Announcements
Arts Alliance Adds Three New Board Members ... March 28, 2006
Arts Alliance Receives Golden Paintbrush Award ... June 7, 2005
Arts Alliance of Ann Arbor Area Receives Grant ... July 6, 2004
Arts Alliance of Ann Arbor Area Receives Grant ... October 4, 2002
Arts Alliance Receives $16,000 grant From the State of Michigan ... August 2, 2001
ARTS ALLIANCE ANNOUNCES THREE NEW BOARD MEMBERS
(Ann Arbor, MI….March 28, 2006) The Arts Alliance announced the addition of three new members to its board of advisors. They are Larry Newhouse, Program Director of the Ford Gallery, Arthur Talbot, President of Internet Applications and Solutions (IAS), and Whitnie Crown Wolverton, Founder and Executive Director of Vox Early Music Ensemble.
The Arts Alliance works to enhance the region’s quality of life by increasing participation in arts and cultural programs and strengthening the organizations that serve them.
(Ann Arbor, MI…June 7, 2005) The Arts Alliance of the Ann Arbor Area, a division of the Ann Arbor Area Chamber of Commerce, received a Golden Paintbrush Award from the Commission on Art in Public Places of the City of Ann Arbor during the June 6 City Council meeting. The award recognizes the “ ArtRide” project which placed posters featuring artwork created by U-M students on AATA buses. The Arts Alliance shared receipt of the Golden Paintbrush Award with its collaborators in the project, Arts at Michigan, an organization that encourages student interest in the arts, and the Ann Arbor Transit Authority (AATA).
The ArtRide project was designed to establish a greater sense of community between Ann Arbor residents and U-M students by offering a glimpse into the students’ world through their artwork. The project, which ran from February to September 2004, consisted of five exhibitions of student artwork reproduced as posters and placed aboard all 88 AATA buses. Each exhibition ran for six weeks and displayed work by four student-artists selected through a jury process. Artwork was also displayed at the Blake Transit Center and on AATA's website. The project was made possible by a generous grant from Pfizer Global Research & Development.
The Arts Alliance of the Ann Arbor Area is a division of the Ann Arbor Area Chamber of Commerce that works to enhance the region’s quality of life by increasing participation in arts and cultural activities and strengthening the cultural organizations that provide these programs.
(ANN ARBOR - July 6, 2004) The Arts Alliance of the Ann Arbor Area has received a grant from the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation to support its efforts to make information about youth-oriented cultural activities in Washtenaw County more accessible to the public. In particular, this funding will support the Arts Alliance’s website www.culturezone.org, where information about fun cultural activities in Washtenaw County can be sorted by location, type of activity, and target age group. Funding will also be used for a roundtable forum to be held in September 2004 that will enable cultural, workforce development, civic, and parent group leaders and educators to explore ways to better serve the area’s youth.
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(ANN ARBOR - Oct 4, 2002) Arts Alliance of the Ann Arbor Area, a division of the Ann Arbor Area Chamber of Commerce, was awarded a $16,000 grant by the Michigan Council for Arts and Cultural Affairs in their distribution of funds for the 2003 calendar year. The Alliance is one of a select group in Washtenaw County to receive funds totaling $1.5 million. The grant will support the Cultural Information Clearinghouse Project, a program that will collect, consolidate, and communicate cultural information of all types: economic impact, organizational profiles, calendar of events, etc.
The foundation of the Cultural Information Clearinghouse is a comprehensive database that will link and support the newly launched Washtenaw Calendar of Events, introduced by the Ann Arbor Area Convention & Visitors Bureau. “The database will assist individual organizations as they measure their own performance and gather information they can use for their own grant applications. We plan to gather this information every year and publish a ‘State of the Arts’ report annually,” says Debra Polich, Chair of the Arts Alliance Advisory Board. As the cultural database fills with information, it will provide an increasingly detailed picture of the strengths and weaknesses of Washtenaw’s cultural community.
The mission of the Arts Alliance is to “support efforts to increase participation in arts and cultural activities, and strengthen the cultural community and organizations that provide these programs, thereby ensuring that all citizens benefit from this area’s outstanding cultural resources.” The Alliance is a division of the Ann Arbor Area Chamber of Commerce, a 1400 member organization, and receives funds through the Chamber’s 501(c)3 foundation, the Ann Arbor Council for Community Excellence.
For information about the Arts Alliance contact Tamara Real, Arts Alliance Interim Manager, 734-669-4360.
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ANN ARBOR AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE CREATES NEW DIVISION OF THE CHAMBER, THE “ARTS ALLIANCE OF THE ANN ARBOR AREA"
(ANN ARBOR - Aug 2, 2001) – The Board of Directors of the Ann Arbor Area Chamber of Commerce approved the formation of a new Chamber division, the “Arts Alliance of the Ann Arbor Area” (A5).
The Arts Alliance is a result of the Arts Summit held two years ago, and county-wide focus groups conducted after that. At the Summit, a task force representing a cross-section of the entire arts and cultural community was established with the goal of bringing together the arts and business communities. The new Chamber division is an outgrowth of the efforts between the Chamber, the Arts Summit Task Force and the broader arts community.
The mission of the A5 is to support efforts to increase participation in arts and cultural activities, and strengthen the cultural community and organizations that provide these programs, thereby ensuring that all citizens benefit from our outstanding cultural resources.
The A5 will be guided by an Advisory Board led by community arts and cultural leaders. The Advisory Board will be made up of representatives from the cultural community, the business community, the funding community, citizens at large, and one representative from each of the collaborating organizations. At this time, the A5 has three collaborating organizations: the Ann Arbor Area Convention and Visitors’ Bureau, the Ann Arbor Area Community Foundation, and Nonprofit Enterprise at Work. The Advisory Board will be responsible to the Board of Directors of the Chamber. The Chair of the Advisory Board will become a member of the Chamber’s Board of Directors.
The A5 Advisory Board, in cooperation with Chamber staff, will develop programs and services that appeal to the entire spectrum of arts and cultural organizations and their supporters and participants. According to data from the Michigan Association of Community Arts Agencies (MACAA) online directory, there are an estimated 283 arts and cultural organizations in Washtenaw County. There are probably another 250 individuals in the area working on arts and cultural activities. The Chamber will provide a staff position and a part-time student intern to support the new A5 division.
The A5 is just one of several Chamber and Chamber-sponsored programs that is enhancing and promoting the community’s quality of life. The innovative getDowntown program promotes alternative transportation, while the Housing Innovation Initiative seeks affordable housing options for area employees. Parent University is an ongoing parent education program co-sponsored by the Ann Arbor Public Schools, and Leadership Ann Arbor, in its eighteenth year, is an eight-month leadership development course for area businesspeople.
The Ann Arbor Area Chamber of Commerce is the largest business organization in Washtenaw County with over 1,400 members. The vision of the Chamber is to be an organization that will effect positive change to ensure a sustainable economic, social, and natural environment for current and future generations.
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