Americans for the Arts announced this week California arts leader Brad Erickson will serve as vice chair of the State Arts Action Network Council.

Erickson currently serves as executive director of Theatre Bay Area and president of California Arts Advocates, the statewide advocacy organization promoting arts-positive public policies at the state and local levels.  Work done at the state level can often have a significant impact on local communities like those within Los Angeles County, influencing cultural policy on statewide arts education and the creative economy.

Of his election, Erickson said, “The benefit to California in being involved in a leadership position in the State Arts Action Network is the opportunity it provides to learn from arts advocacy leaders across the country.”  Americans for the Arts established the State Arts Action Network in 2004 in order to enable state arts advocacy groups to work closely with each other and with Americans for the Arts to shape policy recommendations, initiate effective advocacy campaigns, set research agendas, and provide professional development and networking opportunities to emerging arts organizations.  The twenty members of the State Arts Action Network Council oversee and guide the network activities while establishing the networks’ policy guidelines and goals. 

Erickson will now be an essential component of this national leadership on arts policy and advocacy.  “Many other state advocacy organizations are seeing real success in securing state and local funding for the arts.  They are exploring innovative and effective ways of engaging advocates and affecting public policy,” Erickson said.  “By serving on the executive committee, I will be afforded a better inside view of the most successful advocacy groups in the country, and I’ll be given a chance to share the successes (and the set-backs) we are experiencing here in California.”

Also elected was Mike Latvis, director of public policy at ArtServe Michigan, who will serve as chair. “I’m delighted to see these talented and hardworking professionals elected to the leadership of our State Arts Action Network,” said Robert L. Lynch, president and CEO of Americans for the Arts. “Their support for the arts throughout the states they serve is a testament and an inspiration to others as they work to ensure that the arts thrive in America.”

In addition to his other roles, Erickson also serves as the state arts advocacy captain for California, assisting advocates to who travel to Washington, DC, each year to participate in Americans for the Arts’s Arts Advocacy Day on Capitol Hill.

Connect with California Arts Advocates by visiting their website: http://www.californiaartsadvocates.org/.  You can learn more about the State Arts Action Network by visiting the Americans for the Arts website at http://www.artsusa.org/get_involved/advocacy/saan/default.asp

Photo credit: California Contingent, Arts Advocacy Day 2010 by National Alliance For Media Arts & Culture, on Flickr.