Art Works Blog

cover of paper program for convening with text and photo of a young man watching a performance

Envisioning the Future of Theater for Young Audiences: Notes from a Convening

August 7, 2019
When we look for reasons for why we do what we do here at the National Endowment for the Arts, one of the most powerful examples comes from observing the impact that Theater for Young Audiences (TYA) has on the young people who experience it. In the course of my time here, I’ve seen firsthand and...
quote by Renee Elise Goldsberry

#TuesdayThought: Renée Elise Goldsberry

August 6, 2019
"There’s a new Mozart, a new Miles Davis, a new Misty Copeland, a new Matisse potentially languishing in a math class somewhere. If we fail to introduce them to art, we fail humanity." — Renée Elise Goldsberry Revisit our interview with Tony Award-winning actress Renée Elise Goldsberry, who...
a man and a woman holding a child talk to each other against a background of colorful paintings

How Blue Star Museums is Making A Difference: One Military Family's Story

August 2, 2019
In the Cummer Museum of Art & Gardens in Jacksonville, Florida, Rachel Snyder and her children wander around the Stein Gallery taking in the artwork. She and her family have been here before, but this time they are helping to celebrate the 10th summer of the National Endowment for the Arts’...
Graphs and coffee

Taking Note: A Tribute to the Nation’s First Statistical Report on the State of the Arts

August 1, 2019
The systematic collection and analysis of federal statistics about the arts can be traced to the mid-1970s, when the National Endowment for the Arts established a research function. Among core measurements we routinely take are: the breadth and frequency of arts participation in the U.S.; the...
quote by Zackary Drucker

Wisdom Wednesday: Visual and Performance Artist Zackary Drucker

July 31, 2019
"Art is a survival strategy for any ostracized people." — Zackary Drucker Revisit out our Art Talk with filmmaker, photographer, and performance artist Zackary Drucker here .
view of mansion with colonnaded entrance and statue and hedges in foreground

Blue Star Museums Spotlight on Hillwood Estate

July 30, 2019
Hillwood Estate, Museum, and Gardens , a Blue Star museum located in Washington, DC, is the former home of Marjorie Merriweather Post, the “Post Cereal Heiress.” She inherited the Post Cereal Company from her father, C.W. Post, which—with her second husband E.F. Hutton—she built into the...
an ensemble of dancers some of whom are in wheelchairs performing on stage

#FlashbackFriday: Promoting Accessibility in the Arts

July 26, 2019
“Disabled people have only in recent years gained access to the arts, and even today that access is extremely limited in many cultural institutions. The arts are vital to a sense of cultural belonging, to social cohesion, to a sense of the possibilities in the world. But access to the arts is only...
quote by Andrew Okpeaha Maclean

#ThrowbackThursday: Filmmaker Andrew Okpeaha MacLean on the Responsibility of the Artist

July 25, 2019
"The responsibility of the artist is to make work that's real and that's reflective of something that's true. You have to be true to your own vision of the voice you're trying to find." — Andrew Okpeaha MacLean For #ThrowbackThursday check out our interview with filmmaker Andrew Okpeaha MacLean (...
Woman sitting at desk with large microscope while holding pen with art supplies in background

Art Talk with Paleo Artist Mary Parrish

July 24, 2019
Scientific illustrator Mary Parrish spent much of her career turning what she described as the “mangled, frozen, gray rocks” of fossils into the living, breathing flora and fauna they once were. A paleo artist who recently retired after 37 years with the Smithsonian’s National Museum of Natural...
quote by Ava DuVernay

#TuesdayMotivation: Filmmaker Ava DuVernay

July 23, 2019
"I'm not going to knock on any closed doors. I'm going to make my own door." — Ava DuVernay

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