Art Works Blog

A group of young people sing as they march through a street

Celebrating 100 Years of Women's Voices at the Chautauqua Institution

January 22, 2020
During the height of the suffrage movement, activist Susan B. Anthony frequently advocated for women’s rights from the stage of the Chautauqua Institution, one of the nation’s leading arts and intellectual centers. So to mark the centennial of the passage of the 19th amendment, which granted...
A smiling woman stands with a man in front of a police sign

The Miami Police Athletic League Celebrates Literature With Their First NEA Big Read

January 21, 2020
On a recent trip to Miami, Endowment Director of Literary Arts Amy Stolls found herself at the city’s police headquarters. Home to a 911 call center, offices for top brass, and an investigations department, Stolls was there “to talk about books,” as she told an officer who was directing visitors...
Two teens cut a ribbon on a newly installed arrow sculpture while two adult men stand smiling at the camera

New Grant Spotlight: Territory NFP, A Place Where Chicago Teens Can Shape Their Own Territory

January 17, 2020
When architect Helen Slade was living near a high school in Chicago’s Albany Park neighborhood, she expressed frustration about the area’s graffiti and trash, which she and neighbor Rashmi Ramaswamy, also an architect, attributed to the local high school students. But in talking with a third...
In a vacant space, artists spraypaint colorful text on a white cinderblock wall. Words include racism (crossed out), love, displacement crossed out, chain stores, homelessness, affordable rent, and gentrification.

Transforming Community Development through Arts and Culture

January 16, 2020
The start of a new year is always a time to reflect on growth and evolution, as well as a time to set intentions for how to move forward. If there’s one thing we collectively tend to feel during this process, it’s that change is hard. This is just as true professionally as it is personally, and...
“It is above all by the imagination that we achieve perception and compassion and hope."

#TuesdayThought: Ursula K. Le Guin

January 14, 2020
“It is above all by the imagination that we achieve perception and compassion and hope." -Ursula K. Le Guin Learn about Ursula K. Le Guin's iconic novel, A Wizard of Earthsea , one of the titles in the National Endowment for the Arts Big Read library.
An African-American woman searing a sleeveless black shirt dancing with her eyes closed.

#FlashbackFriday: Bebe Miller; How Do I Not Stop Myself?

January 10, 2020
Bebe Miller started her eponymous dance company in 1985. Since then she has created more than 50 dance works for the company and expanded her choreographic vocabulary to include digital media, text, theater, and other narrative elements. With features at Jacob’s Pillow, the Walker Art Center, the...
Illustrations representing research

Taking Note: Arts Impact Measurement from Our Neighbor to the North

January 9, 2020
Four years ago, the Canada Council for the Arts announced its first funding increase toward a doubling of the agency’s budget by 2021. Preparing for this cash infusion, the agency restructured its grant-making programs, moving from a “disciplinary-based” model to an “outcomes-oriented” one...
quote by Tom Ridgely

#WisdomWednesday: Tom Ridgely

January 8, 2020
“What art does is it, even in small little ways, shatters that illusion of separation.” — Tom Ridgely, Shakespeare Festival St. Louis Read our NEA Arts magazine interview with Tom Ridgely to learn how Shakespeare Festival St. Louis works to heal the wounds of social disconnection and alienation in...
quote by Thomas Merton

#TuesdayMotivation: Thomas Merton

January 7, 2020
"Art enables us to find ourselves and lose ourselves at the same time." — Thomas Merton. What has engaging with the arts helped you to discover about yourself? What has engaging with the arts helped you to leave behind? Let us know at @NEAarts on Twitter or on the National Endowment for the Arts...
Man in dark suit sitting on weight bench with sheet music scattered on ground

#FlashbackFriday: Art Talk with Composer Jerod Impichchaachaaha' Tate

January 3, 2020
Jerod Impichchaachaaha’ Tate was just eight years old when he announced to his parents that he wanted to be a concert pianist when he grew up. He made good on that declaration, but upped the ante by becoming a composer as well. Today, he fuses the many artistic traditions that saturated his...

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