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Americans for the Arts joins in supporting the White House's national service initiative United We Serve. President Obama has called on all Americans to engage in meaningful service to create change in their communities. The initiative kicked off on June 22, 2009. While there will be many summer service projects that will culminate on September 11, the National Day of Service and Remembrance, the United We Serve campaign will not end there.

President Obama and the Corporation for National and Community Service have reached out to the arts community to actively get involved in this national initiative. Americans for the Arts is calling on all artists, activists, arts organizations, and volunteers who make change happen through the arts to participate in the United We Serve campaign and share your story so that others will be inspired to get involved.

We know that the power of the arts can make change happen in people's lives and in their communities. Artists and arts organizations have served as change agents for years, involving a range of issues from civil rights and education to healthcare and the environment.

Americans for the Arts has created a dynamic multimedia platform for you to upload creative documentation of your service experience.

Share your stories on serve.artsusa.org; we'll share them with the world.

Ways to Participate in the United We Serve: ARTS campaign:

  1. Document your volunteer/service project in two locations:
    • serve.gov so that it's officially recorded with the White House
    • serve.artsusa.org so that Americans for the Arts can centrally collect photographs, videos, and stories of all arts-related service projects and bring national and local visibility to these projects
  2. Add the United We Serve brand to your service project:
    • It can be a pre-existing service project that you created
    • It can be a new service project that you will begin
    • It can be your personal volunteer time at various service projects
  3. Visit www.allforgood.org to find opportunities to volunteer at an arts-related United We Serve site in your community or to register your organization's volunteer opportunities so that others may get involved.
    • Be sure to type in key words such as "arts," "music," or "photography"
  4. Join us as a partner in promoting the United We Serve campaign and the serve.artsusa.org site on your website, on all of your social media pages, and to all of your friends and colleagues.
  5. Sign the Americans for the Arts online petition to President Obama to create a National Artists Corps in America.
  6. Celebrate the impact of your service project with your fellow volunteers and/or sponsor organization on September 11, 2009, which Congress and the White House are officially proclaiming as the National Day of Service and Remembrance.

For other ideas downlaod the United We Serve: An Arts Idea Kit.

Read the Americans for the Arts Press Release: Arts Volunteers Can FInd Opportunities and Share Stories at serve.artsusa.org.