One of the best ways that you can advocate for arts funding is simply to show up.
From a local podium to Capitol Hill, here's how you can help.
Local: Positive Comments Campaign
City councils, town boards, county commissioners, and school boards make decisions that shape whether the arts are treated as essential or optional in Catawba County. The Positive Comments Campaign invites community members — artists, parents, students, business owners, anyone — to share a brief, genuine story a public meeting about how the arts have made a difference locally.
- What it takes: up to two minutes at the podium during public comment. Notes are welcome.
- What we provide: the meeting date, time, and location, plus suggested talking points sent in advance.
- What to share: one positive, personal story about a funded project, a classroom, a performance, or a program and how it's made your corner of the county better.
To sign up, contact Ingrid Keller (executivedirector@artscatawba.org) or Chris Coffey (grants@artscatawba.org).
State: Arts North Carolina
Programs that fund grants across North Carolina such as the Grassroots Arts Program, Artist Support Grants, and Sustaining Support Grants depend on decisions made at the NC General Assembly every year. But the North Carolina Arts Council, the state agency that administers those programs, is legally barred from lobbying on its own behalf. Arts North Carolina fills that gap.
- Join Arts NC as a dues-paying member.
- Subscribe to their legislative advocacy updates.
- Take action when they call on advocates to email or write their state legislators.
Arts Culture Catawba's Executive Director, Ingrid Keller, also serves as the County Captain for ARTS Day, Arts NC's annual conference and legislative visit day in Raleigh each spring. If you're interested in attending or joining our county's legislative delegation, reach out to Ingrid Keller (executivedirector@artscatawba.org).
Learn more and join at artsnc.org.
Federal: Americans for the Arts
At the federal level, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) supports arts activity in every congressional district in the country including here in Catawba County. Americans for the Arts, through the Arts Action Fund, mobilizes hundreds of thousands of grassroots supporters to protect that funding.
- Join the Arts Action Fund for free to stay informed and become an arts champion.
- Take action through email and call templates aimed at your Members of Congress when called upon.
Learn more and take action at americansforthearts.org and artsactionfund.org.
