Artists in Service

In 2009, Arts Corps launched a Seattle pilot of MusicianCorps, a prototype for the Artist and Musician Corps called for by President Obama and by Congress in the Edward M. Kennedy Serve America Act. Working with a network of national partners in four cities across the country (Chicago, New Orleans, San Francisco/Oakland, and Seattle), we have modeled a program for musicians working in full time service that has caught significant local and national attention and undoubtedly been strong programmatically.

Check out "Why Music," the launch for MusicianCorps

In year two, Arts Corps will focus on capacity building and evaluation efforts to assess and prepare to possibly scale an Artists in Service model in 2011-2012. Specifically, we will:

Evaluate the pilot year of the model
Translate the learning from the pilot year into a scalable model for a national artist corps that includes multiple arts disciplines
- Identify potential partners, and placement needs and timeline for implementation in 2011-2012
- Continue to plan in conjunction with national partners to maintain national consistency and movement
Assess the organizational readiness, capacity and strategic interests in taking on such a major new program
Leverage this pilot to continue to develop a national profile and relationships to support funding from national foundations, corporations and government
Raise funding to support the full program implementation, based on the strategic direction identified through this planning year

The Washington State Commission on Community and National Service, a significant funder of AmeriCorps and service funds in Washington state, is very interested in helping Arts Corps to build on this pilot to create an Artist Corps in Washington state, which could mean significant funding from the commission for this expansion in 2011-2012.

Browse press about Arts Corps and the MusicianCorps Seattle pilot