About » Year of The Artist

In Roanoke, Virginia, our lives pulse with creativity. Choruses sing. Students dance. Writers try their voice at an open mic night. And a wide range of performances, lectures, book clubs and exhibitions keep us learning well into retirement. We create art. We explore art. WE are art.

And in 2022 and 2023, we’ll put this spirit of artistic inquiry and exploration to work in the community around us.

By aligning our creative pursuits with community challenges and shared goals, artists of all ability levels will engage neighbors. We’ll design projects that advance the community good. We’ll communicate in new ways. We’ll make the world a better place by digging in, right here.

Together, we’ll show that art matters, that our voices make a difference, that all of our hands at work—individually and collectively—can create change. And years from now we’ll look back and see what a difference we’ve made. “In 2022,” we’ll say, “in the YEAR OF THE ARTIST, something changed, and it changed for good.”

This spring we’ll offer trainings, networking opportunities, calls for art, artist grants, grants for art projects, community residencies and more. Together, we’ll prepare for the official July 2022 “YEAR OF THE ARTIST” launch. And over the course of the coming year, we’ll watch how Roanoke’s creative spirit advances community good.

• Read the press release here.
• Download the flyer to help spread the word.
• Dig into some of the resources guiding our work, including Americans for the Arts’ Artists at the Community Development Table and Springboard for the Arts’ Handbook for Artists Working in Community.
• Read about the effort in the Roanoke Times (Jan. 23, 2022) (Grab a PDF here)

The Year of the Artist is funded by the City of Roanoke and the National Endowment for the Arts. Learn more in What it Takes with Tom Landon (Blue Ridge PBS).

Just to get the energy going…watch the video to see the kind of cultural community you belong to in Roanoke: