FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact: Leah Horn 720.664.2239 leah.horn@westaf.org National Leaders of Color Fellowship Launches with Support from United States Regional Arts Organizations August 31 Application Deadline for the Program Dedicated to the Advancement of BIPOC Leaders in the Arts Denver, CO, August 22, 2022—Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF) has partnered with its five United States Regional Arts Organization (USRAO) counterparts to support the National Leaders of Color Fellowship, a leadership development program for Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) leaders committed to the advancement of cultural equity in the arts. An expansion of WESTAF’s Emerging Leaders of Color (ELC)…
TourWest is WESTAF’s competitive grant program that has historically provided subsidies to arts and community organizations for the presentation of touring performers and literary artists within the 13-state WESTAF region. Since its inaugural year, TourWest has allocated approximately $500,000 a year in small amounts throughout the region. Through its longstanding efforts, TourWest has brought touring to a region covering nearly a quarter of the continent but holding only about 3% of the population in the 1960s. Cultural leaders in the Western states pursued a way of making tours more affordable for rural communities in addition to making them more attractive…
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,…
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…
This is the 107th in a continuing series of updates about the work of WESTAF. PAA Announces Collection-Specific Interactive Maps The Public Art Archive™ (PAA) recently launched a new interactive mapping feature for public art collections. Collection Maps make engaging with public art easier than ever by giving visitors the ability to visualize public art collections on an interactive map, navigate to specific works of art, and discover artwork details. The feature replaces the need for development of costly websites and apps that drain time and resources on public art organizations. This latest addition to PAA’s suite of products and…
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…