awards for arts achievement

Alene Valkanas State Arts Advocacy Award

The Alene Valkanas State Arts Advocacy Award was created in 2006 to honor an individual at the state level who has dramatically affected the political landscape through their arts advocacy efforts. This award will be presented annually at the Americans for the Arts Annual Convention to an individual who may be an artist, associated with a local arts agency, a local arts organization, or a statewide arts organization.

Nominees should demonstrate a sustained effort in state arts advocacy with proven results. The scope of work should include novel, creative, and innovative concepts along with the ability for these concepts to be reproduced by others.

The award honors its namesake, Alene Valkanas, the retiring executive director of the Illinois Arts Alliance for her 20-plus years of tireless work for the arts. She is widely seen as the preeminent authority on state arts advocacy by her peers. The award was presented to Alene in its inaugural year by Americans for the Arts, honoring her in front of her peers at the Illinois Arts Alliance’s annual gala in Chicago, November 2006.

The award is presented by the Americans for the Arts State Arts Action Network (SAAN) of which Alene was a founding member and co-chair. The SAAN serves as the meeting place for its members—statewide multidiscipline arts service or advocacy organizations—to gather and discuss common issues. The network was formed on March 29, 2004, when Americans for the Arts announced that two previously independent national arts organizations, the State Arts Advocacy League of America (SAALA) and the National Community Arts Network (NCAN), had ratified an agreement to become part of Americans for the Arts.