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Message from the Executive Director
Arts Advocacy Year Round
Dear Friends,
Sine die may signal the end of the Legislative session, but certainly not the end of our advocacy efforts. With the loss of the general fund appropriation for the Arizona Commission on the Arts (a $665,000 cut) and a sweep of $115,000 from the Arts Trust Fund, we simply cannot afford to slow down. Ongoing state budget woes and a difficult political environment continue to threaten public support for the arts.
As Arizona Citizens for the Arts President Steve Martin noted so well at the Governor's Arts Awards on April 12, our arts industry has weathered earlier economic storms because we are resilient, innovative and committed to collaborations that can create new solutions and build new wellsprings of support.
To that end, we are taking a page from our past when the arts community worked side-by-side with the business community and the community at large to create the arts advocacy movement in Arizona. We are absolutely committed to coming together again to find new ways to reinvigorate public support for the arts, even as traditional funding is falling away.
Many of the us with Arizona Citizens for the Arts will be joining many of you at the Arizona Town Hall, "Capitalizing on Arizona's Arts & Culture", this weekend. We believe this is a prime opportunity to turn our passion for the arts into a concrete plan to rebuild political support for our vital industry.
Over the summer, we will be meeting with legislators and other elected officials to reinforce the impact of the arts to them personally and to the communities they serve. We also plan to assess support for the arts among local city council and mayoral candidates, especially in Phoenix and Tucson.
And we need your help to do the same. Reach out to your elected officials. Meet with them in your home districts. Our advocacy center (www.azcitizensforthearts.org) has tools and resources to help you.
We remain committed to nurturing, sustaining and growing both our audiences and our organizations to overcome the significant challenges we face. However, it is something we need to do together with you and our other friends in the business community, education and the community at large.
In the eloquent words of one of our 2011 Shelley Award winners, Bill Sheppard, "We will never quit."
Catherine "Rusty" Foley
Interim Executive Director
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Town Hall to Focus on Arts and Culture
May 1st - 4th, in Tucson, Arizona
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 The 98th Arizona Town Hall explores "Capitalizing on Arizona's Arts & Culture" from May 1-4 at the Tucson Reid Park Hotel. It's a historic event given the singular focus on an arts and cultural industry that means so much to Arizona's economy, education and quality of life that has taken significant financial hits the past several years.
Among the keynote speakers at the annual event that identifies and discusses critical policy issues facing Arizona: Rocco Landesman, Chairman of the National Endowment of the Arts, and Marian Godfrey, Senior Director, Cultural Initiatives of the Pew Charitable Trusts.
And you can follow Town Hall activities by signing on to Barry's Blog, http://blog.westaf.org/. The Arizona Commission on the Arts is bringing in Barry Hessenius, former director of the California Arts Council and expert observer of the arts and non-profit industries, to blog in real time about the progress of the Town Hall discussion panels.
A full discussion outline, speaker bios and an agenda also can be found at www.aztownhall.org
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| The 30th Annual Governor's Arts Awards
Draws 600
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More than 600 arts advocates, artists, educators and businesses filled the Herberger Theater Center to celebrate the 30th annual Arizona Governor's Arts Awards on April 12. Nearly 80 nominations were received in six categories and all 138 past honorees were recognized.
This year's honorees received ceramic awards created by six Arizona artists and each honoree, past and present, received a special 30th anniversary commemorative copper medallion underwritten by Resolution Copper Company. SRP was
 the event's premier sponsor. Other sponsors were Bank of America, Target Stores, APS and Boeing.
Laveen mural artist Martin Moreno took home the Artist Award and Ann Ludwig earned the first-ever Arts in Education Individual Award. Other honorees were: Free Arts for Abused Children of Arizona, Community Award; Tonto Community Concert Association, Arts in Education - Organization Award; Cox Communications of Southern Arizona, Business Award; and Carol Duval Whiteman, Individual Award. Bill Sheppard and Carolyn Allen received the sixth annual Shelley Award.
