Dear Americans for the Arts family,

I am writing to let you know that today we officially launched “To Rebuild and Reimagine the United States Post-Pandemic, We Must Put Creative Workers to Work”, a policy proposal developed with over 100 partners throughout the creative community to Put Creative Workers to Work in the national recovery.

This proposal, which debuts with over 775 endorsements from creative organizations and creative workers, combines suggested actions from, among other sources, Standing for Cultural Democracy, the Cultural New Deal for Cultural and Racial Justice, various working papers from Americans for the Arts, Californians for the Arts’ Job Creation Strategies and Actionable Items for the Arts Sector, Arts Wisconsin’s We’re All In Creative Workforce Program, and THE OFFICE’s Artists at Work program. It is also the result of combined work from over 100 members of the creative community through the Getting Creative Workers Working Coalition, a coalition of National Arts Service Organizations and Regional Arts Organizations, and Americans for the Arts’ various networks, including the State Arts Action Network and the United States Urban Arts Federation. Such solidarity makes a strong statement, and we are looking forward to adding to that growing list of endorsements.

We invite you to visit the document, review it, and add your organizational or personal endorsement to the policies outlined in it. This proposal will be shared with the Presidential campaigns, various Congresspeople, and the campaign staff of those running in races for the House and Senate. In addition, we hope that these proposals—which are written from the federal point of view—spark ideas locally, particularly since many emerged from exemplary local examples.

Please share this with others who might endorse and take some of the ideas within the proposal to your local and state decisionmakers—help them understand that there can be no recovery without creativity.

Here are 5 simple actions you can take to help spread the word:

Endorse the Proposal for Yourself and/or Your Organization

Ø Click here to view the full proposal, and follow the endorsement link at the top to submit your endorsement. You can sign on as either an individual or as an authorized representative for your organization!

Tell Your Fellow Creative Workers about the Creative Workforce Proposal

Ø Click here to open up an editable template email that you can copy and paste into an email and adapt as you see fit. It has all the right links and all the information they’ll need to make an informed decision about endorsing the proposal for themselves!

Spread the Word on Social Media

Ø Click here to access a full social media toolkit to adapt, including sample social media text for Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, as well as special imagery that highlights the power of creativity using the words of Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, and Grace Lee Boggs. Make sure that you’re pointing people to http://www.americansforthearts.org/CreativeWork!

(click images to see the full library)

Send a Press Release or Write a Letter to Your Local Media

Ø Click here, if you endorsed as an organization or creative business, for a template press release that you can adapt to share with your own local media.

Ø Click here, if you endorsed as an individual creative worker, to access a template Letter to the Editor via Americans for the Arts’ Voter Voice software, that you can adapt to send along to your local newspaper or other media outlet.

Join the Arts Action Fund

Ø Click here to join the Americans for the Arts Action Fund for free!

For our part at Americans for the Arts, in the coming weeks we will be:

Pushing the proposal through our various social media channels and partnerships
Proposing stories about the proposal and its policies to various press outlets
Sharing the proposal, and its 725+ endorsements, directly with all Presidential campaigns as well as with targeted Congressional offices, Congresspeople and challengers in active elections, and various public and private sector partners.

Thank you for all you are doing, and for being part of keeping our communities running through creativity. If you have thoughts, comments, or questions, please email me at clord@artsusa.org.

Thank you and keep well!

Clay

____________________

Clayton Lord

Vice President of Strategic Impact
Americans for the Arts

1000 Vermont Ave NW 6^th Floor

Washington, DC 20005-4940

202.371.2830 x2022

www.AmericansForTheArts.org

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