On Saturday afternoon, our beloved City of Buffalo was the targeted location of a terrorist attack in one of Buffalo's most vulnerable neighborhoods. Our hearts are broken for the victims, their families, and for our city. There are two truths that those of us who live in Buffalo must hold right now; one is [...]
Over the course of the next year we're hitting the road and collecting data for the Arts & Economic Prosperity 6 study through Americans for the Arts at events across the five counties of Western New York. At each event, we'll be surveying a sample of audience members which will paint the picture of [...]
Western New York is well represented at this year's Americans for the Arts National Arts Action Summit as ASI's Jen Swan-Kilpatrick and Holly Grant take the lead as Federal Arts Advocacy Captains for New York State. Usually in-person in Washington DC, the National Arts Action Summit will take place virtually this year from March 28-30th and is free for anyone to [...]
If we asked you who your County Legislator was right now, would you know? How about what district your organization located in? So if someone asked your legislator right now which organizations in their district could use additional funding, do you think they would think of you? It can be intimidating to reach [...]
NEW: ASI is now compiling an active list of advocacy action items on our website. These are available for anyone to participate in and will be updated frequently. Some are simple such as adding your signature of support to a proposed piece of legislation and some are more involved such as attending a national [...]
An interesting conversation popped up on the ASI Twitter page the other day about the potential economic impact of building a new Bills stadium. We have no horse in the race about stadium plans, but that conversation did lead to someone asking us about the economic impact of the arts in Western New York [...]
Please join us in congratulating ASI's Executive Director, Jen Swan-Kilpatrick, on her recent appointment to vice president of Arts NYS. Jen has been a dedicated board member at Arts NYS since 2019 and her duties as vice president are effective as of this past October. In this role as vice president, Jen will have [...]
At ASI, advocacy for the arts and cultural sector is an important part of what we do in service of the area's independent artists, 500+ not for profit cultural organizations, their thousands of employees, and the hundreds of thousands who invest in the cultural sector through their attendance, service, and donations. Each election [...]
October is National Arts & Humanities Month (NAHM)—a coast-to-coast collective recognition of the importance of culture in America. NAHM was launched by Americans for the Arts more than 30 years ago as National Arts Week in honor of the twentieth anniversary of the National Endowment for the Arts. In 1993, it was reestablished by Americans for [...]
You asked and we listened. Thank you to everyone who participated in ASI's strategic planning survey. We received a lot of informative feedback and we will continue to implement these ideas as we move through our strategic planning process. One overwhelming need that came up from both individuals and organizations in the arts field [...]
