links

Listed below is a sampling of links to additional resources in the field.

• The Actors' Fund
  The Actors Fund is a national  human services organization that helps everyone who works in performing arts and entertainment. Programs include social services, emergency financial assistance, a free health clinic, insurance resources, housing, employment and training and an assisted living and skilled nursing facility. The Actors Fund’s Access to Health Insurance/Resources for Care website is a comprehensive database of health insurance information and health care access resources in all 50 states. Information includes public and private insurance options, free and low-cost care, prescription plans, discount plans, advocacy organizations and much more.
• Alliance for the Arts
  The Alliance for the Arts serves the entire cultural community through research and advocacy and serves the public through cultural guides and calendars. We publish information on the arts and cultural events in New York City as well as studies highlighting the importance of the arts to the economy and to education.
• Alliance of Resident Theaters/New York
  The Alliance of Resident Theatres/New York (A.R.T./New York) is the service and advocacy organization for the nation’s largest, most artistically influential, and most culturally diverse theatre community: Off Broadway. Founded in 1972, A.R.T./New York serves approximately 350 not-for-profit theatres throughout New York City. We annually hold over 200 technical assistance workshops and provide the Off Broadway community with cash grants, low-interest loans, and affordable office, meeting and rehearsal space.
• Americans for the Arts
  
  Americans for the Arts is the nation's leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts in America. With 45 years of service, we are dedicated to representing and serving local communities and creating opportunities for every American to participate in and appreciate all forms of the arts.
  
  With offices in Washington, DC and New York, and more than 5,000 organizational and individual members and stakeholders across the country, we are focused on three primary goals:
  • Foster an environment in which the arts can thrive and contribute to the creation of more livable communities.
  • Generate more public- and private-sector resources for the arts and arts education.
  • Build individual appreciation of the value of the arts.

  To achieve our goals, we partner with local, state, and national arts organizations; government agencies; business leaders; individual philanthropists; educators; and funders throughout the country. We provide extensive arts industry research, and information and professional development opportunities for community arts leaders via specialized programs and services, including a content-rich website and an annual national convention.

• American Music Center
  The American Music Center is dedicated to building a national community of artists, organizations, and audiences creating, performing, and enjoying new American music. AMC advocates for the community through NewMusicBox, its award-winning web magazine, and Counterstream Radio, a 24-hour online station broadcasting music by a broad range of U.S.composers. AMC supports the community by making grants to composers and ensembles each year, and by offering professional development resources for new music professionals. AMC connects the community through an array of information services, and through engagement with the broader performing arts field,  including the AMC Online Library, a vast, searchable database of more than 45,000 works by American composers; and publications compiling opportunities in new music and other information useful to industry professionals.
• American Symphony Orchestra League
  Founded in 1942 , and chartered by Congress in 1962, the League of American Orchestras leads, encourages, and supports America’s orchestras while communicating to the public the value and importance of orchestras and the music they perform. The League’s vision is to be a transformative and unifying force for the orchestra field — a catalyst for understanding and innovation, a place for conversations that matter, and a champion for orchestras. The League provides a wealth of services, meaningful information, learning and leadership opportunities, and grass-roots advocacy to its diverse membership, which encompasses nearly 1,000 member symphony, chamber, youth, and collegiate orchestras of all sizes, and links a national network of thousands of instrumentalists, conductors, managers, board members, volunteers, staff members, and business partners.
• Asian American Arts Alliance
  Asian American Arts Alliance is dedicated to strengthening Asian American artists and arts/cultural groups in New York City through funding, promotion and community building. Programs and services offer both individual artists and their organizations better access to funding, work opportunities, and audiences:  GRANTS include the Urban Artists Initiative (UAI) for individual artists, SOAR (Small Organization Arts Regrant) for small arts groups and the Chinatown Arts Initiative (CAI) for arts groups based in Chinatown; GATHERINGS include monthly Town Halls that bring together the community of artists and professionals to meet, share information and form partnerships; WORKSHOPS include opportunities for artists and managers to meet funders, gain skills and network with peers in the field; PROMOTION includes various information-based tools to increase the visibility of Asian American artists and organizations such our web directory of artist profiles and our event calendar of Asian American arts events. We also conduct research to bring to light the needs and successes of this extraordinarily vibrant and diverse artistic community.
