Tim Mikulski

This is my 149th ARTSblog post as a writer. It’s also my last—at least as a staff member here at Americans for the Arts.

I have been with the organization for almost six years and started blogging four years ago (after becoming ARTSblog editor a little over two years ago).

In those two years, I have tried to write, recruit, or find at least one relevant post per day to publish on the site. Some weeks were easier than others, but it is pretty amazing to see the depth and breadth of the quality of the posts that I have had the pleasure of adding to the site.

And, of course, I can’t help but think of the 20 Blog Salons I have worked on along with the fantastic program staff at the organization who work hard to find the bloggers, gather the posts, pictures, and profiles, and send them along to me for editing, formatting, and social media promotion.

While those weeks are some of the more stressful due to the work that it all entails, I think the fantastic collection of resources in the right side bar speaks for itself.

I’m leaving ARTSblog in the perfectly capable hands of our marketing and communications staff members, but I wanted to take the opportunity to thank you for visiting our little corner of the web to read, comment, and share the amazing work of our bloggers.

Americans for the Arts represents a diverse group of interests—from arts administrators to marketing professionals to advocates to arts-education-supporting parents—and I hope that my work on the site has represented you at one point or another. If it hasn’t, I hope you will consider adding your voice to the mix sometime soon.

Until next time…

Tim

Jamie Kasper

Imagine a fast-growing, increasingly diverse school district with approximately 2,700 students in grades K–12, located 12 miles from the downtown area of a city. The district currently consists of three buildings: an elementary school (grades K–4), a middle school (grades 6–8), and a high school (grades 9–12). Also imagine the following:

• Because of the growing population, the district is building a new facility for grades 3-5 that will open in the 2013–2014 school year. This building will have a STEAM focus.

• In addition to visual arts and music, students in the elementary school also participate in an Arts Alive class. Arts Alive is a performing arts class that focuses on storytelling; students employ dance, music, and theatre to tell and create stories. Students often comment that they wish Arts Alive would continue into the middle school because they learn so much in elementary school.

• The administrative team—including the superintendent and other central office staff; building leadership; heads of transportation, food service, and grounds; and other leaders—has spent its last three summer leadership retreats at local arts and cultural facilities, engaged in creative arts-based learning with staff from those facilities.

• The middle school visual arts teacher took it upon herself a few years ago to attend a robotics workshop at a local university. With the help of staff from a special robotics program at the university, she now engages her middle school students in designing, creating, and programming kinetic sculptures that use the elements and principles of design.

• Over the past two years, the district has collaborated with a local nonprofit organization to conduct self-assessment processes focused on improving the quality of the music, health/physical education, theatre, and visual arts programs. As a result of that work, teachers in those areas participated in rich professional learning experiences in areas such as music technology, incorporating dance and movement into physical education, and decoding works of visual art. These experiences utilized artists from local organizations and teachers from other school districts.

• The district has received multiple STEAM grants from a regional funder, allowing district staff to engage students in project-based learning focused on STEAM subjects.

This district is real, and it is right here in Pittsburgh.

South Fayette Township School District is engaging community partners and collaborators—designated in bold type above—to offer its students world-class learning opportunities across all content areas, including the arts. The story above is only an example of what happens each day in South Fayette, and partners and collaborators are an important part of the work. My organization, the Arts Education Collaborative, is lucky enough to be one of those collaborators.

Before I go any further, I’d like to talk a bit about the differences between partners and collaborators. I fully (and proudly) admit to stealing these definitions from the director of my organization, Dr. Sarah Tambucci.

Partners are people or organizations that come to the table to enhance a project or initiative already conceived.

Collaborators are people or organizations that come to the table at the beginning of the planning process to create a project or initiative.

Both partners and collaborators have important roles to play in supporting quality learning in school districts.

In South Fayette’s case, the superintendent, Dr. Bille Rondinelli, has a strong interest in placing the arts in a visible place in the district’s work. The self-assessment processes that the Arts Education Collaborative has conducted recently in the district have ensured that while the arts are frequently combined with other subjects, they are also taught as stand-alone disciplines that are valuable in their own right.

Dr. Rondinelli and her staff leverage their partners and collaborators to strengthen the expertise, experience, and passion already in the district. My organization has worked directly with the health/physical education, music, theatre, and visual arts educators over the past three years. These educators have extensive knowledge about the community and their students, so it makes sense to provide them with connections to people and organizations that can share very specific expertise in areas such as robotics, computer programming, and contemporary music.

South Fayette has chosen to take a unique approach, utilizing community partners and collaborators to immerse students in content in the arts and other important subjects while presenting them with engaging, real-world problems.

When we asked South Fayette students to tell us what would happen if the arts were cut from their schools, one student said, “I would leave school with a headache! There would be nothing to look forward to.”

I think the approach might be working.

The Americans for the Arts Annual Convention is heading to Pittsburgh in June. Follow along as we spotlight the city every week between now and then here on ARTSblog. Also, don’t forget the Advance Registration deadline is May 31 so be sure to register before then to receive a discount!

Valerie as a fairy in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at age 3 1/2.

We recently launched a new series on ARTSblog that spotlights the staff at Americans for the Arts that I call “Ten Questions with…”, in which I will ask everyone the same questions and see where it takes us.

This time I have turned to Valerie Beaman who currently serves as Private Sector Initiatives Coordinator.

1. Describe your role at Americans for the Arts in 10 words or less:

Program planner, council wrangler, seeker of speakers and bloggers, herder

2. What do the arts mean to you?

In my family it was an anomaly if you weren’t involved in the arts in some way. We are all a bunch of introverts and eccentrics who’ve managed to stay sane by participating in the arts. My first stage experience was as a fairy in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Redlands Bowl at age 3 ½. I still get goose bumps when I hear Mendelssohn’s music for the entrance of the fairies! Experiences like that never leave you. It’s very important to me to that children everywhere have an opportunity to connect with the arts. They’re a lifesaver.

Valerie returning to Earth.

3. If you could have any career you wanted (talent, education not required), what would it be and why?

A test pilot because I love everything to do with the experience of flight. I took up skydiving because I wanted to know how it felt to step out into nothingness.

