Grace Farms Foundation’s Post

This is a fun way to feature local artists and increase ridership!❤️ Does your city need some help? Is your city's bus stop situation stuck in the Stone Age? We're talking benches older than Mick Jager, paint falling faster than Taylor Swift’s boyfriends, then it's time for a major makeover, my friend. Benches are not just a convenience; they're a bridge to a more equitable transportation system. The elderly, pregnant women, people with disabilities – all deserve a place to sit and wait with dignity. A lack of accessible seating at bus stops is a major barrier to public transit use for people with disabilities, according to the NCDJ. COA offers cost-free and maintenance-free bus bench programs that benefit municipalities and their citizens. With our innovative solutions, municipalities can enhance their public transportation infrastructure without any financial burden or ongoing maintenance costs. Reach out for details. #MetropolitanMayorsCaucus #AQOLFA #funding #usmayors  #citymanager #cityplanning #municipal #municipalities #publicspaces #publicspace #transitadvertising #busriders #publictransportation #publictransit #transitauthority  #transit #bus #commuting #transit #cityscapes #cityliving #townplanning #townplanner #transportationsolutions #city #townhall #towns #citycouncil #transportation #transportationplanning #transportationindustry #towncouncil #transportationsystem #benches #bench #busshelter  #publicprivatepartnerships #publicprivatepartnership #publicworks #publictransportation #mayor #mayors #publicworks #bus #citymanagement  

Important petition to consider....

The Kettering Foundation is integrating the arts into all areas of our work because of their capacity to affirm and advance democratic values. We are pleased the federal government shares that commitment. The National Endowment for the Arts and the White House Domestic Policy Council recently convened Healing, Bridging, Thriving: A Summit on Arts and Culture in Our Communities, which provides many examples of the ways in which the arts are “essential to the well-being, health, vitality, and democracy of our Nation.” https://lnkd.in/giVi4xVZ

Long Post Warning (BUT, I hope you'll read it!): I come from a long line of artists on both sides of my family. I remember having long debates in college about what makes a person an artist and what counts as art. It is far more than an oil painting hanging in a fancy art museum. I found this definition while pondering it this morning: An artist is anyone capable of conceptualizing an emotion, idea, or moment, or of more value, someone who can express themselves using their imagination. This definition begins to capture the concept but it still goes much deeper. For me it's a need to create, a way to express what is inside me in new and creative ways, and how I care for my mental health. Visual art comes in many forms, but there is so much more out there to appreciate and lose-and find-yourself in. Dance, music, theater, writing, designing and so much more. THIS is what I love about what we do at Arts Fort Worth. When artists have a sense of community, magic happens. Creativity breeds creativity. Inspiration ignites souls. Boundaries disappear and connections are made. We become better people. Artists of ALL kinds need connections to each other and to resources that help them remove obstacles and thrive. With a thriving and supported arts community we all benefit. Our economy flourishes (more on that another day!), we begin to open our eyes and hearts to new ideas, and we might even understand each other a little better. When you give to Arts Fort Worth financially, you promote, nurture, and support the arts in Fort Worth. Your gift can provide an artist an opportunity to exhibit their work, a playwright a chance to have their work produced, a small arts organization the chance to deliver more programs, a musician a path to performance, an actor an opportunity to express themselves on stage, and all of them a chance to connect to resources that can move them along their path. I hope all of this communicates how and why this has my heart. As the year comes to a close, please consider a gift of ANY size in support of this important work. My goal is to DOUBLE the number of supporters giving to Arts Fort Worth. If you are an artist, or love one (including me!), please consider a year-end gift. https://lnkd.in/gQJ4b6kX

📌 Artists and arts professionals sign letter to UK Department for Culture, Media, and Sport (DACS / a-n The Artists Information Company / CVAN ) In the short term, the group is “asking the new government to consider short-term policy recommendations including: - the introduction of the Smart Fund, a private copying scheme that could generate around £300 million/ year in copyright revenues for creatives and visual artists. - the appointment of a Freelancer Commissioner to advocate for the working rights of freelancers in the visual arts sector and across the creative industries. […] In the longer term, the group calls for the extension of the Museum and Galleries Exhibition Tax Relief, a new Creative and Cultural Agreement with the EU, and planning reforms to incentivise the creation of artists’ studios and creatives spaces. In addition to economic support, the manifesto calls for a curriculum that fosters creativity, critical thinking, and empathy, stressing the importance of investing in creative education. It advocates for the integration of visual literacy into the national curriculum at Key Stage 2 and ensuring every school child visits a cultural organisation every year.” 🔖 CVAN coverage: https://lnkd.in/eVUiAqpn 🔖 Official letter and signatories: https://lnkd.in/eJpeuHe6 #artistsworkrights

