Featured Corporate Member: Allied Arts Council, St. Joseph MO

The Allied Arts Council (AAC) seeks to make St. Joseph a better place to live through the arts with a mission to provide leadership and support for the arts and its member organizations. The Council exists “to bring arts and people together.”

Founded in 1963, and looking forward to its 50th birthday in 2013, AAC is acknowledged statewide as an arts leader and in 2009 was awarded the Missouri Arts Organization Award. In 2008, the St. Joseph community received the prestigious “Creative Community Award.” In 1981, AAC created the Arts Fund that has grown from $67,000 to over $211,000. These dollars are a vital 10-20% of the dollars necessary to provide top quality arts programming for the St. Joseph area.

Inaugurated in 1982, Artists in the Schools, reaches over 3,000 children annually. From 1983 to 2011, Art for the Health of It, a partnership with Heartland Health and the St. Joseph Public Library provided artists with the opportunity to display their work. In 2011, the board voted to change the focus of the visual arts component since local artists now have numerous opportunities to display their work.

In 1988 in cooperation with Missouri Western State University, Artscape, an integrated summer arts camp for children was created and 2012 marked its 25th year. In 1993, the first annual Trails West!® festival took place and in 2012 it celebrated its 20th year. Created as an outcome from the Council’s 1990 cultural plan, the festival draws over 40,000 visitors and features over 60 fine artists, crafters, and food vendors, and local, regional, and national entertainment.

Since 2003, AAC has partnered with the St. Joseph School District in the Kennedy Center Partners in Education program and produced the sixth annual Poetry Out Loud regional competition, a program of the National Endowment for the Arts. Recently, AAC facilitated discussion leading to the formation of an artists’ co-op, helped Heartland Health find local artists to create and donate artwork for the pediatric unit and loaned Heartland clinics artwork for their offices.

Our services to member agencies include an Artist Registry promoting artists living in our area, marketing support through our quarterly newsletter Voice of the Arts, weekly e-mail updates and an online calendar of events and the Missouri Theater website. Council staff also provides grant-writing reviews, access to patron database, and promotes arts funding at the local, state, and national levels.

Americans for the Arts, the nation’s leading nonprofit organization for advancing the arts, selected AAC as one of 100 communities that participated in the inaugural Local Arts Index, which measures the health and vitality of arts in Buchanan County and AAC conducted an Arts & Economic Prosperity IV Economic Impact Study. The report released this year shows that nonprofit arts have a $10.9 million economic impact on our community. The study provides important information to the Council and its member agencies about the important role the arts play in our community.

The Council fulfills its mission in several ways: by supporting its sixteen member organizations in promoting artistic opportunities; by providing financial support, and fostering coordinated cultural planning; by offering programs to educate and develop future audiences; by providing forums of expression for local artists; and by advocating for arts and its member organizations at the local, state, and national levels.

The Allied Arts Council has a staff of four and relies on community volunteers for most of its programs.

Upcoming Allied Arts Council programs include:

Trails West!® is an outdoor arts festival celebrating the unique cultural heritage of St. Joseph, MO. Now in its 21st year, the festival features fine arts, folk arts, and fine crafts. Trails West!® welcomes all genres and subject matter of artistic expression. While the festival’s ambiance is historic, the art does NOT need to represent our history. All subject matter is welcomed and encouraged. Applications are being accepted for fine arts and crafts through April 19. Visit http://www.stjoearts.org/trails_west.htm to learn more.

The Council will inaugurate a Sculpture Walk in downtown St. Joseph in May of 2014. Artists interested in submitting participating in the sculpture walk should visit after May 30th www.stjoearts.org for details.

Allied Arts Council
118 S 8th St  St Joseph, MO 64501
(816) 233-0231