Speak Up for the Arts: Your Guide to Arts Advocacy Events in 2025
By Margaret A. Keough
It’s Advocacy Season!
The coming weeks allow arts advocates to join forces to champion the arts and creativity at the state level. Below, we’ve included a guide to explain what you can do to get involved, links to your state arts advocacy organization, and the upcoming arts advocacy days where you can participate and make your voice heard.
What is arts advocacy?
Advocacy is simply educating a person or a group about an idea or set of priorities. In the case of the arts, consider communicating why the arts and funding for the state arts agencies and related issues are important to you, your family, and your community.
Arts advocacy is about making your voice heard and demonstrating the transformative power of the arts in education, healing, community building, and local economies. By supporting and advocating for the arts, you ensure that the benefits of cultural expression and creativity are accessible to everyone.
Why now?
Now is the time to speak up for funding and support for the arts. Why? Because state legislators are working on the proposed budgets for next year or two.
What can you do?
Participate in your state’s arts advocacy day. If you cannot attend in person, consider contacting your state senators and representatives on that day or week.
Share your story about why the arts, creative organizations, and artists are essential to where you live and work. Stories might relate to art classes you or your children enjoy, how the arts helped you heal during a difficult time, the economic impact of cultural tourism in your town, or how the arts and artists make your community unique within the state.
Who can help?
You don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Each of M-AAA’s states has an arts advocacy organization that can help.
These groups of fellow arts advocates have resources, data, and talking points to assist you with the process. You can also find a number of assets in this blog post by Pam Breaux, president and CEO of the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies. It includes links to articles, including “How to Talk about Public Funding,” “Creative Economy State Profiles,” and “Advocacy vs. Lobbying: An Arts Primer.”
Find Your State Arts Agency Organizations
Here are your arts advocates in M-AAA’s six-state region of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas. Head over to their website, sign up for their newsletters, follow them on social media, join as a member, and get engaged.
Arkansans for the Arts https://arkansansforthearts.org/
Kansas Arts Network https://www.kansasartsnetwork.com/
Missouri Citizens for the Arts https://mo4arts.org/
Nebraskans for the Arts https://www.nebraskansforthearts.org/
Oklahomans for the Arts https://www.ok4arts.org/
Texans for the Arts https://www.texansforthearts.com/
Mark Your Calendars
Please consider adding your voice to the advocacy efforts in your state and our region.
January 22
Kansas Arts Advocacy Day in Topeka, Kansas, organized by the Kansas Arts Network
Registration: www.kansasartsnetwork.com/events
February 3–7
Missouri Arts Advocacy Week in Jefferson City, Missouri, organized by Missouri Citizens for the Arts; in-person meetings on February 5
Registration: www.eventbrite.com/e/2025-mo-arts-advocacy-week-day-at-the-capitol-tickets-1079303769629?aff=oddtdtcreator
February 5
Texas Arts Advocacy Day 2025 in Austin, Texas, organized by Texans for the Arts,
Registration: www.texansforthearts.com/taad-2025
February 19
Nebraska Arts Advocacy Day, in Lincoln, Nebraska, organized by Nebraskans for the Arts
Registration: www.nebraskansforthearts.org/event/nebraska-arts-advocacy-day-2025/
March 10
Arkansas Arts Advocacy Day in Little Rock, Arkansas, organized by Arkansans for the Arts
Registration coming soon.
April 17
Oklahoma Arts & Culture Day in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, organized by Oklahomans for the Arts
Registration: www.ok4arts.org/arts-and-culture-day
Keep Creativity Thriving
Whether through sharing your story, contacting your legislators, or participating in advocacy events, your actions and your voice are critical. Together, we can champion the arts and secure the resources needed to keep creativity thriving in our neighborhoods and beyond.
Header photography: Phyllis Pasley with Missouri Alliance for Arts Education and Evie Craig with Arts Asylum. Photography by Margaret Keough
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