FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Leah Horn 720.664.2239 leah.horn@westaf.org WESTAF Announces Partnership with Pacific Jurisdictions New agreement creates pathway for Pacific jurisdictions to join western Regional Arts Organization Denver, CO, June 30, 2022—To demonstrate its continued focus on equitable grantmaking and diverse arts ecosystems throughout the western region, the Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF) has partnered with the Pacific Jurisdiction (PJ) region through an unprecedented agreement. Historically, American Samoa, Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands (CNMI), and Guam (collectively, Pacific Jurisdictions/PJs) have been underrepresented as a region within the U.S. arts sector and in conversations surrounding arts advocacy. With this new…
In early January 2022, WESTAF will welcome Cynthia Chen as the manager of public policy and advocacy. She will manage WESTAF’s public policy and arts advocacy programs and services. An alumna of WESTAF’s Emerging Leaders of Color program, Chen joins WESTAF’s Alliances, Advocacy, and Policy Division, which leads the organization’s efforts to strengthen advocacy for the arts at local, state, and national levels, support state arts agencies across 13 states in the West, and facilitate regional and national dialogue on contemporary policy issues that affect the arts. These efforts include conducting arts policy research, delivering professional development programs for state…
This is the 106th in a continuing series of updates about the work of WESTAF. WESTAF Board of Trustees Meet in Denver Members of WESTAF’s board of trustees met October 23-24 in Denver. The meeting opened with a dinner at the historic Brown Palace Hotel that all WESTAF staff were invited to attend in order to build and deepen authentic relationships between trustees and staff. The meeting also included a gallery session, a “science fair”-style gathering designed to strengthen trustee and staff connections as we move ahead with our 10-year strategic plan. During the hour-long session, trustees visited six…