4. How many places have you lived? Where?

Five: I was born in Southern California; spent my school years in Pittsburgh, PA; I’ve lived most of my life in New York, NY, taking five years off in Bernalillo, NM to recharge, and Paris, where I always feel instantly at home.

5. What is the best compliment you’ve ever received?

Someone once said about me, “Look, she even ties her shoes gracefully.” At the time I laughed, but I still think of it every time I tie my shoes.

6. Name three people in history (dead or alive) with whom you would want to sit down to dinner.

Merce Cunningham, John Cage, and Robert Rauschenberg. I was a huge fan of the Cunningham Company and would love to hear about their collaborations and their crazy road trips. I’d ask John Cage to provide some delicious mushroom dishes and maybe read from Finnegan’s Wake in the wee hours. I’m sure the I Ching would come into play at some point in the evening.

7. Would others say that you can dance? Explain.

Well you’d think I could dance, having been in an opera ballet company and all the rest of my performing career, but somehow none of that training translates onto the regular dance floor. I couldn’t do the popular dances very well, so I created the Pussy-foot Stomp—not exactly the Harlem Shake—more like a demented Irish step-dancer.

8. What is the earliest memory you have of being an audience member for a live arts event?

Does the circus count? I was maybe five or six and I loved the man being shot out of the cannon, of course. I wanted to be shot out of the cannon too and cried when no one took me seriously. An early indication of my pursuit of flight!

9. What would the title of your autobiography be?

No One Here Thinks I’m Funny! I have a picture for the cover:

10. Finally, if you could paint a picture or take more photos of a place you have been in your life what would you paint or photograph?

I’m a novice with water colors and have been trying to capture the “walking rain” of New Mexico when the rain falls only halfway down from the sky. It’s magical at sunset. I suspect that magic only exists in the moment and can’t or shouldn’t be captured.

That’s it for Valerie. Stay tuned for more “Ten Questions with…” soon!

Laura Bruney

In front of a sold-out crowd of almost 150 hospitality executives, arts directors and community leaders at the Intercontinental Miami; the Arts & Business Council’s annual Breakfast with the Arts & Hospitality Industry got off to a rousing start. George Neary from the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau welcomed participants by exclaiming, “Miami is what the world wants to be!”

Much of the “Miami” brand features the arts and our world class cultural community. Art Basel Miami Beach is well known for attracting cultural tourists. But it is not alone.

Music fans from around the world come for Ultra Music Festival; half a million arts lovers come for the Coconut Grove Arts Festival; architect buffs visit the New World Center on Miami Beach and take art deco walking tours hosted by Miami Design Preservation League; and, film enthusiasts flock to the Miami International Film Festival. Read the rest of this entry…

(This post, originally published on KnightArts.org, is one in a weekly series highlighting The pARTnership Movement, Americans for the Arts’ campaign to reach business leaders with the message that partnering with the arts can build their competitive advantage. Visit our website to find out how both businesses and local arts agencies can get involved!)

P. Scott Cunningham

Three years ago, a group of friends and I started to dream up what a lot of people considered impossible: a festival that would bring poetry to all 2.6 million residents of Greater Miami.

At that time, Miami’s cultural scene was exploding. Art Basel was in full force, and we wanted to do a festival that was the opposite of the “pipe-and-blazer” readings that most people associate with poetry. We wanted to do a festival that reflected Miami’s diversity and personality.

Knight Foundation had just finished the first round of its famous Random Acts of Culture™ and we liked how those events turned everyday events into cultural occasions. What if did something like that? What if we did it every day for a month?

And that’s how O, Miami was born. In the poetry festival’s first year, we did 45 events and 19 projects in a 30-day span, and almost none of them had a recognizable headliner. (You can get a taste for it in a new report being published this week.)

As we headed into our second full incarnation of the festival this month, we wanted to share a few of the things we learned about engaging new audiences and creating a cultural event that transcends geography, genre, and demographics…

1. The internet is your friend, if you let it be: By the “internet” I don’t mean your festival’s website; I’m referring to how festivals utilize the content they create. Archiving your events is nice, but no one wants to watch a static video of a performance. All it does is remind the viewer that he or she wasn’t there.

Think about what travels on the web: short videos that are entertaining and self-explanatory. As we’re planning the actual events for O, Miami, we treat web-only content as its own event that we budget for just like any other.

For example, in 2011 we did a project with an artist named Agustina Woodgate in which she went into Miami thrift stores and sewed poems into random items of clothing. The video we made from that project, which got picked up by The Guardian and Time, communicates the spirit of the festival in a way we could never explain in an interview:

2. Cross-pollinate: We try to partner with other organizations as much as possible, and in ways that give them creative agency in the festival itself. Our host hotel, The Betsy South Beach, created their own reading series on their front porch. Every day in April, at 5 p.m., a poet will give a two-poem reading. Yes, our visiting poets are staying there, but the hotel is also making their entire building into a vehicle for the festival. We could never do something like that on our own.

3. Be who you are: Although we try as much as possible to subvert the audience’s expectations about poetry, we’re also highly aware that poetry is always going to be, well, dorky. And that’s ok. We’ve come to learn, through the festival, that most people are dorks are heart. So while the festival is willing to stretch its audience, we won’t ever abandon poetry’s strength as a medium where people can be comfortable embracing their own intelligence.

4. Invite people who don’t fit neatly into your genre: We invited hip-hop legends Kool Moe Dee and Money Love to our poetry festival. Why not? They both have a lot to say about lyricism and are passionate about where their art form departs from the page. Sometimes it’s just as good to engage an audience in talking about what your genre is not as it is to engage them in what it is.

5. Make the audience the star: Just as we try to give partner organizations creative agency, we also want our audience to be active creative participants. There’s a lot of literature out there now about how audiences expect a higher form of engagement, but that’s not why we get them involved. We do it because we believe participation is an essential part of poetry.

A poem will never be as flashy as a movie, but unlike a movie, anyone can write a “big budget” poem. And we believe the future of the genre depends on everyone given the agency to write their own work and have it displayed publicly….like behind an airplane!

