Animating Democracy

Stored offsite; contact SCUA to request materials from this collection.

Animating Democracy was a program of Americans for the Arts from 1996 to 2022. Its goal was to inspire, inform, promote, and connect arts and culture as potent contributors to community, civic, and social change. It worked to bring national visibility to arts for change work, build knowledge about quality practice, and create useful resources. By demonstrating the public value of creative work that contributes to social change and fostering synergy across arts and other fields and sectors, it advanced the arts sector as an integral and effective part of solutions to the challenges of communities and toward ensuring a healthy democracy. Animating Democracy placed high value on learning from and building capacity and visibility for practitioners’ work on the ground. At the same time Animating Democracy brought to bear Americans for the Arts’ strengths in research, policy, professional development, visibility, and advocacy specifically to advance and elevate arts for change work on field, cross-sector, and national levels. To advance its goals, Animating Democracy collaborated with other organizations and field leaders who worked at the heart of arts for change in order to draw on expertise and diverse perspectives in the design and implementation of its programs and services.

The records of Animating Democracy include subject files, print publications, photographs and videos, which provide insight into the development of the initiative, its programs and impacts, its underpinning values, and collaborative and inclusive ways of working to achieve its goals of arts for community, civic, and social change.