National Council on the Arts Meeting, June 27, 2014

The Friday, June 27, 2014, meeting of the National Council on the Arts took place at its new headquarters in the Constitution Center, 400 7th St. SW. Following council business, NEA Director of Research and Analysis Sunil Iyengar talked about some of the findings of the latest Survey of Public Participation in the Arts (SPPA). The NEA has partnered with the United States Census Bureau six times since 1982 to conduct the SPPA. A guest presentation from M12 Collective followed Mr. Iyengar’s presentation, lead by Matthew Fluharty, director of Art of the Rural and a member of the collective, and Kirsten Stoltz, M12's director of programs. The collective is an interdisciplinary group of artists interested in the aesthetics of rural cultures and landscapes. Based in Byers, Colorado, about 44 miles east of Denver and situated in the high plains, M12 members create work and conduct research projects and education programs. Robert S. Cox, head of special collections and university archives at the University of Massachusetts Amherst Libraries then discussed the arts policy archives he oversees which includes the publication archives of the National Endowment for the Arts.