This year we have an open contest to write a 50-character poem. The winning poem will be flown behind a biplane up and down Miami Beach the weekend of April 27. Which brings me to…

6. Create Advertising as content: The old model of advertise-in-order-to-get-audience is, in my opinion, outdated and a missed opportunity. If the only way we can reach someone is with an ad, then let’s reach them with something meaningful.

In 2011, we partnered with The Poetry Society of America to bring their Poetry in Motion campaign to all 751 Miami-Dade buses. This year we’re putting poetry on 100 lamppost banners around the county. Do these ads spread the word about the festival? Yes, but they also are the festival.

7. Emphasize the local:  No matter where you live, the residents of your city have strong opinions about it. Find ways to help people identify with the places that are important to them. This year we’re conducting a contest with local public radio news outlet WLRN-Miami Herald News in which we’re asking their audience to submit short poems that begin or end with the phrase “That’s so Miami.” Then we’re going to play the best ones back on the radio as well as publish them on a unique Tumblr site.

8. Remember—name recognition never hurts: And I think it helps even more if it’s unexpected. In 2011, we invited the actor James Franco. He hadn’t proven himself yet as a poet, but we invited him because we could see that his passion for poetry was genuine. He was making short films based on complex works such as Frank Bidart’s “Herbert White,” and he was studying with a great poet we knew, Tony Hoagland. James’s involvement in the festival sent a message to Miami’s audience that poetry is alive and relevant.

And this year we’ve invited Megan Amram, a young comedian who writes for the NBC show Parks & Recreation. She has only published a few poems, but we were impressed by them, and we are very impressed by her as a writer in general. Personally, it’s not important to me that she hasn’t been recognized yet as a poet. I think she’s interesting, and as an organizer, if I’m not following my nose and trusting my instincts, then why am I doing this?

O, Miami is taking place throughout April—National Poetry Month—all over the Miami-Dade County. Check out omiami.org for the full schedule. To get a taste of the inaugural festival, see O, Miami: How a festival infused a city with poetry at knightarts.org/omiami.

(Editor’s Note: This post was originally published at KnightArts.org on March 19, 2013.)

Erin Gough

It has been an exciting few weeks for arts and arts education professionals and advocates in the nation’s capital.

After a week of activities hosted by the Arts Education Partnership, Kennedy Center Alliance for Arts Education Network, Emerging Arts Leaders at American University and Americans for the Arts’ State Arts Action Network, training for Arts Advocacy Day began on April 8 and we were off to the races to meet with our congressmen and women all day on April 9.

Quite honestly, by the time I headed home, I expected to be totally wiped out—overloaded with information and overwhelmed by the situation at hand. Instead, it felt like the more time I was able to spend with such passionate people, the more energized and inspired I became.

People do not work with students, schools, community organizations, or become advocates because they are passive. They do it because they see a need to ensure arts opportunities for all of America’s students, but they know that the annual Arts Advocacy Day activities are only a small part of the work that needs to be done.

Coming down to Washington to learn about and discuss federal issues is a change of pace for me, and for most of us who work at the state and local levels.

It is absolutely important to learn about, and try to influence, federal education issues that impact the arts such as the reauthorization status of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (Delayed. Again. Still.), Race to the Top requirements (which require teacher effectiveness evaluations for all subjects, including the arts), and No Child Left Behind waivers (which allow for more flexibility at the state level to pursue changes in graduation requirements and assessments).

These issues are the hot topics in Washington, and are important, but they are implemented in our states, and in our districts. It is important to share the Arts Advocacy Day asks with your congressmen and women; but it is imperative that you remain active in your home district and state throughout the year as well.

The idea that all politics is local is more relevant now than ever. In fact, lately, inaction at the federal level has created a necessity for action at the state and local levels.

It is great to share the policy asks with the data and research that Americans for the Arts provides for advocates (it really is—view this year’s Congressional Handbook), but what they really need to hear are the stories about how these policies and the arts are impacting students and families in their home districts.

Earlier on ARTSblog, Charles Jensen wrote an excellent post about how the messaging and work of your own organizations is also an advocacy message. This is absolutely true.

Those who work in education, however, don’t often have such a naturally existing vehicle for messaging. Arts teachers in public schools don’t have a marketing budget. Where other arts organizations may structure their programming around what will bring in audiences and grow a reputation, arts educators work within the constraints of policy decisions that are made by individuals for whom the arts may not be a priority, or even on their radar.

Without collective and strategic action, arts education can be swept under the rug by policymakers in discussions about budgets and academic requirements. As many proclaimed throughout the week, “Arts education advocates must be AT the table before we end up ON it.”

For so long, the work of arts and arts education advocacy was the work of arts organizations. We had siloed ourselves off from the actual decision makers and spent our energy “preaching to the choir,” and then wondered what happened when new policies are enacted that didn’t benefit the arts. We often speak amongst ourselves talking about the benefits of arts education, but only share them with “others” when we’re playing defense.

In Pennsylvania, our Arts Education Network is housed and staffed by the Education Policy and Leadership Center. Because of this, the organizations and individuals who helped develop our policy inventory and policy agenda were those who knew, understood, and influenced how education policy was created and enacted. Their institutional knowledge helped to include arts education issues in the discussions that policymakers were already having, and has helped to grow an nontraditional network of support.

Yo-Yo Ma alluded to this in his Nancy Hanks Lecture on April 8 at the Kennedy Center. He spoke about how, at age 7, he was transfixed when Danny Kaye came down to the eye level to “meet at the crucial edge that divides adult and child.” Ma said he has continued to try to internalize that gesture and that attitude, to meet people at the edge that divides one person from another. (Read/see more on Yo-Yo Ma’s inspiring lecture from another ARTSblog post).

The idea that the arts can bridge divides is nothing new for arts educators. We’ve always known that the arts enhances understanding in all subjects—but now we need to apply it to our own work, to create and enhance relationship with crucial decision makers to better influence education policy at all levels, and at all times.

On a lighter note, arts advocates should be encouraged. We must be doing something right as we are now getting credit for the advocacy efforts of others.

