Arts Organizations

Click on resource name in bold to visit their web site.

Americans for the Arts
Americans for the Arts is the nation’s leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts in America. With 45 years of service, we are dedicated to representing and serving local communities and creating opportunities for every American to participate in and appreciate all forms of the arts.
With offices in Washington, DC and New York, and more than 5,000 organizational and individual members and stakeholders across the country, we are focused on three primary goals:
1. Foster an environment in which the arts can thrive and contribute to the creation of more livable communities.
2. Generate more public- and private-sector resources for the arts and arts education.
3. Build individual appreciation of the value of the arts.
To achieve our goals, we partner with local, state, and national arts organizations; government agencies; business leaders; individual philanthropists; educators; and funders throughout the country. We provide extensive arts industry research, and information and professional development opportunities for community arts leaders via specialized programs and services, including a content-rich website and an annual national convention.
Local arts agencies throughout the United States comprise our core constituency. A variety of unique stakeholder groups with particular interests like public art, united arts fundraising, rural and small communities, state arts agencies, and emerging arts leaders are also supported. Through national visibility and local outreach, we strive to motivate and mobilize opinion leaders and decision-makers who can make the arts thrive in America.

Association of Performing Arts Presenters
With over forty years as an active arts service organization, the Association of Performing Arts Presenters (Arts Presenters) is the nexus for the performing arts community and the innovators in the field. Representing both the nonprofit and for-profit sectors of the industry, Arts Presenters members hail from all 50 states and more than 15 countries across the globe and range from large performing arts centers in major urban cities, outdoor festivals and rural community-focused organizations to academic institutions, artists and artist managers. Our membership includes organizations with multi-million dollar budgets and individuals who are performing arts professionals. Members bring performances to over 2 million audience-goers each week. No other association membership rivals the breadth of creative expression, representing disciplines ranging from all forms of dance, music, theater and family programming to puppetry, circus, magic, attractions and performance art.

Community Arts Network
The Community Arts Network (CAN) is a portal to the field of community arts, providing news, documentation, theoretical writing, communications, research and educational information. Headquartered at its Web site on the Internet, CAN is a program of Art in the Public Interest (API), a nonprofit organization based in North Carolina.

Dance Critics Association Member Survey Summary
Follow this link to find Lisa Traiger’s Dance Critics Association 2007 member survey.

Dance Heritage Coalition
Founded in 1992, the DHC was established to address problems identified by a field-wide study of the current state of preservation and documentation of American dance. The study, jointly commissioned by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, recommended that a coalition of the major dance collections be formed to facilitate communication, and promote joint programs, projects, and policy-making in order to strengthen a national dance documentation and preservation network. The DHC focuses on four areas: ACCESS to materials; the continuing DOCUMENTATION of dance employing both traditional methods and developing technologies; PRESERVATION of existing documentation; and EDUCATION regarding methods, standards, and practice for access, documentation, and preservation.

Dance/USA
As a national service organization for dance, we believe that dance is essential to a healthy society, demonstrating the infinite possibilities for human expression and potential, and facilitating communication within and across cultures. Dance/USA sustains and advances professional dance by addresssing the needs, concerns and interests of artist, administrators and organizations. By providing services and national leadership, Dance/USA enahnces the infrastructure for dance creation, education and dissemination.

Fractured Atlas
Fractured Atlas is a non-profit organization that serves a national community of artists and arts organizations. Our programs and services facilitate the creation of art by offering vital support to the artists who produce it. We help artists and arts organizations function more effectively as businesses by providing access to funding, healthcare, education, and more, all in a context that honors their individuality and independent spirit. By nurturing today’s talented but underrepresented voices, we hope to foster a dynamic and diverse cultural landscape of tomorrow.

National Assembly of State Arts Agencies
The National Assembly of State Arts Agencies (NASAA) is the membership organization that unites, represents and serves the nation’s state and jurisdictional arts agencies. Each of the 56 states and jurisdictions has created an agency to support excellence in and access to the arts.
NASAA’s mission is to strengthen state arts agencies. We represent their individual and collective interests, empower their work through knowledge, and advance the arts as an essential public benefit.
NASAA works at the national, state and local levels to ensure that:
-Every individual has abundant opportunities to participate in the artistic experience;
-The arts play a valued role in the educational, economic and cultural well-being of our communities;
-The nation’s artists and arts organizations are key partners in providing public benefits; and
-Our nation’s diversity is recognized and celebrated through the arts.

National Dance Education Assocation
The National Dance Education Organization (NDEO) advances dance education centered in the arts. We are the voice of representation for the field in legislatures, schools of dance, PreK-12 schools, and institutions of higher education throughout the country. As a non-profit organization, NDEO is dedicated to promoting standards of excellence in dance education through the development of quality education in the art of dance through professional development, service and leadership. We hold public discussions, sponsor institutes, workshops, conferences and programs. We develop guidelines, promote standards, and design curricula.

National Dance Project
The National Dance Project (NDP) provides a system of support for the living, growing discipline of contemporary dance by supporting the production and distribution of dance in the United States. NDP views touring as central to the vitality of dance as an art form and structures its granting process to link the creation and touring of new work. Through the dedicated efforts of dance presenters across the country, NDP helps audiences connect with the rich and varied talents of choreographers and their companies.

National Endowment for the Arts
he National Endowment for the Arts is a public agency dedicated to supporting excellence in the arts, both new and established; bringing the arts to all Americans; and providing leadership in arts education. Established by Congress in 1965 as an independent agency of the federal government, the Endowment is the nation’s largest annual funder of the arts, bringing great art to all 50 states, including rural areas, inner cities, and military bases.

National Performance Network
NPN provides support for established and emerging artists in dance, music, theater, performance art, puppetry, and spoken word. It serves as the developmental rung on the ladder for emerging contemporary performing artists because it provides rare or first-time touring opportunities. NPN also plays a critical role for mid-career and established artists who continue to create new work and to tour on the network because it offers a wealth of opportunities at a time when support is diminishing. Equally important, NPN connects artists with progressive presenters, arts organizations, and communities across the country.

The Field
The Field’s mission is to serve independent performing artists on a completely non-exclusive basis. This means that everything we do is open to artists from all aesthetic viewpoints, cultural backgrounds, and levels of development. Our priority is to create a climate where risk-taking and originality are championed, and where the broadest range of voices are included. Field programs are affordable, accessible, and rigorous. To support independent performing artists, The Field’s programs are directed toward the creation of new work and its dissemination.

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *