Spotlight On

Mission:
National Arts Strategies helps build rich, creative communities by strengthening arts and culture organizations and investing in the people who lead them.

NAS works to bring new approaches into the field through top-quality executive education programs. NAS invests in leaders because it is the vision and commitment of these leaders that is at the heart of a vibrant, sustainable arts and culture community.

Background:
NAS is a national nonprofit organization founded over 20 years ago by the Ford, Rockefeller, and Mellon Foundations to help strengthen communities of arts organizations and help bring new approaches into the field.

In NAS executive education programs, arts executives explore the toughest challenges facing organizations today, and learn from some of the top business school faculty in the United States including Harvard, Stanford, MIT, Vanderbilt, and many others.

National Arts Strategies seminars have been presented to over 2000 executives, board members, and staff from over 750 arts and cultural organizations in the United States, Europe, Asia, and Australia.

Current Programs:
National Arts Strategies programs include the Business of Arts and Culture, a national executive education program for the arts and cultural sector; custom education programs designed for specific communities; a residential leadership program which draws participants from all over the world; and facilitated "action learning" opportunities for individual organizations.

• The Business of Arts and Culture, a new national initiative, is an integrated program of executive seminars, technical assistance services, communications and awareness building, and financial support for participants from across the country. The program provides arts and cultural leaders access to top-flight continuing education that is typically too expensive and too hard to access for arts organizations.

• National Arts Strategies also designs, manages, and presents custom executive education programs for specific communities. These programs are built using NAS' graduate-level executive seminars and facilitated action learning services. The participating arts and culture organizations, content, schedule, and supporting services are determined in partnership with a financial sponsor to create a custom program that meets the unique needs of the local community.

• NAS also provides residential programs for individual leaders in the arts and culture sector. The Executive Program for Nonprofit Leaders in the Arts, entering its fifth year, is a program developed in partnership with the Center for Social Innovation at Stanford University Graduate School of Business. This program selects fifty outstanding arts and culture leaders from around the world through a competitive application process.

Funding Needs:
National Arts Strategies seeks unrestricted operating funds to support its ongoing leadership development efforts, and special project grants to support the national open enrollment program, create new custom programs for specific communities, support the residential programs, and deliver facilitated action learning opportunities to more organizations.

The "Spotlight On" highlights the activities of a different 501(c)3 nonprofit organization serving the Metropolitan Washington, DC community. The selection of organizations for the "Spotlight On" is based on criteria such as programmatic interests, geographic focus, and size, to ensure the broadest possible representation of the region's nonprofit sector.

If you'd like to see your NPO in the "Spotlight," e-mail a description of your organization, following the above format, to dclibrary@foundationcenter.org, with "Spotlight Submission" in the subject line.