• Association of Hispanic Arts
  The Association of Hispanic Arts (AHA) is a non-profit learning institute for Latino artists and arts administrators. Its mission is to promote career development, financial independence, and networking opportunities for individual artists and creative entrepreneurs.
• Board Source
  BoardSource is dedicated to advancing the public good by building exceptional nonprofit boards and inspiring board service. BoardSource provides knowledge and resources for nonprofit leaders through workshops, training, assessment tools, an extensive Web site, and a membership program; governance consultants who work directly with nonprofit leaders to design specialized solutions to meet an organization's needs; the world’s largest, most comprehensive selection of material on nonprofit governance, including publications and CDs; and an annual conference that convenes approximately 900 governance experts, board members, chief executives, and senior staff from around the world to discuss the newest thinking and practices in nonprofit governance.
• Brooklyn Arts Council
  Founded in 1966, BAC is the umbrella for Brooklyn’s range of cultural groups and individual artists working in the visual, performing, media and literary arts. BAC helps Brooklyn’s artist population–from the experimental to those preserving and evolving traditions of cultural heritage–create and present their work. BAC ensures that thousands of people throughout Brooklyn have access to a variety of free arts programming each year. Our programs are essential to the livelihoods of thousands of artists, creative professionals and arts organizations across the borough. BAC takes a leadership role in creating an environment conducive to the arts by providing grants, resources, referrals, networking opportunities, seminars, performances, screenings, exhibitions and other activities that support and encourage the arts.
• Bronx Council on the Arts
  Bronx Council on the Arts (BCA) is celebrating over 40 years as a private, non-profit membership organization that is the official cultural agency of Bronx County. The Bronx Council on the Arts is committed to the cultural development of the borough’s under-served communities. Recognized nationally as a leading arts service organization in providing cultural services and arts programs, BCA serves a multicultural constituency in excess of 1.2 million residents. Our mission is to encourage and increase the public's awareness and participation in the arts, and to nurture the development of artists and arts and cultural organizations.
• Center for Creative Resources
  The Center for Creative Resources is an arts management firm dedicated to helping artists and arts organizations realize their goals through organizational capacity building with an emphasis on management, marketing, and fundraising. CCR not only offers advice and counsel, but provides hands-on assistance with strategic planning, board development, creating effective marketing campaigns, producing events, applying for funding, and much more. Whether engaged long term or on a per project basis, the CCR team becomes a collaborative partner with its clients to supplement staff and volunteer resources.
• Chamber Music America
  The mission of Chamber Music America is to develop and strengthen an evolving chamber music community. Our vision is that chamber music will become a vital and recognized presence in contemporary American culture. CMA values a passion for chamber music in all of its manifestations; a commitment to a diverse membership, embracing performers and audiences at every level of experience, knowledge, and ability; support of the chamber music professional and the encouragement of excellence; collaboration, and chamber music's potential to exemplify democracy, tolerance, and humanity; and respect for tradition, experimentation, and innovation. CMA supports members through grants, awards, and professional development opportunities.
• Council on the Arts & Humanities for Staten Island
  COAHSI's mission is to develop, foster and promote arts, cultural and humanities activities on Staten Island. We do this by working hand-in-hand on arts and humanities projects with individual artists, community leaders, cultural and community-based organizations, large and small foundations and businesses, schools and governmental agencies. In addition, we offer the following programs and services: grant & award programs for individual artists, artist collaborations, folk arts, organizations and schools; technical assistance and professional development workshops and seminars for artists, artist educators and organizations; marketing and promotion assistance and how to access different avenues to promote programs and exhibitions, including; artist registry and artist pportunities for member artists; networking opportunities; community forums; weekly e-mail blasts that offer a comprehensive calendar listing of Staten Island cultural activities; and Arts & Letters, COAHSI’s quarterlly publication that offers news about the arts community, listingsof COAHSI grantee events, artist profiles and opportunities, and space for ads.
• Dance/NYC
  Dance/NYC is a branch of Dance/USA, the national service organization for professional dance. Solely dedicated to the needs of NYC dance, we focus on raising awareness of the extraordinary legacy and ongoing creativity of dance in NYC; on issues of space and real estate; on advocacy and data gathering, and as a provider of professional development activities designed for all segments of the dance community in New York City. 