John Eger

Welcome to the global economy and society.

U.S. astronauts reflecting on their experiences in space all seemed to see the earth as one “big blue marble.”

As NASA writes: “For the first time in history, humankind looked at Earth and saw not a jigsaw puzzle of states and countries on an uninspiring flat map—but rather a whole planet uninterrupted by boundaries, a fragile sphere of dazzling beauty floating alone in a dangerous void.”

Thanks to the pervasive worldwide spread of internet technology, the “big blue marble age” is here, the global economy has arrived, and in a sense, the world’s map is being redrawn in a way never envisioned.

While interviewing Nandan Nilekani, the C.E.O. of Infosys, Thomas Friedman, columnist for The New York Times and author of The World is Flat, observed:

“There (has been) a massive investment in technology, especially in the bubble era, when hundreds of millions of dollars were invested in putting broadband connectivity around the world, undersea cables, (and) those things…created a platform where intellectual work, intellectual capital, could be delivered from anywhere. It could be disaggregated, delivered, distributed, produced and put back together again.”

The net effect of these changes to the world’s economy is that there are no longer the traditional barriers to doing business in the digital age. Every community, every individual is suddenly able to compete with every other and despite what you may hear from politicians running for national office, there are no national economies. There is only a new, truly global economy, which no one is in charge of. Instead, as Kenichi Ohmae, author of The End of the Nation State: The Rise of Regional Economies, pointed out, there is the rise and rebirth of the city-state, or as he calls them, the Region State.

Nations are not going to disappear. Nor are states, provinces, or prefectures. Indeed, elected officials are loath to accede power to any kind of consolidation. Nevertheless, their responsibilities are changing and cities, or more precisely, larger economic regions are emerging that have heavy responsibilities to organize one’s community to reinvent itself for a knowledge-based economy and society.

Now more than ever, business and industry are dependent upon an economic system that rewards innovation. But to have innovation, you also need creativity; and a creative and innovative community is vital to that effort.

A creative community is one that exploits the vital links among art, culture, and commerce; and invests in the human and financial resources necessary to prepare its citizens to meet the challenges of the rapidly evolving, postindustrial knowledge economy and society. “Cities of the Future” also provide the vibrant culture that is essential for attracting and retaining that innovative workforce.

There is much to do to change the way we educate our young people for this brave new world; there is much we must do to reinvent our communities for the creative and innovative economy.

We can start by redesigning the look and feel of our cities; and reinventing them as the incubators of creativity, the living rooms of the community.

“Art and Culture Districts” may be the answer.

“Such districts”, says Local Arts Agency Services Program Manager Theresa Cameron of Americans for the Arts, “have the potential—with their critical mass of art galleries, cinemas, music venues, public squares for performances, restaurants, cafes and retail shops—of attracting, and nurturing the creative workforce our cities need to succeed in the new economy.”

This coming June at the Americans for the Arts Annual Convention in Pittsburgh, an Arts, Entertainment & Cultural Districts Preconference will showcase some of districts leading the way to transform cities.

In addition to the Preconference, Cameron plans to produce an update of an earlier report on such districts, but more importantly, will launch a three-year effort to “involve mayors and other city executives in the discussion, and include webinars, conferences and inactive media to help cities across America reinvent their city for the age of ‘creativity and innovation.'”

As the geographical landscape of a city morphs into a larger metropolitan region-partly because of growth, mostly out of economic necessity—what we call downtown becomes even more critical to wealth and well-being of the people living in those communities.

Few efforts to insure America’s success and survival in the new economy could be more important.

Americans for the Arts’ first ever Arts, Entertainment & Cultural Districts Preconference, being held June 12–14 in Pittsburgh, will examine the city’s own cultural district up close and will provide registrants with the opportunity to learn about existing policies and incentive programs from experts from across the country. For more information about the full Annual Convention (June 14–16) and two additional Preconferences, visit convention.artsusa.org.

(Editor’s Note: This post was originally published at HuffPost Arts & Culture’s The Blog on April 12, 2013.)

Janet Owen Driggs

My headline was intended to be something of an eye-catcher—who can resist a story about crime and scurvy, right?

Best of all, my claim is true. The thinking goes something like this:

• Scurvy, the clinical manifestation of vitamin C deficiency, is on the rise in developed nations. In the United Kingdom, for example, reported cases of childhood scurvy rose 57% between 2005–2008.
• Public health studies indicate that poverty is driving the re-emergence of the disease.
• Access to free, fresh, vitamin-c rich foods will reduce incidents of scurvy.

Ergo: planting fruit trees and vegetables in public spaces will reduce scurvy.

And what about crime, I hear you ask? Well, since 2008, a project in Todmorden, UK, has been growing fruits and vegetables in seventy public beds dotted around the town.

The produce is free to whoever chooses to pick it, and, as Incredible Edible co-founder Pam Warhurst explains: “The police have told us that, year on year, there has been a reduction in vandalism since we started.” She continues: “If you take a grass verge that was used as a litter bin and a dog toilet and turn it into a place full of herbs and fruit trees, people won’t vandalise it.”

Ergo: planting fruit trees and vegetables in public spaces reduces crime.

Not exactly quod et demonstrandum perhaps, but an equation well worth exploring in Los Angeles, my home, a city in which:

• 20.2% of people live below the poverty level
• The American Diabetes Association has just set up permanent shop in downtown to address the “growing concern and epidemic in Los Angeles”
• Full-service supermarkets make up less than 2% of the total number of food stores in the South and Central parts of the city

It’s an equation that artists have been making for a while now: initially via guerilla activity, more recently with some venturesome civic support.

Take Ron Finley, for example. In 2010 the artist and designer planted the strip of scrubby grass in front of his South Central home. His fruits and vegetables flourished, neighbors and passersby ate well, and the city Bureau of Street Services served Ron with a citation.

To cut short a longish story—which is chronicled by Steve Lopez in the Los Angeles Times and by Mr. Finley at his recent TED talk—with the help of L.A. Green Grounds, City Councilmember Herb Wesson’s office, and the South LA community, Ron’s garden continues to grow, and he continues to fight the good fight for public produce.