The UK’s visual arts sector calls for sustained support from the government to maintain its contribution to the UK's creative economy. 📢 We've joined more than 4,000 arts professionals and artists in signing an open letter to Lisa Nandy MP, the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport. The letter urges the government to take steps in supporting the visual arts sector, as per the recommendations of the Visual Arts Manifesto proposed by Art Fund and 23 other arts organisations earlier this year. The letter puts forward three of our key policy asks: • To ensure every school child visits a cultural organisation every year • To protect free entry to museums and galleries • To expand the Museum and Gallery Exhibition Tax Relief The letter and manifesto were highlighted by The Guardian this weekend: https://bit.ly/4gbEio9 📝 Read the letter: https://bit.ly/3ZbLavE

Check out this article featuring my work on Exception to the Rule with The Front Porch Arts Collective! https://lnkd.in/eMq7y72N

What’s the relationship between public art and gentrification, and can the arts bridge the gap between past and present? It’s a question I consider a lot in my work in museum education and programming, and something I explored for the Free Times Identity Issue. This article was the product of so much generative and challenging dialogue about the balance between preservation and progress—and how art can work (and sometimes fail) to balance those two things. https://lnkd.in/eFajpwUY

TONIGHT: CAH Grantee Event Theater and Policy Salon presents, “The Struggle to Realize Enlightenment Ideals: From the Early Days of the American Republic to the Present” April 18, 2024 6:00pm EDT New York University - Washington, DC 1307 L Street, NW Abramson Family Auditorium Cost: Free This Theater and Policy Salon project examines the interplay of history, politics, and art in asking: how does change happen? Where does it start, and where can it go? A reading of DC playwright Jamie Stiehm's new play, “Across The River” will be followed by a conversation among historians, political scientists, and activists to trace the long and ongoing journey in the U.S. to ensure full political participation by women and people of color. Stiehm’s play mourns what happened when visions of equality for all - as enunciated by America’s founders espousing Enlightenment ideals - collided with the reality of a brutal social order marked by slavery and patriarchy. The play looks at a fateful moment when the arc of U.S. history failed to bend toward justice. As the play depicts, early efforts by leaders like Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton, and thinkers like Mary Wollstonecraft and Lucretia Mott to marshal arguments for full political participation by African-Americans and women, were met by fierce resistance by slave state politicians, eventually to the point of civil war. The Salon will discuss how every generation is called upon to defend and expand American democracy anew, especially when it comes to assuring rights for people of color and women. Despite high-minded Enlightenment rhetoric about equality and liberty at the Republic’s founding and strenuous efforts over the decades to turn that rhetoric into reality, it took until the 1960s to enact major civil rights legislation. And the struggle continues today to resist the erosion of those rights. The panel conversation following the play reading will address how that struggle is playing out now as today’s “idealists” of varied backgrounds and gender identities are trying to advance an agenda of more inclusive political participation. The panel will feature Fergus Bordewich, Historian and Writer, Dr. Maya Kornberg, Research Fellow, Elections and Government Program, Democracy, Brennan Center for Justice, Jasleen Singh, Counsel, Democracy, Brennan Center for Justice, and Angela Tate, Curator of Women's History, National Museum of African American History and Culture.

For the archive and museum sectors alike, there is a danger of our offers being taken up by schools already at a comparative advantage. This is from the new Fabian document on Arts for All: "(S)chool trips – and therefore the opportunity to experience the wonder of museums – are in decline as schools struggle with budget cuts. A survey by the National Foundation for Educational Research on behalf of the Sutton Trust found that 50 per cent of senior leaders reported cutting school trips in 2023 due to financial pressures, a rise of 21 per cent compared to 2022. This is an issue of equity, accessibility and opportunity, with 68 per cent of senior leaders in the most disadvantaged schools having to make cuts to trips, versus 44 per cent in the wealthiest." Their proposals include loan boxes ("easily accessible material from their exhibits and archives, such as high resolution images"). https://lnkd.in/eYGD9Su9