Western States Arts Federation

See schedule o.with support from the national endowment for the Arts, westaf maintains a tour west program, which funds Arts touring. "tourwest," supports the touring of performing artists across the west. The program is designed to serve small communities, and is heavily oriented towards supporting performing Arts presented in small rural communities by entities that are operated by volunteers. At a maximum of $2,500, these grants are modest in nature but have made a significant difference in smaller communities where contributions from government and business have diminished greatly in recent years. The tourwest programs awards over 200 grants annually and services all corners of westaf's 13-state region.

See schedule o.westaf provides a wide variety of services that are designed to support the development of the Arts in the region. Major programs include: 1) symposia that bring together academics and those working in the Arts field to discuss issues of cultural policy that impact the development of the Arts, 2) professional development seminars for the staff of state Arts agencies that are designed to help them become more efficient and effective managers of public funds, and to better advice on the development of the non-profit Arts in their States, 3) the development of the public art archive, a highly searchable online database for public art, in which artists and managers of public art programs can install their work for free public viewing, 4) the development of the creative vitality suite, a snapshot of the relative economic health of the creative economy in a community that is used to measure the economic contribution that Arts development makes to economic development, and 5) Arts service-based technology projects such as zapplication (r) and call for entry (cafe tm), which support the non-profit Arts community and artists in the use of technology to advance their work.