Mile-High Musings on Arts, Culture, Creativity and Philanthropy

At the Americans for the Arts Convention in Nashville In 1993 I became the Director of New York Programs of the Arts & Business Council Inc., the national organization for the network of Arts & Business Councils and Business Volunteers for the Arts programs around the country, and in 1996 I became its President and CEO, the same year that the National Association of Local Arts Agencies and the American Council for the Arts merged to become what is now Americans for the Arts.  As head of a national partner arts service organization of Americans for the Arts, I began what has become a very long association with the organization, and the Annual Convention , literally attending the first Convention under the Americans for the Arts name, and nearly every one since. I have watched the organization, and its signature convening, the Convention, grow and evolve over time, responding to the field’s changes – and the external environment in which we all operate. There have