The success of the Governor's Arts Awards, our organization's primary fundraiser, would not be possible without the generous underwriting of our corporate sponsors and Arizona arts organizations. Please visit www.governorsartsawards.org for a full listing of sponsors.
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Poetry Out Loud Arizona
11,000 Students Participate | |
 More than 11,000 high school students and 200 schools across the state were part of the 2011 Arizona Poetry Out Loud organized by the Arizona Commission on the Arts. Nine students representing the northern, central and southern regions competed for the title of Arizona Poetry Out Loud State Champion. The competition was recorded for broadcast by Eight, Arizona PBS.
Poetry Out Loud uses poetry to foster the next generation of readers through recitation and performance and builds on the resurgence of poetry as an oral art form.
For more information, visit www.azarts.gov/arts-learning/poetry-out-loud.
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Americans for the Arts' National Convention
In San Diego, CA this June | |
 Complementing the focus of the Arizona Town Hall, the 2011 Americans for the Arts Annual Convention will answer these questions: What can I do today to make the arts more vital in my community? And, how can my arts organization harness the power of a creative economy?
More than 1,200 arts and community leaders are expected at the convention, June 16-18 in San Diego. Early registration ends April 29. Registration rates vary.
For more information, visit http://convention.artsusa.org.
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| Member Organization Spotlight
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Organized in 1978 in California, A Ludwig Dance Theatre began its creative community involvement in Arizona in 1979. Under the direction and leadership of 2011 Governor's Arts Awards honoree Ann Ludwig, the company's works have been staged in cities and towns across the state as well as in California, Nevada, Massachusetts, New York, South Carolina, North Carolina, Alabama, Oregon, Louisiana, Florida, Wyoming and in Europe.
An astute observer of human behavior, Ann Ludwig's work explores life issues from domestic violence and homelessness to women and men's roles in society and to war, aging, love and marriage as well as the sheer joy of dancing.
The New York Times wrote: "Ludwig's pieces careen through a wide assortment of female responses in theatre-dance that has all the ragged, irrational reasonableness of life lived slightly below the polite formalities."
For more information, visit www.aludwigdance.org.
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| Upcoming Events | Arizona Town Hall
May1st -4th, 2011
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 | | Board of Directors | |
OFFICERS
Steve Martin,
President, Arizona Citizens
Brenda Bernardi,
Vice President, Arizona Citizens
Joel Hiller,
President, Arizona Action
Tom Chapman,
Secretary
Dawn Brown,
Treasurer
Jeff Rich,
Member-At-Large
Jessica L. Andrews,
Past President, Arizona Citizens
MEMBERS
Allan Affeldt,
La Posada Hotel
Robert Benson,
Peoria Unified School District
Dick Bowers,
Herberger Theater Center
Jennifer Burns,
Community Volunteer
Sam Campana,
Audobon Arizona
Clark Chasten,
Community Volunteer
Jae Chin,
Asian Bank
Mary Dryden,
Tucson Symphony Orchestra League
Karen Falkenstrom
Odaiko Sonora
Representative Steve Farley,
Arizona House of Representatives
Wes Gullett,
First Strategic
Joan Howell,
Phoenix Elementary School District
Phillip C. Jones,
Community Volunteer
Cathy Knapp,
Quarles & Brady LLC
Alika Kumar,
Community Volunteer
Melissa Lopez,
The Apollo Group
Kate Marquez,
Southern Arizona Arts & Culture Alliance
Rob Nichols,
Salt River Project
Joseph Perez,
City of Phoenix
Senator Michele Reagan,
Arizona State Senate
Julie Richard,
West Valley Arts Council
Andrea Soto,
FAME Events
John Tannous,
Flagstaff Cultural Partners
Jackie Thrasher,
Washington Elementary School District
Lynn Tuttle,
Arizona Department of Education
Roberta Ukura,
City of Yuma Park & Recreation
Cathy Weiss,
Del E. Webb Center for the Performing Arts
Nancy Welch,
Flinn Foundation
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