• The Foundation Center
  The Foundation Center is a national nonprofit service organization recognized as the nation’s leading authority on organized philanthropy, connecting nonprofits and the grantmakers supporting them to tools they can use and information they can trust. Its audiences include grantseekers, grantmakers, researchers, policymakers, the media, and the general public. The Center maintains the most comprehensive database on U.S. grantmakers and their grants; issues a wide variety of print, electronic, and online information resources; conducts and publishes research on trends in foundation growth, giving, and practice; and offers an array of free and affordable educational programs.
• Fractured Atlas
  Fractured Atlas supports a national, multidisciplinary community of individual artists and small arts organizations. Through programs and services like health insurance, fiscal sponsorship, liability insurance, professional development, advocacy, and more, it aims to help its members operate more effectively as businesses.
• Harlem Arts Alliance
  The Harlem Arts Alliance is a non-profit service organization committed to nurturing the artistic growth and organizational development of artists and arts organizations primarily in Harlem and surrounding its communities. HAA is interested in, and committed to, the inclusion of arts and cultural activities throughout the Harlem community. HAA plays a vital role in the re-establishment of Harlem as the cultural capital of Black America.
• Lawyers Alliance for New York
  Lawyers Alliance for New York is the leading provider of business and transactional legal services for nonprofit organizations that are improving the quality of life in New York City neighborhoods. By connecting lawyers, nonprofits, and communities, we help nonprofits to develop affordable housing, stimulate economic development, and operate vital programs for children and young people, the elderly, recent immigrants, and other low-income New Yorkers.
• Lower Manhattan Cultural Council
  Lower Manhattan Cultural Council (LMCC) is the leading arts presenter, advocate, and service provider to artists and arts groups throughout Lower Manhattan. LMCC was founded by David Rockefeller and other business and civic leaders in 1973 and grew as downtown grew. Today we are Manhattan’s largest and farthest-reaching arts council, bringing diverse cultural experiences to new audiences in unexpected ways and serving as a gateway to culture, information, and resources across the entire borough. LMCC takes an integrated approach to enriching New York City’s creative capital through progressive cultural planning; Innovative artist space programs; a multitude of funding and training opportunities for artists and arts groups; and a rich calendar of free events in visual, performing, and new media arts.
• Meet the Composer
  Meet The Composer is a national organization that supports the creation of new musical work and the engagement of new work with people and communities throughout the United States. We are motivated by a core belief that interaction with a living composer and his or her music has the power to invigorate and inspire musicians and audiences alike. We create programs that are powerful lenses, focusing the generosity of institutions and individuals alike on work related to our central mission. All are designed to make available important resources—money, expertise, connectivity—to composers and those interested and engaged in their work.
• Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York
  The Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York, Inc., (NPCC) is the voice and information source for New York nonprofits. Established in 1984, NPCC informs and connects nonprofit leaders, saves nonprofits money, and strengthens the nonprofit sector’s relations with government. NPCC publishes a monthly newsletter, New York Nonprofits, offers workshops and roundtables on management issues, provides cost-saving vendor services, manages a Government Relations Committee that works on sector-wide government and legislative issues, and maintains a website loaded with information on operating a nonprofit.
• New York City Department of Cultural Affairs
  The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) is dedicated to supporting and strengthening New York City's vibrant cultural life. Among our primary missions is to ensure adequate public funding for non-profit cultural organizations, both large and small, throughout the five boroughs. DCLA also works to promote and advocate for quality arts programming and to articulate the contribution made by the cultural community to the City's economic vitality. The Department represents and serves non-profit cultural organizations involved in the visual, literary and performing arts; public-oriented science and humanities institutions including zoos, botanical gardens and historic and preservation societies; and creative artists at all skill levels who live and work within the City's five boroughs. Through its Materials for the Arts Program, DCLA provides free supplies for use in arts programs offered by non-profit groups and New York City public schools.
• New York Foundation for the Arts
  The New York Foundation for the Arts' mission is to empower artists at critical stages in their creative lives. NYFA is proud to provide organizational strength and a record of solid leadership in its many roles as grantor, fiscal sponsor, community leader, and professional resource for the extensive constituency of artists, arts organizations and communities in New York and beyond.
