Most Americans don’t have a will. Especially in the context of the past two years, the peace of mind a will and other essential legal documents can provide for a family is immeasurable. That’s when a light went on for attorney Shane Smith. Shane’s firm, Williams Mullen, performs thousands of hours of pro-bono legal work in our community each year with programs such as Wills for Seniors and Wills for Kids. Could this formula also help employees of local arts groups, who often forgo higher pay to inspire our children, create extraordinary art and performances, and make our region a great place to live and work?
Thanks to a collaboration between attorneys at Williams Mullen and fellow Arts Alliance member firms Kaufman & Canoles and Willcox Savage, Wills for the Arts has provided wills, advance medical directives, and durable general powers of attorney to over 70 families.
Now more than ever, our region needs arts leadership. The 23 business and organization members of Arts Alliance seek to foster a strong, vibrant and inclusive community through advocacy, services, and support. We’re looking for more community-minded teams to join the cause. Just serving as a mechanism for arts funding won’t solve the challenges arts groups currently face, including how to return to live performances, coping with smaller staffs, and rebuilding teams and audiences in a healthy, equitable way.
Arts groups have weathered the pandemic amazingly well thanks to the dedication and perseverance of arts employees, volunteers, and supporters as well as to government support. Now it’s time to rebuild and reopen with the benefit of all this crisis has taught us.
If you love the arts and value the contribution of our local artists to the education of our children, in cultivating the culture that weaves us together, and in attracting new people and businesses to our community, we want to hear from you.
At Arts Alliance, our members are building an Advisory Council to engage business leaders with the arts community to pursue opportunities to strengthen Hampton Roads. A Major Arts Representatives Council will assemble outgoing board chairs of the Virginia Opera, Virginia Symphony, the Virginia Arts Festival, Chrysler Museum, and the Virginia Stage Company to identify common needs, share best practices, pool resources, and implement streamlined solutions to benefit the arts as a whole.
Building on the success of Wills for the Arts, an initiative we call “Hearts for the Arts” combines the collective talent of local business leaders to lend hands-on support and experience to help arts groups adapt new technology, provide additional benefits for artists and staff, and help reach broader audiences from a position of financial strength.
Bolstering smaller arts organizations helps us reach new and under-served groups within our community. Advising groups with smaller staffs and more limited resources in obtaining grants and encouraging the creation of new and start-up groups will help us seed the future of the arts in Hampton Roads and nurture the acclaimed artists of tomorrow.
Connecting arts groups and local business leaders led to the creation of wills for over 70 families. What other synergies to promote arts and culture in Hampton Roads lie just a brainstorm away? Thank you for sharing your time, talent, and resources to make Hampton Roads a great place to live and work through your support of a vibrant arts community. We will be reaching out to you…our members, arts volunteers, and arts organizations…for your feedback and ideas to help us fulfill our mission.
—Walker Phillips, President, Arts Alliance