the land. Generating, supporting and promoting these links between our creative selves, our work and our place on earth is essential for a thriving human community.