Billed as "The 2007 National Arts Action Summit," the 20th annual Arts Advocacy Day (two days, actually) will convene at the Omni Shoreham Hotel in Washington DC. Kicking off the event will be legislative training sessions and guest speakers, aimed at teaching participants everything they need to know about current issues on Capitol Hill and preparing them to lobby Congress for increased public funding for the arts. Throughout the day, participants will have the opportunity to network with other attendees from their state, in order to coordinate meetings the next day with their respective members of Congress. In the evening, at the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Robert MacNeil, former co-anchor of PBS's News Hour, will deliver the 20th Annual Nancy Hanks Lecture on Arts and Public Policy. The lecture series is named for Nancy Hanks (not to be confused with the mother of Abraham Lincoln), the former president of Americans for the Arts, principal sponsor of Arts Advocacy Day, who was appointed by President Nixon as the second chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, in which post she served from 1969 to 1977. The reception to follow will provide a chance for emerging leaders in arts advocacy from around the country to network and strategize. The next morning will begin with the Congressional Arts Breakfast on Capitol Hill, with brief talks by members of congress and celebrity guests, one of whom is reported to be Wynton Marsalis, though this has not been confirmed. According to the announcement website, Arts Advocacy Day is "the only national event designed to bring together a broad cross section of America’s national cultural and civic organizations" which will assemble "hundreds of grassroots advocates from across the country to underscore the importance of developing strong public policies and appropriating increased public funding for the arts."

http://www.artsusa.org/events/2007/aad/default.asp