BOMH Art-Related Resources
The Best of Missouri Hands is happy to provide information and links to art-related resources for our Members and the General Public. Please take some time to familiarize yourself with the available art-related resources available in our community.
Art Fair Calendar
ArtFairCalendar.com exists to promote the work and sales of the hard-working artists and craftspeople who make their livings exhibiting at art shows. Their creativity and passion for fine craftsmanship provide art fair attendees like you with beautiful, unique items not available in chain stores and shopping malls. These creative entrepreneurs work extremely hard. Constant travel, long hours, heavy labor hauling and setting up their booths, and many expenses mean that survival as a fine artist can often be a challenge.
ArtFairCalendar.com is a free resource for both artists and patrons of the arts. They serve as a clearinghouse for useful information that artists of all levels can put to use. Their slogan is "Fine art NOT available at a mall near you!"
Visit their website at www.artfaircalendar.com.
Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City
The Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City was founded in February 1999. The Arts Council was started as a result of a community-wide planning process facilitated by the Greater Kansas City Community Foundation. Joan Israelite was hired to build this new organization as the Council’s first President and CEO. Harlan Brownlee succeeded Israelite in February of 2009. Today, the Arts Council serves Johnson and Wyandotte counties in Kansas, and Jackson, Clay, and Platte counties in Missouri.
The Arts Council has developed programs designed to strengthen the region through the arts. We serve as a meeting place for arts organizations in the metropolitan area. The Arts Council has nurtured a network of arts organizations that work together to address common issues. Serving as the voice for the arts in civic dialogues, the Arts Council stays in close contact with the arts and business community to keep informed of challenges, and provide a forum for discussion on current issues and opportunities. The Arts Council promotes networking, learning, and collaboration among the arts and business communities.
The Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City strengthens and enriches the community through the arts by developing visibility, participation, support, information, education, and partnerships.
Visit their website at www.artskc.org.
Arts Midwest
Arts Midwest promotes creativity, nurtures cultural leadership, and engages people in meaningful arts experiences, bringing vitality to Midwest communities and enriching people’s lives. As a non-profit regional arts organization headquartered in Minneapolis, Arts Midwest serves audiences, arts organizations, and artists throughout the nine states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota, Wisconsin, and beyond. Our history spans more than 25 years.
Arts Midwest creates and supports diverse, highly valued performing, visual, and literary arts and capacity-building programs, providing opportunities for audiences throughout the Midwest and the world to engage with arts and culture. Arts Midwest maintains a commitment to artistic quality and to reaching underserved audiences and communities.
Recognizing the value of global activities to Midwest communities, Arts Midwest has successfully worked with foreign governments and arts organizations on an array of international projects in Argentina, Austria, Canada, Chile, China, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Israel, Japan, Mexico, Poland, Slovakia, and Turkey.
Their management of NEA National Initiatives extends the opportunities available to audiences in the Midwest while providing learning and networking opportunities to the entire U.S.
Visit their website at www.artsmidwest.org.
50 Miles of Art
50 Miles of Art is an arts corridor where fine artists, craftspersons and artisans have chosen to live and create their work.
The Missouri communities of Hannibal, Louisiana and Clarksville are connected by Route 79 - a scenic byway nestled along the beautiful banks of the Mississippi River with breathtaking views, soaring rock cliffs, rolling hills and colorful landscape. Each community has its own unique character and features different amenities for both the visitor and resident - inspiring and unique in their own way - and affordable places to create, live, play and work.
Visit their website at 50milesofart.com.
Illinois Arts Council
The Illinois Arts Council was created as a state agency by the Illinois General Assembly in 1965 through legislation sponsored by Senators Paul Simon, Thomas McGloon, and Alan Dixon. The agency is governed by up to twenty-one private citizens chosen for their demonstrated commitment to the arts and appointed by the Governor.