More recently, the L.A. County Arts Commission dedicated the Del Aire Fruit Park, an artwork in the form of an urban orchard, by collective Fallen Fruit. Described as the first public fruit park in California, it is the located in public land, and “will be sustained, nurtured and harvested by the public.”

Are we getting closer to the realization of Ron’s vision, as described by Steve Lopez, in which “one street would grow peaches, the next would grow peppers or tomatoes, and everybody would meet at the corner to share the harvest”?

Are Fallen Fruit of Del Aire and Ron’s garden the thin end of the wedge? My hope is that these glimmers of civic support for public produce can herald a policy shift in L.A. and modification of the “public nuisance” ordinance.

Because I have only 900-words maximum with which to make the case for public produce, suffice to say that I’ve written lots more about that particular inhibitor at KCET.org. Meanwhile, in addition to its potentially huge impacts on public health and crime statistics, to say nothing of the environmental benefits a local harvest reaps, let me leave you with a final thought about Todmorden from visiting journalist Vince Graff:

“The day I visit, the town is battered by a bitterly-cold rain storm. Yet the place radiates warmth. People speak to each other in the street, wave as neighbours drive past, smile. If the phrase hadn’t been hijacked, the words ‘we’re all in this together’ would spring to mind.”

Susan Appe, PhD

What would make where I live a better place?

I want Broome Country, upstate New York to value its own commitment to the local arts. Own it! That is, I don’t want to have to have to feel the need to convince my graduate students and other community members—friends and colleagues—that the arts in Broome County, are diverse, vibrant and, yes, cutting edge.

The evidence is out there. In practice, the community—my students included—of Broome County supports and attends arts and cultural experiences and events, but I am finding we don’t always value this commitment we have for the local arts. Let me explain.

I first started noticing this with my students. I teach a nonprofit administration graduate class in a Masters in Public Administration program. In the class we emphasize capacity for community-based practice and discuss various policy areas such as social services, work development and yes, the arts. When I asked my students who had recently (in the last two weeks) attended an arts and cultural event, all—every single one of my students—confirmed they had. Activities and events shouted out were attending a local history museum, participating in the city’s monthly Art Walk, going to a local theatre production, screening an independent film at a local nonprofit organization.

While certainly not a representative, scientific sample, it surprised me. It surprised me because I consistently feel I need to convince my students of the cultural aliveness of our community. As I am trying to convince my students, they brush me off as being just easily excitable. Meanwhile they are actively participating in this cultural aliveness and don’t even realize. They don’t value the arts community that they are creating. Essentially they don’t value what they value.

And the students in my class are not the only ones attending and supporting local arts. As a recent transplant to Broome County, I am finding that the community is deeply invested in local arts.

Case in point—on March 13, 2013 the Broome County Arts Council’s (BCAC) United Cultural Fund (UCF) awarded $228,000 to organizations and individuals working in the arts in Broome County. The UCF, in existence since 1987, is supported by all local donations coming from foundations, county government, business, corporations and individuals. I had the opportunity to be on the allocations panel and through the experience I realized the enormous enthusiasm of the local arts.

We know that at the local level, local arts agencies are a primary channel of arts funding (Toepler & Wyszomirski, 2012), therefore, the BCAC’s model is a familiar one for those of us engaged in local arts. It provides, like many local agencies, critical support in the form of general operating support grants to major nonprofit arts organizations and project grants to community nonprofit organizations and individual artists.

However, still, the UCF is one of only seven such programs in all of New York state, one of only two in upstate, and the only one in south central New York. The existence and sustained support of such a funding campaign indicates that the arts are important to the community, indeed.

We have a clear buy-in from the community to support the arts, but as a new Broome Country resident, I see the struggle for community members (my students included!) to own this. Why don’t we value what we value? Why don’t we value our commitment to the arts?

While we of course always want more people enjoying local arts in Broome County always, I am finding availability, access, investment, and support of the arts is here. The challenge I think we are facing is that we are not fully owning this, rather there seems to be a reluctance to blatantly valuing this about our community.

Still, the students will continue to attend their preferred events, I am sure of, and the UCF will launch another year’s campaign, raise local funds and hopefully more than the previous year. This is because Broome County values its local arts. I just want community members to shout this out, loudly and proudly. This would make where I live a better place.

References

Toepler, S. & Wyszomirski, M. J. (2012). Arts and culture. In L.M. Salamon (Ed.), The state of nonprofit America (229-265). Washington, D.C.: Brookings Institution Press.

Johnny Kolasinski

Full disclosure here: when I relocated to Silicon Valley in 2009, I told my friends and family in Ohio that I was “moving to San Francisco.”

At that point in time, the two were basically synonymous in my mind—Palo Alto was, to me, a “San Francisco suburb” that happened to be the home of Facebook, and most of what I knew of San Jose came from the Dionne Warwick song.

San Francisco’s cultural reputation is what brought me to California, and because of that city’s reputation, it took me more than a year to really connect with the artistic community in my own back yard.

Silicon Valley has an interesting dynamic. We’re known worldwide for innovation, creativity, and our DIY atmosphere. The technologies being created here are changing world culture in new and revolutionary ways.

Silicon Valley has a population of 3 million to San Francisco’s 800,000. Why is it, then, that so many of our residents feel that they need to travel north to “The City” for an artistic or cultural experience?

What can we, as an artistic community, do to build a reputation that holds up to the high bar our tech industry has set? Are we destined to be known San Francisco’s cultural suburb?

By no means am I trying to say that the art being created here in Silicon Valley is in any way inferior to San Francisco. On the contrary, recognizing the innovative and collaborative nature of our artistic community is what led me to set down roots here in Silicon Valley rather than up north.

There are organizations like Zero1, which blends art and technology to “provoke new ideas, spark experimentation, and seed creative strategies.” In addition to its biennial festival, Zero1 has recently opened a permanent exhibition space, the Zero1 Garage, and has artistic fellows working on location at Google and Adobe.

