2011 Year-End Letter
Ten years ago my wife and I were invited to an IAM conference. There, amidst 250 other attendees, we found our tribe. We found language with which we can express the way beauty and goodness transform us and our world. Because of IAM I have a language to raise two creative boys in a great but challenging city. Because of IAM, Laurie and I are inspired to invest in our community, create, dream and be generative with our lives. In many ways, I am who I am today because of IAM.
If IAM has had a similar effect on your life, would you consider making a year-end donation?
In the five years since I said “yes” to a kind, soft-spoken Japanese-American painter – a hard thing NOT to do if you know him – and took the reigns as Executive Director, I have seen inspiring growth in our movement. Four years ago we didn’t have dozens of local partners and affiliates, a creative space in New York City, nor a brilliant and hard-working staff team. This year we celebrated our 20th anniversary at Encounter 11 with nearly 600 people from all over the United States and abroad. Our resources, media, website, and programming are used by people in 145 different countries. This week the staff and I received calls and emails from friends, old and new, rehumanizing their communities in Stockholm, Hong Kong, Bangalore, London, Tokyo, Los Angeles, Seattle, Charlottesville, and Oklahoma City. This truly is International Arts Movement.
Given the world’s present economic and social instability, the conversation we steward is even more essential for the thousands of artists and creative catalysts serving, creating, collaborating and investing in their communities. And as we cultivate this conversation of art, faith and humanity we hope to see it resonate with tens of thousands more. But with more growth will come greater obstacles and needs. It’s the best kind of challenge to have, but a challenge nonetheless.
IAM is a movement of relationships. We are artists, entrepreneurs, doctors, educators, clergy, cultural leaders, and students. We are catalysts, inspired to rehumanize by engaging in our spheres of influence and infusing beauty, truth, and goodness into our world as signposts of what ought to be. The ideas and philosophies of a movement are most powerful when people are inspired to act, to create, to build, to restore, and to rehumanize – and that is happening more and more the world over.
Would you consider making a year-end donation to support the ongoing work of IAM?
As we have said for years, “you are IAM,” and we are grateful for the pivotal role you play in this movement.
Yours,
Bryan Horvath
Executive Director
International Arts Movement is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Contributions are tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
Online donations made after December 24, 2011 may not post until 2012.