Vollis Simpson: Making Something Out Of Nothing

A man poses in front of a large pole topped by a scuplture.
Vollis Simpson is a lifelong machinist, but he didn't know he was an artist until someone came out to his workshop in rural Lucama, North Carolina, and told him so. The Wilson Downtown Development Corporation (WDDC) in nearby Wilson, North Carolina, designed a plan to create and dedicate a park to celebrate Vollis and his work with the assistance of Arts Endowment grants.
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The Purple Rose Theatre Company

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Chelsea, Michigan, is a small town with a thriving arts scene. That's thanks in no small part to the Purple Rose Theatre Company (PRTC), founded by actor, and Chelsea native, Jeff Daniels.
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Art of the American Soldier

Woman in military uniform looking at art in museum.

A woman in uniform studies the exhibit at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Pennslyvania. Image provided by the National Constitution Center.

Theater of War

Man standing outside with arms crossed.

Bryan Doerries, director of Theater of War.  Photo by Howard Korn

A classicist and translator, Bryan Doerries believed that the ancient military tragedies of Sophocles, who was a general as well as a playwright, would speak to the experiences of today’s service members and provide an avenue for them to share their own stories.
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The Delta Blues Museum

Instruments in glass cases inside a museum gallery.
One of the galleries in the Delta Blues Museum. Photo courtesy of the Delta Blues Museum
With some help from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Delta Blues Museum—in the heart of the Mississippi Delta—created an award-winning arts education program that serves the young people in the community.
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Making Sure No One Is Excluded: The National Endowment for the Arts' Leadership in Accessibility

A dancer in a wheelchair lifts one hand upward as she performs onstage

Mary Verdi-Fletcher dancing in a 2009 performance of La Vie en Rose, choreographed by Mark Tomasic. Photo by Dale Dong 

A look at the leadership of the Arts Endowment’s Accessibility Office in making accessibility a priority for arts organizations nationwide, and organizations working in the field like Dancing Wheels and ArtMix.

Taking Note: Pre-Pandemic Factors Driving (or Deterring) Arts Participation

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A look at the new Arts Endowment research report "Why We Engage: Attending, Creating, and Performing Art," based on large, nationally representative survey data about adults’ reasons for doing certain arts activities.

Happy 55th Birthday to the National Endowment for the Arts

Large group of men and women surrounding President Johnson sitting at a small table signing the legislation
In 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed into the law the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities Act of 1965 (P.L. 89-209) "to provide for the establishment of the National Foundation on the Arts and the Humanities to promote progress and scholarship in the humanities and the arts in the United States, and for other purposes."

Hispanic Heritage Flashback Friday: Sandra Cisneros on Recognizing Ourselves

Sandra Cisneros

Sandra Cisneros. Photo by Alan Goldfarb

As a child, Sandra Cisneros read voraciously, taking in “the language of books and writing and magic and mystery.” It was only much later, while attending the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, that Cisneros realized that her own language of working-class Mexican Americans was nowhere to be found within literature.

American Artscape Notable Quotable: DesignPhiladelphia

a visitor to a design exhibit

A visitor at DesignPhiladelphia explores the "Park in a Truck" initiative from Thomas Jefferson University. The project design proposed a simple, fast, and cost-effective way to help communities transform vacant lots into public parks. Photo by Chris Kendig

“There are a lot of ways that equality or achieving equality is blocked or there are hurdles in people’s way, but designers can help remove those hurdles.” — Rebecca Johnson
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