The Children’s Discovery Museum is also fusing the arts and sciences, giving future audiences the cultural experiences that are so necessary to their development.

Multiple theatres in the region are working to foster emerging playwrights:

• TheatreWorks has held an annual New Play Festival for more than a decade
• San Jose Repertory Theatre has recently created an Emerging Artists Lab, with late-night presentations immediately after its mainstage productions
• My own organization, City Lights Theater Company, holds multiple readings of plays by new Bay Area playwrights each season.

Organizations like San Jose Taiko, Abhinaya Dance Company, and MACLA (Movimiento de Arte y Cultura Latino Americana) aren’t just representative of the diversity of our community, each reaches out to a truly multicultural audience.

Government and city funders are doing their part as well. The city of San Jose works hard to support the region’s artistic innovators. In 2011 and 2012, the city’s Office of Cultural Affairs (OCA) invited seventeen arts organizations of various sizes and missions to participate in EMC Arts’ New Pathways for the Arts program, which brought together the members of the organizations’ staffs, boards, and audiences to challenge their organizational structures and identify new methods of problem solving. The OCA is currently sponsoring the Creative Industries Incentive Fund, which provides project-based funding to for-profit arts-based small businesses in San Jose.

Arts Council Silicon Valley, on top of being a resource and connecting point for arts organizations, supports genARTS, the Silicon Valley Emerging Leaders Network. With their backing, genARTS was able to send nearly a dozen participants to last year’s Americans for the Arts Annual Convention and Emerging Leaders Preconference, and we hope to send just as strong a contingent this year.

The School of Arts and Culture hosts MALI, the Multicultural Arts Leadership Initiative, in order to identify, connect, and support the many leaders of color in our arts and cultural institutions.

Despite all of these amazing institutions, though, Silicon Valley faces some unique challenges. I’ve mentioned the fact that many of our local arts patrons are choosing to travel to San Francisco. The reverse doesn’t happen quite so often.

Traveling south from San Francisco isn’t easy; BART, the underground rail system that connects San Francisco to Oakland and the rest of the East Bay, doesn’t reach far into the South Bay. An extension has been in the works since the 1990s, but only broke ground in 2010, and service isn’t expected to hit San Jose until 2025.

Additionally, while innovative tech companies are the region’s lifeblood, a significant portion of their young employees choose to live in San Francisco. The companies even provide private busses from San Francisco to their campuses to make commuting hassle free. It’s hard to build a relationship with these 20- and 30-somethings when there’s a mass exodus at 5 p.m.

I know Silicon Valley isn’t alone—there are regions all over the country that sometimes feel like they’re living in the shadow of “The City,” whether that city is San Francisco, New York, or Columbus, OH.

What are you doing to bring your neighbors in and strengthen your region’s reputation?

Sarah Lawson

You’ve probably never visited an art gallery or a classical music concert in Charlottesville, VA.

Though the area is known for its views of the Blue Ridge Mountains, historical landmarks, and local food culture, many people don’t consider it an arts destination. At Piedmont Council for the Arts (PCA), we see this every day.

Residents might know everything that’s happening in one area of arts interest, but nothing broader. Visitors tour Monticello or the University of Virginia, but rarely stay the extra day to explore our museums or see a play performed by one of our many community theater groups.

Very few people ever see the full breadth of the Charlottesville area arts community.

However, data from Americans for the Arts’ Arts & Economic Prosperity IV study in the Greater Charlottesville area showed that our arts and culture industry generates $114.4 million in annual economic activity, supporting 1,921 full-time equivalent jobs and generating $9.2 million in government revenue.

As the Charlottesville community continues to grow this arts and culture sector, we see a greater need to address this issue of coordinated cultural tourism. 

And that’s just one of the large-scale issues that face our arts community and many others around the country—maybe even where you live. Similar issues include arts funding, livability for artists, development of creative placemaking resources, and arts education opportunities.

But what can we do to address these issues?

Well, what PCA decided to do was work with residents and local government to create a community-wide cultural plan. Cultural planning gathers your entire community to give feedback on available and needed resources related to arts and culture.

This feedback might sound something like, “We need more affordable studio space for artists.” Or maybe, “Why don’t we have a community calendar where all arts and culture events are listed?” Perhaps even, “It would be great if graffiti were allowed as a form of public art.”

Once planning coordinators sift through all of the input, central themes begin to emerge. Community stakeholders then work together to recommend strategies to address and resolve issues within each theme, whether it’s audience development, funding, or something else entirely.

As PCA nears the midway point of the planning process for our plan, titled Create Charlottesville, I see this as a vital step in making Charlottesville a better place to live.

A cultural plan might also be a great step for your arts council or community to consider. If you decide to embark on this process, here are some tips to help you create and survive your own cultural plan:

1. Find a consultant to lead the planning process. An outside consultant is necessary to ensure an unbiased cultural plan. Try to find an individual or firm who has previously worked with cities similar to yours and with whom you feel a connection. Charlottesville is a small city with a strong university presence so we sought a consultant who had experience with small college towns.

2. Find a really amazing consultant to lead the planning process. No really, this part is that important. If you think you’ve found a great consultant, search to see if you can’t find an even more amazing one.

3. Diversify your funding. Part of the success of any cultural plan comes from community engagement in the implementation process. This buy-in can begin during your search for funding. Approach local businesses and philanthropists to explain your goals. Even if you don’t receive a check from each one, you’re educating them about the plan and will be more likely to get them engaged in the process in the future. Be sure to apply for plenty of grants as well—a good plan doesn’t come with a small price tag.

4. Budget your time. A cultural plan can fill every waking hour of your life if you allow it to. Before the planning process begins, work with your consultant to create firm deadlines for every step of the project. Create guidelines and expectations for staff and plan coordinators during every phase of the process.

5. Assemble the best team imaginable. In addition to the consultant, your planning process will involve a large number of community members. Pick the best ones to serve on a steering committee, working group, or task force. You’ll need diverse representatives in order to have a plan that serves the entire community.

