Resources
Americans for the Arts
Americans for the Arts works to lead, serve, and advance the diverse networks of organizations and individuals who cultivate the arts in America. It has a number of essential documents on arts in community: arts and business, community building, education, economy, funding, healthcare, and more. To delve more deeply into its research studies and publications, visit www.AmericansfortheArts.org. Here are some highlights.
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Arts + Social Impact Explorer
AmericansForTheArts.org/socialimpact
This online primer draws together top-line research, example projects, core research papers, and service/partner organizations about 26 different sectors, all in an effort to make more visible the incredible, wide-reaching impact of the arts.
Animating Democracy
Animating Democracy connects arts and culture as potent contributors to community, civic, and social change. The website features publications on action-based research, case studies of arts and humanities-based civic engagement, and essays and articles exploring different dimension of socially engaged arts work; profiles of artists and cultural organizations; bibliographies; tools for planning, implementing, and evaluating arts for change projects; and links to arts, dialogue, civic, and democracy organizations and websites.
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Arts & Economic Prosperity 6
https://www.americansforthearts.org/by-program/reports-and-data/research-studies-publications/arts-economic-prosperity-6
AEP5 documents the economic contributions of the arts in 341 diverse communities and regions across the country, representing all 50 states and the District of Columbia.
Creative Industries: Business & Employment in the Arts
AmericansForTheArts.org/by-program/reports-and-data/research-studies- publications/creative-industries
Creative Industries is a research-based approach to understanding the scope and economic importance of the arts in America.
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Americans Speak Out About the Arts in 2018
AmericansForTheArts.org/by-program/reports-and-data/research-studies- publications/public-opinion-poll
This public opinion poll report is an in-depth look at perceptions and attitudes about the arts in America.
Center for Performance and Civic Practice
In 1999, Michael Rohd founded Sojourn Theatre with seven other artists. In 2012, he and ensemble members Shannon Scrofano and Soneela Nankani founded the Center for Performance and Civic Practice.
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The Center for Performance and Civic Practice believes that with the right approach, the same tools and capacities that artists use to make meaningful art can be utilized to transform systems and improve the impacts of government and community-driven efforts and programs.
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The Robert E. Gard Foundation
Martie MacDonell read The Arts in Small Communities: A National Plan 1969 by Robert E. Gard so many times the edges were worn. Please see a revised edition by Maryo Gard Ewell and Michael F. Warlum, 2006, available from the Robert E. Gard Foundation.
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The Robert E. Gard Foundation is committed to helping people and their communities discover the vital role the arts play in their day-to-day lives.
Art of the Rural
National Assembly of State Arts Agencies
Most notably, they helped produce a recent report: "Rural Prosperity Through The Arts & Creative Sector, A Rural Guide for Governors and States” by the National Governors Association. www.nga.org/ruralarts/