As COO of the national nonprofit Americans for the Arts, Mara Walker oversees the team that works to cultivate, promote, sustain, and support the arts in the U.S.
What does Americans for the Arts do? A lot of us think about the arts as something we do on a Saturday evening or a Sunday afternoon, but the reality is that the arts play a big role in building better lives, better communities, better workplaces for all of us. So our job is really to make sure that leaders from all different sectors—whether it’s the public sector, businesses, or foundations—recognize the value that the arts play in our lives every day, and therefore appreciate them and support them more.
How do you work with the public sector?We’re constantly working with our elected officials—whether that’s working with mayors, state legislators, or governors, nationally working up on the Hill. We’re helping these folks understand that the major issues they’re dealing with every day—crime, education’s a big one, health, safety—that the arts can be part of that solution.
What’s something specific the organization has done to impact change? We did something called the Arts &
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