6. Talk to as many community members as possible. Your plan is only as good as the people you involve. Reach out to your entire community through surveys, focus groups, and interviews to get as much feedback as you can. Create online surveys along with large-print paper versions to hand out. Mention the plan to everyone. Even if they don’t get involved, you’ll still generate buzz about the project—which, in turn, will help you reach even more people.

7. Never lose sight of the goals. Remember the dream to improve your local arts community that led you to start a planning process in the first place? Don’t let burdensome logistics distract you from that.

8. Implement, implement, implement. Part of the plan should include ways to ensure that individuals and organizations follow through on their responsibilities for implementation of strategies. And remember, even if the cultural plan that you create doesn’t fix everything, you can revisit it in a few years to give more attention to issues that still exist.

Michelle Clesse

An installation art museum, a nationally renowned glass studio, and a cartoon museum walk into a bar. Just kidding. Museums and studios do not have legs, and therefore, cannot walk anywhere.

Plenty of cities have great art resources for artists and art enthusiasts alike. When I stumbled into Pittsburgh in 2009, I was amazed by the combination of major arts institutions, niche arts organizations, and scrappy little start-up arts groups; but even more so by how approachable and accessible the Pittsburgh arts community was.

I had a hotbed of arts at my fingertips. By the time I’d been in Pittsburgh for a year, I’d taken two glass blowing classes at the Pittsburgh Glass Center, dragged every out-of-town visitor to the Society for Contemporary Craft, and learned about Gertie the Dinosaur at the ToonSeum.

Now, I certainly didn’t limit myself to the visual arts scene. During my first year I also saw the Pittsburgh Ballet perform twice, checked out the Pittsburgh Symphony, and saw The Mikado performed by CMU’s School of Drama.

As I’ve settled into the city and put down more roots, I still frequent some of my favorite art spots fairly regularly. I have also continued to explore both large and small performance art groups, while keeping my hands busy (and dirty) at many of the public access and cooperative art studios.

I spent last Tuesday evening covered in clay and listening to the Penguins game with a slew of other ceramic artists. This weekly ritual is part of the wood fire seminar at Union Project’s ceramics studio. Ceramic artists eager to learn about the firing technique spend eight weeks working in the studio together, and then pack up their bisqueware and head out to spend the weekend stoking the wood kiln and making s’mores.

I jumped at the chance to join the wood fire seminar, largely because during the 15 years I’ve worked in clay I’ve never had access to a wood kiln before. It also gives me the chance to meet new folks and create art in a group setting.

Every new person I meet has their own piece of the Pittsburgh art scene that they’re truly passionate about. I’ve learned about new experimental theater groups, galleries housed in abandoned spaces, and solo artists producing their next body of work. Just about everyone involved in the arts community has their hands in a few different projects, and wants to share that art with you.

Pittsburgh has plenty of possibilities for the art lover. Excursions range from busting out your best duds and enjoying an evening with the Pittsburgh Opera to throwing on your ripped jeans and heading over to Artist Image Resource to screen-print concert posters for your band.

So, when you come to Pittsburgh for this year’s Americans for the Arts Annual Convention, be prepared to prioritize your “To Do List.” Visit your favorite Pittsburgh art spot, but be sure to try something new. Maybe something you’ve never had the chance to experience before—I’ve heard the Pittsburgh Banjo Club’s Wednesday night jams are not to be missed!

The Americans for the Arts Annual Convention is heading to Pittsburgh in June. Follow along as we spotlight the city every week between now and then here on ARTSblog. Also, don’t forget the Early Bird Registration deadline is April 26 so be sure to register before then to receive a big discount!

Ronda Billerbeck

On a chilly January afternoon, I sat in a high school library, along with 40 students, listening to Suzanne Vega talk about music. Listening to any artist speak about their work is interesting at the very least and more often than not quite compelling. This was not just any artist.

Suzanne Vega is widely regarded as one of the great songwriters of her generation. She is a masterful storyteller who rewrote the book on what female singer-songwriters can say and do, paving the way for artists like Sarah McLachlan, Tracy Chapman, and the entire Lilith Fair revolution.

Suzanne performed as part of the Kent Arts Commission’s Spotlight Series. In addition to her public concert, she led a school workshop. I incorporate educational activities with professional touring artists as often as I can. Interacting with an artist in an intimate setting, hearing them discuss their vision and process, offers depth of experience that a traditional concert performance cannot. Getting that kind of glimpse into the creative process is unique and powerful—it ignites a passion for and connection with art unlike anything else.

When we have communities that are engaged with art, where art is an integral part of life and a defining characteristic of place, our communities are better for it. They are better economically, socially, and because individuals’ lives are enriched. 

It was thrilling to watch Suzanne Vega—a Grammy Award winner, an iconic voice in American song—standing in a humble school library speaking to students with an obvious conviction that they each have the potential to achieve as much as she has.

She spoke about her creative process and gave them tips on finding their artistic voices. She read poetry, told stories, and discussed the music business.

It is important to note that this activity was optional and students chose to sign up and stay after school to participate. It was the Friday after semester finals and I was worried no one would show up. Not only did students show up, they were thoroughly engaged.

One boy who sat in the front row with his guitar was the first to raise his hand and ask a startlingly insightful question. Teachers later told me that the young man rarely speaks in class.

The group was diverse, including African American, Latino, Asian, and Caucasian students. 70 percent of the school’s student population receives free or reduced lunches, so it is safe to assume that many of the participants were from lower-income families.

These are the times I truly love my job. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out so well. I’ve had more than a few outreach opportunities go unused because I couldn’t find anyone to host them. Between classes, administrative demands, trainings, and tests, educators have a lot going on; it’s difficult to make time for extra activities.

Another part of the problem is the lack of a neat and tidy way to get the word out.

Kent’s district is big—40 schools and 25,000+ students, big. I’ve tried starting with the district arts coordinator; going through principals; contacting music, art, and drama teachers. None of these strategies work as a rule.

The only approach I’ve found to be effective is labor intensive—making repeated phone calls and emails to varying people until I happen upon the right one—a principal, a teacher, even a parent.

