Howard Altschiller of the Seacoast Media Group and Portsmouth Herald attended a recent meeting of the Business Committee and learned how every business can help the arts without additional expense. A couple of ideas included renting a space at a theater, gallery or museum for company events, board meetings or holiday gatherings and encouraging employees to share their art by hosting company-wide exhibits and talent nights.

To read more about the important role businesses can play in the arts and learn other ways local companies can help, please click on the link below.

How Your Business Can Help the Arts

National Endowment for the Arts Chairman Rocco Landesman has an idea on how to fix the economy: invest more in arts organizations. After traveling the country on an Art Works Tour, Landesman has seen the positive effect the arts have on the United States. Jacqueline Trescott of the Washington Post says Landesman claims that the arts help “change the ethos of a town or community. They enliven it, they activate the public life. Art jobs are real jobs that are part of the real economy.”

Landesman recently made his first report to the National Council on the Arts, an organization whose members are appointed by the White House and approves or rejects the NEA’s grants.

To read what Landesman discovered in towns like Peoria, Ill. and San Diego, click on the link below. What is the art scene like where you live?

NEA’s Rocco Landesman Tours Country to Underscore Link between Arts and Jobs

http://www.americansforthearts.org/get_involved/advocacy/weekly_headlines/default.asp

Below is a link to U.S. Rep. George Miller (D-CA), chairman of the House Education and Labor Committee, announcement: http://edlabor.house.gov/newsroom/2009/02/chairman-miller-announces-plan.shtml

Isn’t it great that this is being brought back to the forefront!