April 16 & 17 over 500 arts advocates gathered at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington, DC morning to begin training for Arts Advocacy Day. The annual two-day event brings together representatives from nearly every state to meet with their members of Congress to advocate for a number of issues near and dear to those who love the arts. Arts champion Alec Baldwin was this year’s lecturer and singer-songwriter/composer Ben Folds performed (along with musicians from YoungArts).
Here is a clip of 10 min or so of a powerful speech by last year’s host Kevin Spacey:
And, here are 10 tweets from the day’s events at the Omni Shoreham Hotel:
Over 500 arts advocates from all over the country ready to storm Capitol Hill at
#aad12Yummy! MT
@artsadvocate_md: Ice cream break time at#aad12DYK more than 904k US businesses are involved in art creation/distribution? 3.34 million people employed!
#AAD12Fed arts funding is 2.8 cents of every $100 spent!
#aad12Sensing quiet before storm amongst attendees of Arts Advocacy Day. Our troops are prepping to take over Capitol Hill!
#AAD12The
@ArtsActionFund table has been busy since 8am. Thanks new advocates! All the arts, All the people.#AAD12At the kick-off for Arts Advocacy Day! But as
@Americans4Arts‘ Nina Ozlu Tunceli says, this is just a kick-off–advocacy is year-long#AAD12“…there is never any excuse to build anything that doesn’t add to the beauty of our city, no matter what it is.”
#AAD12
@ovationtv invites everyone to Tell congress that supporting the arts creates jobs & encourages innovation. http://Ovtn.tv/TV#AAD12“…In this time, we need to be educated in who we are, and with the arts, education extends far outside the classroom.”
#AAD12
You can a take action wherever you are by visiting our Arts Action Center and sending a message to your members of Congress. It only takes about 2 min to help make a difference!