• New York City Performing Arts Spaces
  The mission of NYC Performing Arts Spaces is to foster a vibrant and prolific performing arts community around shared resources of space and talent, to increase stability and growth within the artistic community, and to help broaden public access to the performing arts. Our databases list rehearsal and performance spaces for rent in New York City, in both professional and non-traditional venues; provide detailed information — including dimensions, amenities, and rates — about hundreds of rentable spaces; are updated constantly, and may be edited directly by facility managers for the most current information; are free for all to search; and are free for facilities to list their rentable spaces.
• New York State Council on the Arts
  The New York State Council on the Arts is dedicated to preserving and expanding the rich and diverse cultural resources that are and will become the heritage of New York's citizens. The Council believes in supporting the artistic excellence and the creative freedom of artists without censure, and the rights of all New Yorkers to access and experience the power of the arts and culture, and the vital contribution the arts make to the quality of life in New York communities. NYSCA strives to achieve its mission through its core grant-making activity and by convening field leaders, providing information and advisory support, and working with partners on special initiatives to achieve mutual goals.
• Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance
  The Northern Manhattan Arts Alliance (NoMAA) is a non-profit arts service organization launched in 2007 under the incubation of the Hispanic Federation and with the financial support of the Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone. NoMAA’s mission is to cultivate, support and promote the works of artists and arts organizations in Northern Manhattan. Since 2007, NoMAA has been serving and promoting the works of artists in these communities as well as developing partnerships with businesses and other organizations to increase the visibility of this area of Manhattan. Programs and services include re-grants for artists and arts organizations in Northern Manhattan, and the NoMAA Technical Assistance Institute, which provides information and assistance to help artists and arts groups sustain themselves through their art and be part of the arts marketplace in New York City and beyond.
• NYC & Company
  NYC & Company is New York City’s official marketing, tourism and partnership organization. Our mission is to maximize travel and tourism opportunities throughout the five boroughs, build economic prosperity and spread the dynamic image of New York City around the world. With the launch of major interactive initiatives—including nycgo.com and the Official NYC Information Center—NYC & Company becomes the ultimate resource for visitors and residents to find everything they need about what to do and see in New York City.
• OPERA America
  OPERA America is dedicated to supporting the creation, presentation and enjoyment of opera. OPERA America draws on resources and expertise from within and beyond the opera field to advance a mutually beneficial agenda that serves and strengthens the field through programs in the following categories: Creation - artistic services that help artists and companies increase the creativity and excellence of opera productions, especially North American works; Presentation - opera company services that address the specific needs of staff, trustees and volunteers; Enjoyment - education, audience development and community services that increase all forms of opera appreciation. The association provides members with an array of publications and online resources, regional workshops, an annual conference and network-specific services such as conference calls, e-mail listserves and direct contact with staff with expertise in opera production, administration and education. OPERA America provides members with tools to maximize the effectiveness of financial and human resources, expand the scope of repertoire and programs, and extend their reach to new and diverse audiences.
• The Field
  The Field is a service organization for independent performing artists. This means that everything we do is open to artists from all aesthetic viewpoints, cultural backgrounds, and levels of development. Our priority is to create a climate where risk-taking and originality are championed, and where the broadest range of voices are included. Field programs are affordable, accessible, and rigorous. To support independent performing artists, The Field's programs are directed toward the creation of new work and its dissemination. In terms of creation, The Field assists artists in making clear, cogent work through peer-oriented feedback groups; produces performance festivals focused on the exhibition of new work; sends artists on retreats at arts colonies such as White Oak (FL) and Earthdance (MA) to create new material and develop new collaborations; and provides free rehearsal and performance space grants in the FAR Space, our new Chelsea gallery district studio. In terms of dissemination, The Field provides artists with tools that enable them to understand managerial and administrative functioning via more than two dozen workshops on fundraising, booking, marketing, non-profit theory, legal issues, and arts management; trains artists and other individuals to become arts administrators and managers; enables 300 artist members to solicit grants and individual contributions through the use of our non-profit sponsorship program; produces a website devoted to independent artists touring their work throughout the US; amd houses a resource center tailored specifically to the needs of independent performing artists with resources including six laptop computers, databases of grantmakers, periodicals, and books, and on-the-spot consultations with Field staff and other arts administrators.