Council members serve in a voluntary, non-paid capacity and are charged with developing the state’s public arts policy, fostering quality culturally diverse programs, and approving grants expenditures. A small professional staff with in-depth knowledge of the arts develops and administers the agency’s programs, provides technical assistance, and ensures the responsible and impactful distribution of all funds. Resources to support the Illinois Arts Council are provided by the Governor and General Assembly of Illinois and the National Endowment for the Arts.
Visit their website at www.state.il.us/agency/iac.
Iowa Arts Council
David Leonetti, the first executive director, was charged with conducting a survey of the arts in Iowa in order to determine directions for the new agency and concluded that a poor cultural climate in the state of Iowa existed, due to the lack of arts organizations with state-wide influence, the scarcity of performances and exhibits in the major cities, poor coordination of existing cultural resources and inadequate financial support of the arts (especially in the schools).
Upon the recommendation of Governor Hughes, the Iowa legislature established the Iowa State Arts Council as a state agency on July 1, 1967, and approved the first biennium appropriation of $50,000 ($25,000 per year) for administrative and programming expenses. The National Foundation on the Arts and Humanities also awarded a $39,383 matching grant to the Council for 1967-1968.
In 1986, the executive branch of state government was reorganized and the Iowa Arts Council became a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs. The department has two divisions, the Iowa Arts Council and the State Historical Society of Iowa.
The Governor appoints the Council’s 15-member board. Members volunteer their time to provide citizen input and counsel to the Iowa Arts Council staff. Board members are chosen for their knowledge, appreciation and/or support of the arts and the cultural heritage of Iowa. The board’s primary responsibility is to review and promote policies and support viewpoints that benefit the arts throughout the State of Iowa.
Visit their website at www.iowaartscouncil.org.
Kentucky Arts Council
The Kentucky Arts Council is the state government agency responsible for developing and promoting support for the arts in Kentucky. As the state’s arts agency, they create opportunities for people to find value in the arts, participate in the arts and benefit from the arts through programs, grants and services.
Strategically placed in the Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet, the Kentucky Arts Council is publicly funded by the Kentucky General Assembly and the National Endowment for the Arts, an independent agency of the federal government. The Kentucky Arts Council invests these resources statewide in those who create, perform, teach and present the arts.
The Kentucky Arts Council is governed by a citizen board of 16 volunteer directors appointed by the Governor to serve four-year, rotating terms. The Kentucky Arts Council operates with a staff of 19 full-time employees.
Visit their website at www.kyarts.org.
Mid-America Arts Alliance
Mid-America Arts Alliance (M-AAA) was created to support and stimulate cultural activity in communities throughout Arkansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Based in the heartland, M-AAA now creates and manages regional, multi-regional, national, and international programs including traveling exhibitions, performing arts touring, and professional and community development.Countless stories can be told about arts experiences in the communities that Mid-America Arts Alliance serves with performances, exhibitions, seminars, workshops, master classes, school tours, radio broadcasts, artist residencies, community projects, and lectures. For these communities the arts truly are a source of lifelong learning and renewal.
Visit their website at www.maaa.org.
Missouri Arts Council
Missouri Arts Council, a state agency and division of the Department of Economic Development, provides grants to nonprofit organizations that meet our strategic goals to increase participation in the arts in Missouri, grow Missouri’s economy using the arts, and strengthen Missouri education through the arts.
MAC awards grants to organizations to stimulate the growth, development, and appreciation of the arts in Missouri. This funding makes possible quality arts programming to communities throughout Missouri. In addition to financial assistance, MAC provides expertise in community development, fundraising, marketing, grantwriting, arts education, artistic disciplines (visual arts, music, literature, theater, dance, festivals, and film/media) and more.
Visit their website at www.missouriartscouncil.org.
Missouri Association of Community Arts Agencies
The Missouri Association of Community Arts Agencies is a statewide service organization dedicated to strengthening community arts throughout Missouri.
MACAA is a network of over 70 Missouri community arts agencies and over 1350 Missouri artists. MACAA has served communities, community arts agencies and artists since 1979. They believe that the arts make communities better places to live. MACAA programs and services are designed to enhance members' ability to create and sustain programs and services which meet their community's needs.
