Quarter Century of Service Award
Arts Extension Service, at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, is honored for their groundbreaking work as a leading arts service organization that bridges research and practice by providing education, training, research, and professional development opportunities to state and local arts agencies, arts managers, and artists. Their influential work has laid the groundwork that established local cultural councils throughout Massachusetts, launched the New England Film Festival, and developed a diversity of publications and programs. These include the nation’s only online Bachelor’s Degree in Arts Administration, a Peer Advising Network that transforms community arts leaders into peer consultants, and Artist-in- Business trainings that balances skill-building with creating community for the arts.
For 38 years, as the nation’s leading provider of community arts management education and professional development, the Arts Extension Service has prepared generations ofarts professionals to cultivate arts in communities and create community through the arts. Founded in 1973 by now State Senator Stan Rosenberg as a program ofContinuing and Professional Education at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, AES was modelled after Robert Gard’s Office of Community Arts Developmentat the University of Wisconsin to extend the cultural and educational resources of the University to stimulate culturalactivity across Massachusetts. Inspired by Gard’s Wisconsin Idea Theater, AES sought to build stronger communities by stimulating community arts leadership and the organization of community arts councils. With an initial grant from the William H. Donner Foundation, AES laid the ground work that would result in the creation of cultural councils in every community in Massachusetts.
The Arts Extension Service is distinguished not only as a trusted arts service organization but also by its commitment to leading edge research and development. In its first two decades, AES’s special projects provided an on-the-ground laboratory to create opportunities for artists, to engage people in arts and culture in their communities, and to nurture a local ecosystem that supports and integrates the arts. For example,by producing multi-arts and film festivals in New England and facilitating community cultural planning locally and nationally, AES developed new knowledge of principles and best practices in these areas. Such knowledge was then translated into publications, technical assistance, and training to advance the field.
The organization grew by bridging research and practice. The National Public Art Policy Project, a research project implemented in cooperation with the NEA, influenced the burgeoning public art movement inthe 1980s and ‘90s. In more recent years, AES has exercised leadership in understanding trends in the creative economy, grounding its Creative Economy trainings and workbook in real communities that look to transform their unique community arts into vibrant economic development engines.
AES’ original research has informed professional practice and public policy nationally in five critical areas: public art, community cultural planning, peer advising, community festivals, and community arts, and education partnerships.
The Arts Extension Service is perhaps best known for preparing and strengthening a now vast network of professional artists and arts managers across the country. Its Fundamentals of Arts Management workshops, currently offered in partnership with Americans for the Arts, have provided a foundation for countless arts managers. AES is a leading publisher of arts management books, including five editions of the best selling Fundamentals of Arts Management. AES offers Artist-in-Business training, two online Certificates in Arts Management for professionals in the field, the nation’s only online Bachelor’s degree with a concentration in Arts Administration, and courses to traditional graduate and undergraduate students at the University of Massachusetts. AES pioneered the development of Continuing Education’s Internet-based courses and offered some of the earliest online workshops in the field of arts management.
The Arts Extension Service is a lean organization that thrives on engaging a wide and impressive circle of board members, associates, university resources, and constituents to inform and implement its work. Continuing the university extension and community development traditions, AES still strives to connect research and practice through all its programs. With the College of Arts and Humanities as a conducive and forward-thinking home at UMass, AES continues to teach artists, community and state arts leaders, and students how to manage the arts and weave them effectively into the economic, social, and cultural fabric of communities.