Two schools passed on the Vega opportunity before I connected with an energetic teacher at Kent-Meridian High School. He got excited and wasn’t daunted by extra work. He made a video and played it in the cafeteria during lunch. He talked it up and, as a result, 40 kids had a wonderful experience.

He wrote me a note the next week saying, “The world needs more artists who make themselves accessible.” I agree.

The world also needs more teachers who are willing to go the extra mile to connect artists to students, as well as more presenters, agents, and managers who are willing to do whatever it takes to make it happen.

It required the work of many people to make Suzanne’s workshop happen. Some people might look at the effort involved for the number of kids served and question whether it’s worth it. They would be underestimating the depth of the impact on those 40 kids.

My high school had an annual career day: lawyers, doctors, accountants, and insurance agents filled the classrooms. None of them moved me.

One year, somebody different showed up—a screenwriter named Lorraine Williams. She and her husband, Oscar-winning editor, director, and producer Elmo Williams, had just retired to my tiny Oregon town.

Lorraine was mesmerizing. I listened to her all afternoon, transfixed by how exciting she was, speaking passionately about the movie industry and writing. She was an artist, talking about art, and it inspired me.

Lorraine Williams passed away in 2004. Even though she didn’t know me—I was just a kid, at a desk, listening to her speak—I think of her often. I’m thankful that somebody at my school thought it was important enough to give her time and space to share with us.

I have no idea what we were studying or what we would have been doing that day, but I’ll never forget that afternoon with an artist. I hope the students at Kent-Meridian High School feel the same way about Suzanne Vega 20-some years from now.

Kate Preston Keeney

Like many of my high school classmates, I never had plans to stay in my hometown of Roanoke, located in southwestern Virginia.

Among other reasons, it seemed to lack that something special in terms of arts and culture. The local theater had reduced its performance season; a much-anticipated visual art museum was struggling to stay open; and the independent bookstore closed to become just another bar.

And so, as is common, I left my hometown in pursuit of graduate school and a job in a metropolitan area. I was perfectly situated within walking distance to public transit, yoga studios, cafes, and world-class performance centers.

But now, I’m starting to look back.

Roanoke and its surrounding areas have begun to capitalize on its rich cultural history. Let me be specific, this culture is not new, yet it has just been unearthed with contemporary knowledge of cultural vitality, opportunities for partnerships and economic development, and community leadership and buy-in.

Roanoke has taken steps to put itself on the list of desirable places to live and has done so by elevating its distinct heritage. 

In August 2011, Roanoke City Council adopted an Arts and Cultural Plan that was the product of focus groups and community meetings. These conversations led to three building blocks that serve as the plan’s foundation:

• Vibrant Region – Healthy Economy

• Livable Communities – Engaged Neighborhoods

• People, Education, Lifelong Learning

In a 2013 interview featured on the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) ArtWorks blog, Maria Rosario Jackson suggested that a vibrant cultural life is dependent in part on a city’s identity and appreciation for how it is different from other places.

Like all cities, Roanoke is distinct in terms of its region, communities, and people. The city’s cultural plan builds off of its history and existing expressions of culture instead of adding new cultural venues. And because the plan is funded by a percent for art program with no additional public monies, building on existing resources and practices is the only way that the city will advance its cultural vitality.

Roanoke’s Arts and Cultural plan led to a 2012 Our Town grant from the NEA. CityWorks (x)po, a festival of ideas for small cities, has launched Roanoke into the spotlight with creative ideas to social issues.

A recent article in Virginia Living magazine referred to Roanoke as “The Little City That Could.” These community-led initiatives celebrate Roanoke’s unique culture and are important to the residents who have actively participated in such developments.

These types of grassroots movements are more authentic than attempts to capitalize on culture simply for the sake of economic development. Building strategically located venues to bring artists into a community is much different than supporting the ways in which artists already engage, work, and live.

By turning my back on Roanoke, I missed my opportunity to contribute to its development. I ask myself, and pose the question to other young professionals, “What is our role in cultivating our cultural homes? Can we create—alongside our community partners—that certain something that we’re seeking? How can we shape our Main Streets, theaters, and city histories?”

If we create our own vibrant communities, then young people might not flee their hometowns in pursuit of the cultural activities that metropolitan areas offer.

Maybe I should have taken more responsibility to move Roanoke in a new direction. But then again, perhaps I have had an impact in some indirect way.

As an arts researcher, my work might impact future communities just like previous arts scholarship has affected Roanoke. Our collective body if knowledge—built through shared stories, research, and experiences is making an impact on the presence and practice of the arts in communities.

I applaud Roanoke for embracing a movement supported by research and by its citizens. Although there is no one-size-fits-all approach to advancing culture, one that is built from history and authenticity engages citizens, activates voices, and makes for a great city.

Robert L. Lynch

The tragedy in Boston yesterday was horrific and inexplicable and all of us at Americans for the Arts send our deepest sympathy and thoughts to those injured and to their families.

As we saw and heard things unfold from our offices in Washington, DC, and New York City, the Americans for the Arts staff began calling family and friends and members in the Boston area to see if those closest to us were okay. Some of us had loved ones right there at the site watching or running. Thankfully, all were uninjured.

But it made us think how connected, how close, how much a part of a community we all are even if scattered all across our country. In some ways that makes this tragedy all the more hurtful because it was aimed at community and fellowship itself, the very kind of coming together that marathons, and festivals, and arts events try to create. It takes aim at those who live in a community as well as tourists and visitors from across the world, that broader community created by an event like the Boston Marathon.

For me, as someone who grew up in the Boston area and spent my high school years blissfully wandering the city, this happened on sacred ground. Boylston Street was the place of high school proms, or visits to one of our nation’s great libraries, the site of New Year’s Eve First Night Celebrations, and the Lennox Hotel lounge right there was where my parents would go for end of week celebrations and pop up opera performances.

Sadly, terrible events trying to create hard and horrible memories are now all too common. But in some ways our best defense is to keep investing in the community-building arts activities that, individually and together, form the hallmark of our collective work.

Our hope is the hope itself generated by bringing people together through the arts. My hope is that what we all do in our small way in our many arts organizations across America will make the writing of notes like this one someday unnecessary.