advocacy

Ovation is committed to ensuring that everyone has access to all forms of the arts and artistic expression. We focus our advocacy efforts on supporting the next generation of artists and have, to date, given more than $15 million in donations and in-kind support to local cultural institutions, arts organizations, arts education programs, individual artists, performing arts and arts advocacy efforts in Washington D.C. and throughout the country. Inspired by the Ovation original series “Motor City Rising” Ovation launched the innOVATION grants program in 2012 in partnership with Americans for the Arts, in order to recognize communities which feature the arts as central to their revitalization efforts. In 2013, Ovation will partner with Americans for the Arts and the Presidents Committee on the Arts and Humanities to continue the innOVATION grant program by supporting and recognizing model STEAM programs. (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics.) Stay tuned for more information about the 2013 innOVATION grants coming in June.

arts advocacy day

Since Ovation’s relaunch in 2007 we have taken a stance and advocated on behalf of arts programs and organizations that were being threatened with budget reductions or elimination. We became involved with National Arts Advocacy Day as a way to support all of the arts at the national level. We have activated the Ovation community to write to legislators and key decision makers on behalf of arts organizations and agencies, and our CEO, Charles Segars personally led a campaign to save arts education in the Los Angeles Unified School District.

Take a look at these pictures from the event.

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From left to right: Ovation C.E.O. Charles Segars, actor Alec Baldwin, Congressman Steven C. LaTourette (R-Ohio) and actor Kevin Spacey.

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Emmy Award winning actor Alec Baldwin speaks at the Arts Advocacy Day Congressional Arts Kick-off

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From left to right: Ovation C.E.O. Charles Segars, actress Kerry Washington, and Robert Lynch from the Americans for the Arts before the Nancy Hanks lecture at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C.

-Paul Morigi/Getty Images for Ovation

Advocacy News/Alerts

Write to Your Legislator in Support of Arts Funding

Ovation encourages you to take two minutes to visit Americans for the Arts Action Fund website to send a customizable message to your member of Congress calling for them to support increased funding for the NEA, and thereby increasing access to the arts. The NEA funds grants to dance, design, folk & traditional arts, literature, local arts agencies, media arts, multidisciplinary, museums, music, musical theater, opera, presenting, theater, and visual arts. Your voice can make a difference in making the arts more accessible. Please take two minutes to visit the Americans for the Arts Action Fund website and send a customizable message to your member of Congress calling on them to reject these funding cuts.

Recently a Congressional House Committee passed a bill that would eliminate 43 longstanding federal education programs, including the model projects grant program for arts education. Under the misguided bill name of "Setting New Priorities in Education Spending Act," H.R. 1891 will now move to the full House of Representatives for consideration in the coming month.

Action is needed now - this bill would eliminate the only dedicated federal source of support for arts education programs in the country.

Visit American's for the Arts' Advocacy Center and send a customizable message to oppose H.R. 1891 to your Representative:

Help build the grassroots momentum needed to stop this bill from passing the House. Two minutes of your time could save millions of dollars for arts education.

New Arts Education Study Ovation Arts Ed Advocates should check out "Reinvesting in Arts Education - Winning America's Future Through Creative Schools" - a landmark study just published by the President's Committee on the Arts and the Humanities.

How do you become an Arts Activist?
Check out Arts Advocacy Day!

Art activists and advocates from around the country including Kevin Spacy and Alec Baldwin provided testimony in Washington DC this week.

Watch these videos with Kevin Spacey and Alec Baldwin from CNN & MSNBC.