Five years ago, Americans for the Arts, a leading arts advocacy group, embarked on a field-wide analysis of the arts environment in the US. In 2004, this resulted in a five-year plan to expand existing support for professional development, the formation of the Arts Action Fund to get citizens involved in arts education and advocacy, and a partnership with the Arts & Business Council Inc. to generate more public and private sector support. On February 13, CEO Robert L. Lynch announced "a strategic planning initiative that will have a significant impact on the future of the arts" — a comprehensive scan of the arts landscape, to see how well they've done, and find out what yet needs to be accomplished. “We realize that over the past few years much has changed in the landscape in which we work,” he said. “To ensure we are dedicating our resources correctly in the future it is time to take another look at our environment and determine the most effective ways to meet the needs of our growing stakeholder base.” This stakeholder base consists of 10,000 arts organizations across the country, for whom Americans for the Arts provides either funds or services, in addition to a new cadre of "citizen activists" — some 90,000 of them — who advocate for the arts at the level of their own local communities. One of the things that has changed since the last scan is Americans for the Arts itself. "With our massive growth to 100,000 stakeholders," Mr. Lynch said in a recent phone conversation, "We have had to look at ourselves in a different way. But also, enabling organizations have grown, both in size and number, and so have citizen groups." Other developments have come in the form of "significant blurring between for-profit and non-profit culture," so that artists and organizations often find themselves moving between on community and the other. And, of course, technology is transforming the field, as is happening with almost every other aspect of modern life. Artists are being impacted directly, of course, but so are audiences: it's much easier to stay home and have your art brought to you. "At the same time, Mr. Lynch continued, "Arts organizations are getting more savvy, finding new ways to deliver and also market the arts." To assist in the survey and the resulting planning process, Americans for the Arts has engaged AMS Planning and Research, an arts management consulting firm based in Fairfield, CT. The scan will take the form of web-based surveys, online forums, focus groups, and one-on-one interviews.

http://www.artsusa.org/about_us/strategic_plan.asp