Americans for the Arts is proud to announce the release of Arts & Economic Prosperity III, our third study of the nonprofit arts and culture industry's impact on the nation's economy. These studies are the most potent and oft-cited advocacy tool used to justify public and private sector support to nonprofit arts organizations. This new study is our largest ever, featuring findings from 156 study regions (116 cities and counties, 35 multicounty regions, and 5 states). Data were collected from a remarkable 6,080 nonprofit arts and culture organizations and 94,478 of their attendees across all 50 states and the District of Columbia.

Some of you may have noticed an email Americans for the Arts sent our a while ago about "The Members Project," a new intiative being launched by American Express.  Well, if you are like me, the e-mail may not have registered with you. Now that the project's Web site is active and the initiative is underway, I wanted to bring it to your attention because I think it is pretty cool and innovative.  Basically, American Express has combined an array of components - social networking sites, reality TV shows with public voting (like American Idol), growing public interest in philanthropy and voluntarism - into a single initiative. Here's how it works: American Express cardmembers register to participate and recommend or nominate project ideas - new programs or initiatives that will make the world (or their community) a better place. Cardmembers have a few weeks to nominate, as well as to review ideas posted by others.

It seems that every couple of months I run into an article somewhere with the above title.  This time it was in the San Diego Business Journal.  It has long been rumored that the MFA degree would be the "new" MBA degree as our industrial economy shifts to a creative economy.  This always makes me chuckle, mostly because as having an MFA degree, I wish that I were paid anywhere near what most MBA alums are currently making.  If the MFA degree is the deus ex machina of the new economy, one would think the value of having one would increase tremendously.  I can only hope.