press room
For Immediate Release
11/29/2006Contact:
Beth Olsen
Goodman Media for Americans for the Arts
212.576.2700 ext. 243 or bolsen@goodmanmedia.com
Americans for the Arts Presents Inaugural Lt. Governors Arts Award to Mitchell J. Landrieu
NEW ORLEANS, L.A., November 29, 2006 – Americans for the Arts, the nation’s leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts in America, and the National Lieutenant Governors Association today presented Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Mitchell J. Landrieu with the inaugural Lieutenant Governors Arts Award. The award honors a public official who has demonstrated outstanding leadership in the advancement of the arts at the state level. It was presented at the National Lieutenant Governors Winter Meeting in New Orleans as part of the Public Leadership in the Arts Awards series.
“Louisiana is deeply dedicated to promoting and enhancing its love for the arts,” said Lieutenant Governor Mitchell J. Landrieu. “As a native New Orleanian, I know we possess music, art, and culture to the likes of which simply don’t exist anywhere else on earth.”
Louisiana Lieutenant Governor Mitchell J. Landrieu receives the 2006 Lt. Governors Arts Award for his arts advocacy throughout his state. Immediately after taking office in 2004, Landrieu launched the Cultural Economy Initiative. Based on his recognition that Louisiana has underutilized natural assets and raw talents, which limit the state’s potential to create jobs and growth, Landrieu's initiative sought to identify and value the economic impact of Louisiana's cultural industries.
After Hurricane Katrina, he designed a recovery plan—Louisiana Rebirth: Restoring the Soul of America—which established art and culture as the keystones of recovery for the lives and livelihoods of Louisiana's citizens. Landrieu was instrumental in the creation of the Cultural Economy Foundation, a 501(c) 3 organization that acts as a private partner in the state's cultural economy initiatives. In the fall of 2005, the Foundation reacted immediately to the crisis caused by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. It secured more than $900,000 in donations and administered the distribution of over $600,000 in emergency relief grants to over 350 individual artists, arts organizations, and small cultural businesses.
Over the course of the last year, Landrieu's vision and roadmap resulted in $2.3 million for local, homegrown arts programming in all 64 parishes of Louisiana and support of model arts programming in healthcare, education, incarcerated environments, public art, and programming development of community arts organizations
Americans for the Arts is the leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts in America. With offices in Washington, DC, and New York City, it has a record of more than 45 years of service. Americans for the Arts is dedicated to representing and serving local communities and creating opportunities for every American to participate in and appreciate all forms of the arts. Additional information is available at www.AmericansForTheArts.org.
