[Providence, RI] Artist Communities Alliance (ACA) publishes their annual appeal.
This year, Artist Communities Alliance turns 35, and we’ve been thinking a lot about how we got here. Reflecting on our history and the people who’ve made this work possible, especially in a year marked by legal and administrative threats to the arts and culture sector, has affirmed one thing: the residency field has always been built through collective action.
This summer, we witnessed the power of that action. After sustained advocacy, the Senate released its FY’26 budget with full funding for the NEA and NEH at $207 million each, preserving current levels despite widespread federal cuts. While the House had proposed a 35% reduction, we expect the final bill to adopt the Senate’s numbers, thanks to continued pressure and public storytelling across the field.
Writing this letter as we celebrate ACA’s 35th anniversary feels less like an appeal and more like a letter of thanks to all of you who have shaped our field and sustained this organization. Many of you receiving this note have been with us from the beginning. You strategized, wrestled with hard questions about how to make the field more just and joyful, and offered your resources, expertise, and vision to push the field forward.
Marking our 35th anniversary is not only a celebration — it’s a recommitment. This milestone doesn’t belong to ACA alone. It belongs to the community that has grown, adapted, and held together through decades of transformation and challenge.
This year, as we reflect on over three decades of artist-centered work, we’re also asking: What does this field need now? What role can ACA play in the decades to come? Here’s how we’ve been responding:
This year, we launched a values-based network model, removing dues so that all residencies — regardless of budget — can participate in the collective work of learning, sharing, and shaping the future.
In March, we reignited ACA’s advocacy efforts, including timely alerts and policy research, to support artists and residencies navigating political and economic precarity.
We introduced the ACA Artist Response Fund, to provide emergency support to artists facing threats to their safety while in residence.
We debuted Waypoints [view issue one here], our newsletter that brings together voices from across the field, centering care, connection, and clarity in uncertain times.
And this December, we’ll gather in Santa Fe for the return of ACA’s national conference — our first in-person field-wide convening since 2019! With the thematic focus Building Our Future Together, we’ll celebrate all we’ve built, and look ahead to what’s next.
This work continues to build on 35 years of relationships, radical imagination, and steady effort. These initiatives reflect on our continued belief that artist residencies are ecosystems of care, exchange, and transformation. We know this work matters. We also know it’s only possible when we invest in it together.
Your support helps us move these commitments forward, supporting artists and residency workers who are still navigating impossible pressures, while dreaming of new ways to speak up, gather, and create. Please consider making a donation to ACA today.
With gratitude for all that you’ve done, and all that you continue to make possible.
Make a gift in the way that works best for you: write a check payable to Artist Communities Alliance or visit [https://artistcommunities.org/donate]. Your contribution is tax deductible to the fullest extent allowed by law.
ABOUT ARTIST COMMUNITIES ALLIANCE:
ACA is the international service organization for artist residency programs and artist-centered organizations. ACA's mission is to advocate for and support artist residency programs as a means of advancing the endeavors of all artists. We currently support a global network of members and work on behalf of 1,500 residency programs worldwide. Since 2004, ACA has provided more than $4 million in direct grant funding to artists and artist residency centers. More information about ACA can be found [here].