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ARTS, CULTURE AND RECREATION
The Atlanta Arts
Accords
National Arts and Humanities Month
Encouraging Summer and After-School Prevention Programs
Federal Funding for the ARts, Humanitites and Museums
Supporting the NEA's Challenge America Initiative
50th Anniversary of the Local Arts Agencies Movement
Full Funding of Land and Water Conservation Fund and UPARR Programs

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ARTS, CULTURE AND RECREATION

50th ANNIVERSARY OF THE LOCAL ARTS AGENCIES MOVEMENT

WHEREAS, a local arts agency (LAA) is defined as a community organization or an agency of local government that supports cultural organizations, provides services to artists and arts organizations and presents arts programming to the public; and

WHEREAS, the community of Winston-Salem in Forsyth County, North Carolina created the first "community arts council" aided with the vision and financial resources, allocated in 1946, of the Junior League. The Council officially came into existence August 9, 1949; and

WHEREAS, each local arts agency in America is unique to the community it serves, and each changes as fast as its community changes; and

WHEREAS, the 4,000 local arts agencies across America all share the goals of serving the diverse art forms in their community and making them accessible to each member of that community; and

WHEREAS, Americans for the Arts has embarked on a yearlong study, Advancing and Stabilizing Local Arts Agencies in the 21st Century, to examine the changing needs and key issues facing the local arts agency field as it completes the first half-century of community cultural development – and embarks on its second fifty years of integrating the arts into the fabric of community living; and

WHEREAS, this project entails field work and research including an in-depth study of six communities Amery, Wisconsin; Atlanta, Georgia; Oklahoma City, Oklahoma; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; San Jose, California; and Winston-Salem, North Carolina; focus groups and moderated discussions throughout the Americans for the Arts 1999 Annual Convention in Atlanta, Georgia June 1999; a National Forum in Winston-Salem, North Carolina in October 1999; and

WHEREAS, the outcome of this project will benchmark the impact of local arts agencies (LAAs) over the past 50 years and provide direction, information, analysis and a visioning of where the future impact of LAAs will lie in the next millennium in order to better serve the American public through community arts agencies; and

WHEREAS, Americans for the Arts believes that the arts are fundamentals to the continued, positive growth of our diverse and multicultural communities and that local arts agencies continue to be vested with the responsibility to future local cultural and artistic interests and ensure access to them,

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, that the United States Conference of Mayors supports the efforts of local arts agencies across America, urges mayors to build partnerships with their local arts agencies and honors them on their 50th anniversary and endorses the Advancing and Stabilizing Local Arts Agencies in the 21st Century Project.

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