• Queens Council on the Arts
  The mission of the Queens Council on the Arts is to foster and develop the arts in Queens County and to support arts organizations and individual artists in presenting their cultural diversity for the benefit of the community. QCA has grown into a wide-ranging arts service organization providing grants, professional development, and education services. In recent years, QCA has innovated a wide variety of programming and events, including Project Diversity Queens, the Individual and Teaching Artist Initiatives, and the Arts in the Schools grant program. Since its inception, QCA has awarded more than $2,000,000 in grants to artists and arts organizations; provided arts education to more than a million Queens schoolchildren; and produced and presented hundreds of exhibitions as well as guides, brochures, and maps of art sites in Queens.
• Seedco Financial Services
  Seedco Financial Services, a CDFI subsidiary of Structured Employment Economic Development Corporation (Seedco), provides affordable financing and technical assistance to small businesses, nonprofit organizations and large commercial projects in low-income and economically distressed communities. Through its ArtBusiness initiative, Seedco Financial provides a financial and technical assistance product for small arts businesses and small-to-midsized arts nonprofit organizations in New York City and New Orleans. Seedco Financial offers financing for working capital, facilities expansion, and connects borrowers to a network of technical assistance providers for arts organizations.
• Support Center for Nonprofit Management
  Since 1986, the Support Center has been dedicated to improving our society by increasing the effectiveness of nonprofit leaders and their organizations. Our Consulting and Turnaround, Transition Management, Training, and Grantmakers Services are designed to strengthen nonprofit and philanthropic leaders and their organizations so that they can better serve their clients and communities. We work with organizations at all stages in their development and we are committed to working with nonprofits of all sizes, including small and mid-sized organizations. We also work to help nonprofit leaders and managers at all stages of their career develop practical knowledge, build productive relationships, and find the information and resources they need to further their professional development.
• Theatre Development Fund, Inc.
  Created in 1968 to help an ailing New York theatre industry, TDF has grown into the nation's largest performing arts nonprofit, providing support to more than 900 plays and musicals and returning upwards of $1.5 billion in revenue to thousands of Broadway, Off-Broadway and off Off-Broadway music and dance productions.
  Theatre Development Fund was created with the conviction that the live theatrical arts afford a unique expression of the human condition that must be sustained and nurtured. TDF’s twofold mission is to identify and provide support, including financial assistance, to theatrical works of artistic merit, and to encourage and enable diverse audiences to attend live theatre and dance in all their venues.
• Upper Manhattan Empowerment Zone
  Our mission is to sustain the economic revitalization of all communities in Upper Manhattan through job creation, corporate alliances, strategic investments and small business assistance. The Upper Manhattan Empowerment Cultural Industry Investment Fund celebrates Upper Manhattan’s rich past while creating new legacies. The work of the fund is two-fold: community building through a cultural and economic lens; and, a marketing of place that repositions Upper Manhattan as one of New York City’s primary cultural districts. The goals of the fund are to sustain the local economy by promoting development, revitalization and tourism; make strategic cultural investments; and strengthen the cultural ecosystem.
• Volunteer Consulting Group
  Everything you ever wanted to know about building, maintaining and supporting your nonprofit board of directors is now under one roof... and accessible from one organization whose sole focus is governance and board-related issues. For almost 40 years, Volunteer Consulting Group (VCG) has provided customized consulting, recruiting and training services to nonprofit boards and, since 2002, its boardnetUSA arm has helped nonprofits recruit board members online. To those services, it has added, as of April 28, 2009, the research, web content, guidance for funders, and free information services of Governance Matters, (GM), a 10-year-old organization with a strong focus on workshops, education and online resources.
• Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts
  Since 1969, Volunteer Lawyers for the Arts has been the leading provider of educational and legal services, advocacy and mediation to the arts community. As the first arts-related legal aid organization, VLA is the model for similar organizations around the world. VLA’s Legal Services program is the central focus of our activities and resources. The program includes a wide range of services including: the Art Law Line, a legal hotline; the VLA Legal Clinic for VLA members; in-house appointments with VLA staff attorneys; and pro bono placements for low-income artists and nonprofit arts organizations with one of over 1,200 volunteer attorneys.