FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
December 4, 2000

Art Thompson Elected Chair of Mid-America Arts Alliance

Art Thompson, President of the Cooper Foundation in Lincoln, Nebraska, has been elected Chair of the 6-state Mid-America Arts Alliance. The Cooper Foundation is a private foundation supporting education, human services, and the arts and humanities in the state of Nebraska.

The Mid-America Arts Alliance, founded in 1972, is a non-profit regional arts organization based in Kansas City, Mo. It is governed by its board of directors drawn from its partner states of Arkansas, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas. Major support is provided by the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities and by leading foundations, and businesses. Its activities encompass regional, national, and international performing arts touring programs, and traveling exhibitions.

ExhibitsUSA, a national museum services organization of Mid-America Arts Alliance, provides a variety of professional services and technical assistance to museums across the country. Its traveling exhibition program provides high quality arts and humanities exhibitions at affordable costs. More than 12 million visitors in 786 communities from all 50 states have viewed an ExhibitsUSA exhibition.

One of six regional arts organizations serving each of the fifty states, Mid-America Arts Alliance also collaborates with its neighboring regional organization Arts Midwest to offer to the combined 15 states the Heartland Arts Fund, which supports performing arts presenting organizations and more than 200 touring performing artists. For the current year, 188 communities are served with support to over 350 projects.

Thompson said: "Mid-America Arts Alliance was founded over 25 years ago by Woody Varner [of Lincoln], Lyman Field [of Kansas City], and others to increase access to the arts in our region. Since then we have served hundreds of thousands of people in our six states and contributed to national cultural development. Our objective over the next few years is to keep bringing more arts to more people." Thompson has served the Mid-America Arts Alliance as the corporate treasurer for 5 years and has been a Director of the Alliance since 1989.

In addition to chairing the Mid-America Arts Alliance, Thompson is also the chair of the Nebraska Chapter of the Nature Conservancy and is on the board of the University of Nebraska Foundation. He is a past president and board member of the Nebraska Art Association and past president of the Lincoln Arts Council. Thompson also serves on the Research and Annual Conference Committees of the Council on Foundations.

Thompson graduated from Kent School in Kent, Connecticut, and graduated from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, where he earned both his Bachelor's and Master's of Art degrees in English.

Thompson's past activities include: chair of the Lincoln Arts Council; Mayor's Blue Ribbon Committee on the Arts; Mayor's Sculpture Committee; various Nebraska Arts Council panels; Nebraska Committee for Higher Education; and founding board member and chair of the Lincoln Public Schools Foundation.

Thompson and his wife, Carol, who is a painter, have two children, both married, one grandchild, and two more on the way.