News

NEA wants to hear your stories

by Anne B. Pope, Executive Director –

Recently, Laura Scanlan, Director of State and Regional Partnerships for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) was in Nashville to attend Tennessee’s 2015 Poetry Out Loud State Competition. Laura also spent time at the Tennessee Arts Commission to brief the staff about the NEA’s recent news and programs. Afterwards, several staff took Laura on some site visits including to Casa Azafran and the Country Music Hall of Fame—two arts and cultural organizations that, like most of our grantees, are doing important education and community outreach.

Thank you to our hosts at Casa Azafran: Ellen Gilbert, Director, Global Education Center; artists Jairo and Susan Prado; and Mayra Alejandra Cervantes, Community Engagement Specialist, Conexión Américas. And thank you to our hosts at the County Music Hall of Fame: Lisa Purcell, Vice President of Development and Ben Hall, Major Gifts Manager. And of course, thank you to Laura for coming to Tennessee.

The NEA has reached its 50th Anniversary this year and is celebrating this milestone by inviting all of us to share the real stories of how the arts have impacted us. This is a great opportunity to shine a light on the breadth, depth and quality of the arts we enjoy in Tennessee. I hope you will join us in submitting stories and please be sure to send your stories to us as well. We would like to share them statewide as well.

It is a simple submission process that allows you to send in a narrative, photos, video or audio files to describe your story with the arts. Beginning September 29, the anniversary of the NEA bill signing in 1965, the NEA will share and promote these stories across its social media accounts. We congratulate the NEA on their anniversary and look forward to seeing the rollout of their celebration campaign.