Links & Resources
The following links show art, music, theatrical, and other organizations and information that may be of interest to you, in no particular order.  There are also links to resources of interest to artists and to non-profit arts and cultural organizations. 

You can also find links to local arts and cultural organizations and arts related businesses by searching the Artists, Groups, & Galleries section of this site.

Around Grand Junction:

• www.visitgrandjunction.com
  This takes you to the Grand Junction Visitor's & Convention Bureau website. Click on "Calendar of Events".
• www.mesastate.edu/moss/events.html
  This takes you to the Mesa State College website where numerous musical, theatrical, and art events are held.
• www.gjsymphony.org
  This takes you the Grand Junction Symphony and Grand Junction Musical Arts Association website.
• www.gjartcenter.org
  This takes you the Western Colorado Center for the Arts (The Art Center) website.
• www.museumofwesternco.org
  This takes you to the Museum of Western Colorado/Cross Orchards/Dinosaur Journey website.
• www.mcpld.org
  This takes you the Mesa County Public Library District website which gives events for the whole Mesa County area. Click on "Events & Programs".
• www.wcbotanic.org
  This takes you the Western Colorado Botanical Gardens website.
• www.sandstoneconcerts.com
  This takes you to the Sandstone Concerts website where various musical events are described.

Resources for Artists:
http://professionalfineartnetwork.blogspot.com  In 2008, Joanie San Chirico with Art for Public Spaces started the professional Fine Art network, a blog directory to be sort of a "matchmaker" tool for artists, consultants and resources. There are now hundreds of artists, consultants, galleries, and resources listed, and in addition there are 1300 members in the group on LinkedIn and 200 members on Facebook.

Resources for Arts & Cultural Organizations:
STRATEGIC PLANNING (from the Arts Consulting Group http://artsconsulting.pmailus.com)
The National Endowment for the Art's Lessons Learned Toolsite provides planning advice, and starting with a clear and helpful introduction, the site is divided into six sections (First Steps, Looking in the Mirror, The Conversation, The Process of Planning, Money Matters and Moving On). Each provides checklists, insights, tips and perspectives from a wide variety of experienced arts professionals. http://arts.endow.gov/resources/Lessons/index.html

FUNDRAISING
With over ten million hits last year, Guidestar (http://www.guidestar.org) is far and away the most popular online source for finding information on non-profit organizations. Most important is that the site encourages organizations to provide supplemental information to the raw data drawn from IRS 990 forms that it presents. If your organization hasn't yet visited the site to review its profile, don't delay. By providing information on your mission and programs, your organization will become far more visible to the funders who want to find and research you before considering a contribution. Guidestar requires registration for all users, even the casual browser, but the process is simple, fast and free.

ADVOCACY
The American Arts Alliance is changing its name to the Performing Arts Alliance, but its website continues to provide excellent advocacy tools for all arts organizations as well as up-to-the-minute updates on pending arts legislation. Of particular interest: the Take Action zip code search engine which returns profile information on any congressional district's representatives and state senators, including e-mail links for each. http://www.americanartsalliance.org

The Support Music Coalition is celebrating its fifth anniversary and the creative team at http://www.supportmusic.com and continues to do an outstanding job of providing tools to make a compelling case for music education in schools. The site tracks current debate, offers a "Grade Your School" assessment, and provides extensive tools for organizing local efforts, including everything from media templates and printable fliers to pre-recorded Public Service Announcements. It even provides resources in Spanish.

Americans for the Arts also provides a library of resources to assist in making the case for the importance of arts education. Visit their Public Awareness Campaign page at http://www.americansforthearts.org/Public_Awareness

HOT TOPICS
If you haven't already discovered Board Café, the monthly roundup of ideas and opinion published by CompassPoint, we suggest trying this often light-hearted but always insightful publication over a cup of coffee at http://www.compasspoint.org/boardcafe/index.php

While it provides no specific tools to governance leaders, we find ourselves often checking the news section at ARTFORUM's website for quick updates on current controversies in the worlds of the visual arts and museums. It's like gossip without the guilt at http://www.artforum.com/news

We also visit Arts Journal's blog compendium which offers fresh perspectives from every sector of the visual and performing arts, including architecture and jazz at http://www.artsjournal.com

BOARD DEVELOPMENT
The Complete Toolkit for Boards, sponsored by the Management Assistance Program for Nonprofits, offers an extensive library of resources covering nearly every aspect of nonprofit operations. Well-organized, comprehensive, and concise, The Complete Toolkit is an indispensible source of nuts-and-bolts information on effective governance. Newly formatted with a graphic presentation that is much easier on the eyes, this collection of fact sheets, forms, board manuals, and sample policies continues to provide the web's single best source of free information on non-profit operations at http://www.managementhelp.org/boards/boards.htm

ADDITIONAL RESOURCES
No review of tools available to board members on the web would be complete without mentioning BoardSource at http://www.boardsource.org, hosted by the National Center for Nonprofit Boards. Technically, it doesn't qualify for our list because it requires visitors to pay a fee for most resources, but if you are not familiar with the site, it's well-presented and worth a visit.

Arts Consulting Group's archive of "Arts Insights" magazine articles covering many topics of interest to leaders in arts and cultural organization management and governance: http://www.artsconsulting.com/artsinsights