American Arts Alliance Advocates for Opera and the Performing Arts

OPERA America Newsline
Washington File
By Rachel Lyons, American Arts Alliance Manager

April 2006

For 29 years, the American Arts Alliance has been advocating for America’s professional nonprofit performing arts organizations, artists, and their publics. The American Arts Alliance is a coalition of national performing arts service organizations including the American Symphony Orchestra League, Association of Performing Arts Presenters, Dance/USA, OPERA America, and Theatre Communications Group. At the local level, dance companies, opera companies, orchestras, theaters, and presenting organizations have frequently formed partnerships to pool resources and advance a collective goal. Following that successful example and recognizing that the separate disciplines have many policy goals in common, the national performing arts service organizations banded together to advocate for national policies that recognize, enhance, and foster the contributions that the performing arts make to America. This collective action enables the American Arts Alliance to speak with a louder voice in the halls of Congress.

The single staff member at the Alliance works in close partnership with the government affairs managers of the member service organizations. This hub and spokes structure ensures a high level of coordination across the disciplines and enables each service organization to customize communication with members. The Alliance’s team of performing arts advocates shares responsibility for covering the priority issues, attending various coalition meetings, and planning meetings with Congressmen, Senators, and their staffs on the Hill and in home districts. The Alliance also retains the services of a large Washington, D.C. law firm, Hogan & Hartson, that provides strategic advice on legislative priorities and helps schedule meetings with the most influential leaders in Congress and the Administration.

The American Arts Alliance is governed by a board of directors that includes the CEOs of the national service organizations and representatives from the field who are appointed by each service organization. John Wehrle, executive director of the Chattanooga Symphony & Opera, serves as OPERA America’s appointed director. Together with OPERA America’s president and CEO, Marc A. Scorca (the Alliance’s

 board treasurer), they infuse the Alliance’s policy discussions with a deeper appreciation of the unique issues in the world of opera. The Alliance’s annual budget of approximately $150,000 is covered almost entirely by equal payments from the national service organizations which, in turn, extend the benefits of the Alliance to all their members.

In 2005, the American Arts Alliance launched a revamped Web site to make it easy for performing arts supporters to take action on public policy issues that impact the performing arts. If you are fired up about a federal policy on the arts, you can go to www.americanartsalliance.org to get the latest information on what is happening, read background information and talking points, view a sample letter, and use forms to create and send your own custom letter directly to your member of Congress.

Taking advantage of its Washington, D.C. location, the American Arts Alliance works closely with a wide variety of arts and culture organizations to cover the full spectrum of issues that have an effect on the performing arts. In addition to the specific strategies recommended by the national arts service organizations, the American Arts Alliance represents the performing arts field in all venues where arts are on the table. The Cultural Advocacy Group (CAG) provides a forum for a wide swath of arts and culture organizations including humanities groups, museums, and the organizations representing state and local arts agencies to strategize together. The Performing Arts Visa Task Force (PAVTF) focuses on the challenges of visa processing for foreign guest artists, while the Arts Education Working Group brings together arts and education groups to discuss arts education strategy. Organizations such as Independent Sector holds meetings to discuss tax and regulatory issues, and the Coalition for American Leadership Abroad (COLEAD) includes businesses, education groups, and cultural organizations that focus on cultural  exchange.

With the new Web site, a monthly e-mail communication for performing arts advocates, and national lobbying efforts, the American Arts Alliance aims to help the performing arts field take grassroots action on policy issues and to exercise a degree of political muscle. This year, the American Arts Alliance plans to fight for increased funding for the NEA, introduce legislation to reduce visa processing times for foreign guest artists, lobby to change FEMA regulations to include performing arts organizations, and protect the Arts in Education program at the Department of Education from funding cuts. The need for national advocacy for the arts has never been more critical.