South Arts, Inc.

Geographic areas served: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee

Programs: Presenting and touring grants programsouth arts, with support from the national endowment of the arts, offers grants and subsidies in an effort to strengthen presenters' organizational capacity, and to sustain and expand markets for arts organizations and artists. Through our touring dollars, we support publicly accessible performances and readings that provide opportunities for the engagement of underserved communities. This program contributes to the sustainability of arts organizations and supports high artistic quality projects with strong educational and outreach components for the residents across our region. Included are training, education, technical assistance, film screenings, and touring grants to performing and literary arts organizations. In fy2014, south arts awarded 167 presenting and touring grants totaling $554,686.

performing arts exchange the performing arts exchange (pae) is the primary marketplace and forum for performing arts presenting and touring artists in the eastern us. The 37th annual performing arts exchange (pae) was held in nashville, tn september 23 - september 26. 807 attendees from 37 states, canada and various countries attended the trade show, professional development workshops, artist showcases, and networking activities at the conference. 188 presenting organizations, represented by 258 individuals, chose pae as their primary booking event and searched amongst the 320 artists, agencies and managers in attendance for their stages.

artsreadyin september of fy2012, with support from the national endowment for the arts and the andrew t. Mellon foundation, south arts launched the artsready online preparedness platform. Artsready is a national initiative to make post-crisis sustainability a priority for arts organizations. Designed by and for the arts community, artsready encompasses an "all hazards" planning approach. Artsready is based on critical function rather than disaster type to ensure flexibility of its execution, so an organization can safeguard assets, function, and resources against crises of any type or size. Artsready provides readiness and recovery resources to basic members, and for premium members, it has a robust application that helps to formulate customized, comprehensive business continuity plans. Also, the tool prompts premium users with automated reminders, so plans do not become outdated and maintenance can become part of an administrator's normal routine. The artsready platform has a social network component as well, so organizations can develop reciprocal relationships with other arts organizations, thereby knowing to whom to turn in times of need. At the end of fy2014 artsready had recruited 805 basic members, and 519 premium members representing 160 organizations from across the country. Artsready had contracted partnerships with the following: baton rogue area foundation, south carolina arts commission, florida division of the arts, north carolina arts council, cultural council of palm beach county, kentucky arts council, alabama state council on the arts, georgia council on the arts, virginia arts commission, michigan council for arts and cultural affairs, the city of los angeles department of cultural affairs, ohio arts council, and mississippi arts commission. Each partner underwrote artsready to provide subsidized premium memberships for their constituents. Training workshops were presented at 8 national conferences/webinars.

visual and media arts:with the support of the national endowment for the arts, south arts coordinates american masterpieces (tradition/innovation), a traveling visual arts exhibit, and the southern circuit tour of independent filmmakers. In fy2014, we presented one showing of our exhibition, exposing a combined audience of over 1,500 to the creativity and artistic diversity of southern traditional and contemporary art. Traditional/innovation contains 43 artworks. Southern circuit tour of independent filmmakers provides communities across the south with a tour of highly talented independent filmmakers. Twenty three partner communities presented 135 film screenings and engaged filmmakers in post-screening and classroom discussions across the southern united states. Southern circuit is the nation's first regional tour of independent filmmakers, providing communities with an interactive way of experiencing independent film. In fy2014, over 6,000 individuals participated in southern circuit screenings including 20 filmmakers and audiences in 23 communities throughout the south arts' nine-state region. International cultural exchange:in fy2012, south arts and arts midwest embarked on a collaborative effort that included the us embassy in beijing and the great lakes quilt center at michigan state university to develop an international traveling exhibit- the sum of many parts: 25 quilt makers in 21st century america. In fy14 the sum of many parts concluded its china tour. The exhibit was re-organized to create a smaller version of the exhibit with traditional and contemporary quilts from 14 artists, seven of whom are from the south arts region. The sum of many parts contniues to tour as part of the mid-america arts alliance's exhibitsusa program. In fy2010, south arts began coordinating the film component of caravanserai, a place where cultures meet, a national project of arts midwest. The project creates new pathways for americans to experience the diversity of contemporary muslin cultures by introducing us audiences to artists from the muslim world. In fy2014, one filmmaker presented four, three day residencies in four communities. Services to the field:service to the field includes the national coalition - south arts co-chairs the steering committee of the national coalition for arts preparedness and emergency response and in fy2014 administered a grant from the national endowment for the arts to support coalition activities. The coalition is a cross-disciplinary network of organizations and individuals and uses a combined strategy of resource development, educational empowerment and advocacy to strengthen disaster readiness and resilience within the arts and culture sector. Fy2014 activities included the continuation of a part time contract coordinator; creating a seven-year strategic business plan; conducting a webinar for grantmakers in the arts members; supporting the development of an arts responder network in new york following continuing to develop the arts responder handbook; and supporting the development of the southern california arts responder network. Arts education - in may 2014, south arts released the results of multi-ear research investigating arts education in the south. The reports, "arts education in the south phase i: public school data and principals' perspectives" and "arts education in the south phase ii: profiles of quality," look at access to and quality of arts education in k-12 public schools in alabama, florida, georgia, kentucky, louisiana, mississippi, north carolina, south carolina, and tennessee through a set of quantitative and qualitative research. The reports were commissioned by south arts with funding from the national endowment for the arts and nine participating state arts agencies. The first phase of the research was compiled with data collected from 4,400 principals. The second phase of the research includes nine case studies of model programs conducted by the southeast center education in the arts at the university of tennessee at chattanooga. The reports were released live and via livestream from the scea national forum on arts in education and has been distributed regionally and nationally to arts and education leaders.