All Posts By

Natalie Scherlong

WESTAF American Rescue Plan

WESTAF Announces American Rescue Plan Awardees

By Grants, Social Responsibility & Inclusion, WESTAF News
We are thrilled to announce that WESTAF will be awarding grant funding to 44 arts and culture organizations across the West, with at least two grants awarded per state at an average level of $35,000 each, as part of the American Rescue Plan Fund for Organizations (ARP). Aligning with the priorities of the National Endowment for the Arts (Arts Endowment), the WESTAF ARP program focused on applications that indicated a deep commitment to cultural equity, social justice and disrupting systemic racism through service to a host of constituencies, including rural and remote communities, Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC)...
Read More

Women’s Suffrage Mural Completed by Artist Adri Norris

By WESTAF News

Public Art Archive is excited to share that local artist Adri Norris has completed the WESTAF Women’s Suffrage Mural, located in Denver’s Montbello neighborhood. Norris’ work features eight prominent local, regional, and national women who made meaningful contributions to the history of women’s suffrage and voting rights throughout the U.S. These matriarchs of the women’s rights movement are accompanied by painted snapshots of minority communities fighting for the right to representation throughout the twentieth century. The work, made possible thanks to a generous grant from the National Endowment for the Arts and the Federal Women’s Suffrage Centennial Commission, guides viewers…

Read More

WESTAF Now Newsletter | October 2021

By Newsletter
THOUGHT LEADERSHIP AND REACH            2021 Creative Vitality™ Summit Concludes On Monday, September 20 and Tuesday, September 21, WESTAF’s inaugural Creative Vitality™ Summit brought together 40 creative economy experts, arts and culture leaders, and equity champions across the field to discuss the future of the creative sector. With nearly 500 registered participants, this year’s Summit will go down as one of the largest convenings in WESTAF’s history. To learn more about the Summit, please visit the event website and be sure to check out the pre-conference paper to learn more about some of the topics covered...
Read More
WESTAF SRI Team Joint Announcement

WESTAF Expands its Social Responsibility and Inclusion Team

By Social Responsibility & Inclusion, WESTAF News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 2, 2021 Contact: Leah Horn 720.664.2239 leah.horn@westaf.org DENVER, CO—The Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF) is thrilled to welcome two new team members to its Social Responsibility and Inclusion (SRI) division: Ashanti McGee, grants and access manager, and Jade Elyssa Cariaga, grants and equity manager. With more than a decade of experience in the field, McGee is both an artist and arts advocate who began her arts administrative work assisting local grassroots and nonprofits with grant writing and management. She most recently served as a district representative for Nevada Congresswoman Susie Lee, focusing on outreach for Black,…

Read More

WESTAF Now Newsletter | August 2021

By Newsletter
INCLUSION & EQUITY                                         WESTAF ELC Alumna Joins Social Responsibility and Inclusion Team We are thrilled to welcome Ashanti McGee as WESTAF’s new Grants and Access Manager. Ashanti is an artist and arts advocate who has called Las Vegas, Nevada home for over 25 years. She began her arts administrative work assisting local grassroots and nonprofits with grant writing and management and continued working in this area for over a decade. In 2014, she was selected as the Nevada representative for WESTAF's...
Read More
Artist Adri Norris

Denver Artist Adri Norris To Create a Mural for the Women’s Suffrage Mural Project

By PAA, Social Responsibility & Inclusion, WESTAF News

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE July 22, 2021 Contact: Leah Horn 720.664.2239 leah.horn@westaf.org DENVER, CO—The Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF) is excited to announce that local artist Adri Norris will paint a mural or series of murals highlighting the Women’s Suffrage movement in a highly trafficked site in Denver’s Montbello neighborhood. Norris will be painting the mural(s) near the Montbello Student Campus, a place that is central to many who reside and work in the district. WESTAF commissioned the creation of the mural related to Women’s Suffrage to mark the centennial of the decades-long journey, resulting in the landmark legislation that granted…

Read More
M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust

WESTAF Receives Multiyear Grant from the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust

By Grants, WESTAF News
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Contact: Leah Horn 303.629.1166 leah.horn@westaf.org DENVER, CO—The Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF) has been awarded a multiyear grant by the M.J. Murdock Charitable Trust. This funding allows for the creation of a new position in WESTAF’s Alliances, Advocacy, and Public Policy (AAP) division and will enable WESTAF to continue program expansion related to addressing the pressing needs of the field. As WESTAF continues to innovate and evolve, the organization will retool existing and initiate new programs and services that will be further enhanced with the support of the new manager of public policy and advocacy, including ambitious...
Read More

Bi-Weekly Recap: June 1, 2021

By Board of Trustees Bi-Weekly Recap

Greetings WESTAF trustees and staff: Hope everyone had a relaxing long weekend and is ready to finally ease into summer. This weekend, I drove out to Naturita, CO where we camped, swam, inner tubed and checked out some cool art at CampV. Hope you found a way to relax, too! It was a great break after a busy few weeks. Hot off the press this morning, this article in Governing Magazine is by former New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu and NASAA CEO Pam Breaux, and uses the example of the rebound from Hurricane Katrina to show the arts sector’s contribution…

Read More

Bi-Weekly Recap: May 17, 2021

By Board of Trustees Bi-Weekly Recap

Hello there WESTAF community of staff and trustees: Lots of wonderful checking-in below on the dizzying array of projects we’ve been up to at WESTAF these past two weeks. First off, wishing “farewell!” and “good luck!” to Lani Morris and Tess Emslie. They have represented WESTAF so well with their remarkable contributions and we are so grateful to them! We’re excited to welcome new executive coordinator Cameron Green (ELC 2021) to WESTAF. He starts next Monday, but you’ll get to meet him a little sooner!  We have a busy week coming up, with our thrice-yearly all-team meeting, our committee meetings,…

Read More

Bi-Weekly Recap: May 1, 2021

By Board of Trustees Bi-Weekly Recap

Hello again, WESTAF community of staff and trustees: These past two weeks were abbreviated for me as I was away for a bit reuniting with parents, siblings and children in a more fully-vaccinated world. It felt pretty glorious and dreamy, gotta say. WESTAF continues to grow, adapt and change, with big, full-hearted “hellos!” to Blair, Lilly and Paul over on the business side of things (more on that below), and fond farewells to Janae and Eliza, who said their goodbyes to WESTAF this past week. So much activity on the hiring front at WESTAF right now, which is exciting and…

Read More