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Although artists' organizations of all sorts, including types we haven't mentioned or even thought of, are hereby invited to join or rejoin NAAO at this substantially reduced rate, NAAO's principles for what we believe artists' organizations should strive for are still in force as ethical guideposts: they exist to serve individual artists, the creation of art, and its presentation to the public; they are responsive to their local communities, starting but not ending with artists; they are committed to contemporary ideas and forms, and to equality and diversity of representation; they are governed for and in significant part by artists themselves; and they guarantee artists artistic control, freedom of expression, and intellectual property rights in their work.
Midway through the first decade of this new century, they may not be "nonprofits" per se, as there are many good reasons in today's climate not to take the route many of our organizations took 25 or 30 years ago. But that doesn't make them necessarily "commercial." It just may mean the artists have taken an entrepreneurial, small-business approach to producing and marketing their own and their collaborators' work. In other words, they have taken the means of production into their own hands, and profit from the fruits of their own ideas and creative labor. And that's good, too.
NOTE: There is no longer any category of individual membership in NAAO, as we offer no direct services to individual artists. But the financial support of individuals from any walk of life in any amount in the form of a tax-deductible donation in support of NAAO's broad national mission of service to artists' organizations is always welcome and will be gratefully accepted.
If you are an unaffiliated individual artist, and you want to join an organization, we urge you instead to join the NAAO member organization in your local community, and we will happily direct you to it. If your favorite local arts organization is not a NAAO member, urge them to join NAAO.
If you have no artists' organization, we urge you to find at least one other artist and start one. Then join NAAO as a new organization of your own inception!