Visit their website at www.macaa.net.
Missouri Citizens for the Arts
For more than 30 years, Missouri Citizens for the Arts has provided a presence for Missouri’s arts industry at the state Capitol. MCA was incorporated in 1980 as a 501(c)4, and the MCA-Education Fund was incorporated in 1982 as a 501(c)3. Both statewide organizations work to promote the whole of Missouri's arts industry to the public and private sectors and are non-partisan and not-for-profit.
MCA grew from a grassroots movement of citizens who recognized the need for ongoing advocacy dedicated to cultivating public support and preservation of the state's arts industry. MCA-Education Fund was established to provide the educational programming and support so crucial to such advocacy. Publicly, these two organizations are jointly referred to as Missouri Citizens for the Arts.
Even today, MCA is the only statewide organization that promotes the whole of Missouri’s arts industry to the public and private sectors. MCA is uniquely positioned to unite the state’s arts industry on issues of mutual concern and represents those concerns to public agencies and elected officials whose actions impact the industry. MCA seeks to secure a stable and growing base of public financial support for the arts and to insure access to the arts for all Missourians.
Without the work of MCA, public funding for the state arts agency, Fine Arts Academy, and the Missouri Cultural Trust, would surely diminish. When funding for arts is presented as a "discretionary" choice, MCA is there to remind legislators that for every one dollar invested in the arts, more than eight dollars are returned to the economy of the state. Organized, statewide arts advocacy is a necessity in order for continued public financial support of the industry.
Visit their website a www.mo4arts.org.
National Association of Independent Artists
Begun in 1995, the National Association of Independent Artists (NAIA) is a membership-based 501c6 nonprofit trade organization that serves to enhance the economic well-being of people who exhibit their artwork at quality outdoor and indoor art and/or fine craft shows, encourage creative expression and artistic excellence, and expand public awareness, appreciation and acquisition of fine art and fine craft. Further, the organization serves as an advocate for artists. It is committed, by positive and cooperative means, to promote improvement throughout the industry.
The NAIA has become the artists' collective and most effective voice as it continues to grow and gain recognition. The organization is led by a dedicated volunteer board of directors, volunteers and advocates. The NAIA actively works to be a valuable resource for not only artists, but also the organizers and directors of art shows. The NAIA provides a forum for artists to communicate with one another and other people in the arts community. They support existing community-based shows to make/keep them a viable market for selling art and crafts. In addition, they work with select communities to establish high quality new shows. They work toward developing educational programs for artists as well as alternative markets for members providing support for artists in whatever stage of their career.
Visit their website at www.naia-artists.org.
St. Louis Regional Arts Commission
The Regional Arts Commission was formed to support and foster art and culture in the St. Louis City and County area and to contribute to the economic development of the area through a strong presence of the arts.
RAC is at the forefront of efforts to transform St.Louis into a more vibrant, creative and economically thriving community through elevating the vitality, value and visibility of the arts.
Using cross-sector collaborations and partnerships, RAC is a leader in providing innovation, access and creative solutions to economic and community development. RAC advocates respect, inclusion and appreciation of the diverse cultures of all individuals.
Visit their website at www.art-stl.com.
St. Louis Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts
St. Louis Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts (VLAA) connects artists and arts organizations of every discipline with accountants and lawyers who donate their time and expertise to help their appreciative clients navigate the complicated world of finance and law. They also provide information and skills training designed to help the arts community develop sound business practices.
Through VLAA, more than 300 accountants and lawyers offer counsel to artists and administrators who are asking for help in record numbers. Each year, their volunteers donate more than $100,000 in pro bono services to the arts community.
St. Louis Volunteer Lawyers and Accountants for the Arts helps artists and arts organizations with their legal and accounting problems and provides information about law and business matters through educational programming.
Visit their website at www.vlaa.org.
