Arts Alliance Illinois

Cultural leaders representing organizations of all artistic disciplines and all sizes joined us in Washington, DC this April for National Arts Advocacy Day. We had administrators, educators, funders, and students; veterans of Arts Advocacy Day and first-timers alike.

We asked a few of them why they went. Here's what Patricia Poulter of Eastern Illinois University, Cheryl Yuen of the Arts Alliance Illinois board, and Scott Silberstein of HMS Media told us about their experience.

April 16 & 17, 2012 marked the 25th annual Arts Advocacy Day, a one-of-a-kind opportunity for advocates to speak out for the arts and arts education and be heard by Congress.

The National Endowment for the Arts announced its second round of grants in fiscal year 2012, including 928 grants totaling more than $77 million to nonprofit organizations nationwide. How did Illinois do?

Chicago is crafting a cultural plan for the first time in 25 years. But what were the results and lessons learned from the city's last cultural plan? How will the recent restructuring of the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events affect the 2012 Chicago Cultural Plan? And why should people care and participate?

In this First-Person interview, we go back in time to the Culture Wars and one of the most vicious, racially-tinged elections in Chicago history to tell the story of the 1986 Chicago Cultural Plan. Our guide is Michael C. Dorf, director of the 1986 plan and now a partner at Adducci, Dorf, Lehner, Mitchell & Blankenship.

Governor Pat Quinn's proposed budget for fiscal year 2013 includes $8.2 million in funding for the Illinois Arts Council, a 9.5 percent cut from the fiscal year 2012 appropriation of $9 million. All areas of state spending except education, Medicaid, and pensions were reduced in the budget.

For the first time in more than 25 years, the City of Chicago is updating its cultural plan, which will deliver recommendations on how to support artists and the arts throughout the city as well as enhance economic growth and the city's reputation as a global cultural destination.

Coming up in February: a new event to connect Chicago teachers and school administrators with arts providers, hundreds of curriculum and lesson planning ideas, and the professional development workshops to make it all happen.

Today Governor Pat Quinn received the Americans for the Arts Public Leadership in the Arts Award at the annual meeting of the U.S. Conference of Mayor in Washington, DC.

The final fiscal year 2012 budget passed by the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate this weekend includes $146 million in funding for the National Endowment for the Arts.