professional membership
Featured Members
Americans for the Arts members are truly diverse – from large arts organizations to small ones; from funders to presenters; from urban centers to rural outposts. Despite their differences, they share the common goal of advancing and promoting the arts in their communities. Featured Member Projects highlights some of the many interesting and innovative means our members are using to strengthen their communities through the arts.Are you an Americans for the Arts member who would like to see your organization and project featured on this page? If so, email your story to membership@artsusa.org.
Virginia Commission for the Arts and Arts Council of the Blue Ridge
A Statewide Collaboration Between Arts Organizations Aimed at Increasing Visibility and Promoting Access to the Arts in Virginia
Written by Laura Rawlings, Executive Director of the Arts Council of the Blue Ridge in Roanoke, VA
Three years ago, the arts and culture community of Virginia embarked on a great adventure. Our state arts council convened the heads of the major arts organizations of the Commonwealth to encourage us to take more of a leadership role on behalf of the entire cultural sector. With so many challenges to face as individual agencies, some of us were less receptive to this idea than others. We all agreed, however, that we needed a high-visibility project to demonstrate the breadth, diversity, and intrinsic value of the arts to state decision-makers in Virginia.
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Olympic Preparations and Proportions: Bringing Public Art to New and Familiar Places for the Olympic and Paralympics in 2010
For the city of Vancouver, one of many issues under consideration when Vancouver won the 2010 Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games was how to dress up its built landscape so as to complement the city’s enviable natural backdrop and, at the same time, inform visitors about the city’s social, environmental, and cultural fabric. One result was the Olympic and Paralympic Public Art Program (OPPAP), a collection of more than 20 new permanent and temporary public art works commissioned especially for the 2010 Winter Games.
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A Community Coming Together Around Art
In Oregon, Lake Oswego’s Gallery Without Walls grew out of an idea brought about nine years ago by now Mayor Jack Hoffman. A city councilor at the time, Hoffman believed that an on-loan public art sculpture program could highlight original artwork by regional artists, help to beautify the redeveloping downtown area, and attract pedestrians. He had noticed the outdoor art of two other cities, Wenatchee and Puyallup in Washington state. The program, which is comprised of sculpture that is on loan from the artists, started with four sculptures in 2001. The city’s Parks and Recreation Department, with a volunteer committee of community members, oversaw the beginning of the program. Today, Gallery Without Walls is managed by the Arts Council of Lake Oswego and has grown to include 30 sculptures with 15 new artworks rotating in each year for a two-year stay. In addition, there are 30 sculptures throughout city parks, streets, and neighborhoods that are part of the city’s permanent collection.
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