Jessica Wilt

Another school year draws to a close and I feel like I’m out of control spinning all over the boroughs of New York City from one commitment to the other with “You Spin Me Round (Like a Record)” playing in my head. Is anyone else out there spinning round like a record, baby? Okay, that makes me sound old.

Next month I’ll be leading a Career360 Roundtable session at the 2012 Americans for the Arts Annual Convention in San Antonio. The topic: Community Involvement: Taking the “I Shoulds” Out of Your Life.

I chuckled upon my realization at how perfect the topic of overcommitment is for me; hence, the spinning-out-of-control vertigo I’m now experiencing.

Many arts administrators are expected to serve on panels, boards, and committees in addition to joining advocacy-related campaigns and other volunteer activities outside of the day-to-day full time job.

I’d like to explore this “I should or I shouldn’t” conversation a bit. Are arts administrators volunteer-driven because of their love for the field? Because there seems to be unspoken expectations? Out of necessity? Or a combination of all three?

I volunteer my time and energy mainly because I am passionate about arts education. I enjoy being connected to networks outside of my job, learning new things, traveling, and meeting some really interesting people…but sometimes it can feel overwhelming.

Locally, I’m involved with the New York City Arts in Education Roundtable as a former board member currently seeking reelection and a Teaching Artist Affairs committee member. Through Roundtable connections I’ve become more engaged with advocacy at the local and state levels. My involvement with the organization continues to inform me of relevant issues I face each day through my work in New York. (Hint: Common Core, evaluation, and testing).

How about sitting on a grant review panel?

Recently I thought I had lost my mind after receiving less than a week’s deadline to review and rank 35 grant applications (over 300 pages) from a cultural agency. I was however, pleasantly surprised to find the dialogue incredibly engaging and enlightening. I not only walked away with a greater sense of pride for the arts in my community, I learned what makes for a strong and fundable grant proposal—a critical lesson.

Interested in joining a school board? Why, sure!

Through a charter school board mixer hosted by Link Education earlier this year, I was introduced to an arts focused charter school where after going through a nominating and vetting process, last month I was elected to join the VOICE Charter School Board in Queens. I will see first-hand how a dedicated school board, a principal, and his staff collaboratively work together on building and governing a school that uses vocal music as its common curricular thread.

One of my favorite volunteer responsibilities is doing cool things like writing ARTSblog posts as an Arts Education Council member with Americans for the Arts (and then Tweeting about it). My service on the council has connected me to people from all over the country and engaged me in conversations about arts and education advocacy at the national level. How often do you get a chance to lobby for the arts in-person on Capitol Hill and sit next to Alec Baldwin?

I see these activities as an extension of my workday, which by choice leaves little time for anything else. Did I mention the five-month old Labrador puppy I’ve got sitting at my feet, licking my toes, and whining to go outside and play as I write?

I’m not sure we, as arts administrators, can make a clear divide between work and everything else.

How do expectations to volunteer and serve in addition to your normal work and life obligations (i.e. the puppy) change how you organize your time outside of the office?

I’m looking forward to continuing this conversation in San Antonio.

Maybe during times of crazy as an alternative to thinking “You Spin Me Round” I’ll start envisioning myself spinning into a happier, more attractive Wonder Woman instead.

Which brings me to the next step on my volunteer “I should” list—volunteer for a campaign and eventually run for public office.

Just wait America; I have so much more to give!

Stephanie Hanson

(Author’s Note: The ArtsFwd team invited me to respond to their NextGen Quick Poll because of my knowledge of the challenges and opportunities facing young leaders today gleaned in my role at Americans for the Arts.)

Pretend you have two job offers in front of you (I know, we’re just pretending here, okay?!)

• Organization A is a respected organization that has been producing high-quality artistic work for the past 50 years. You get the sense that your role in the marketing department will be to continue business as usual to an audience who can afford the organization’s $150 per seat tickets. There is no social media campaign, something that you are very interested in starting. However, it’s unclear whether the organization’s leadership understands social media, or if they think it’s a good use of time or energy.

• Organization B is a start-up organization that is three-years-old. The social impact is clear—Organization B is providing a safe space for children from dual income families to go after work. The children are exposed to art, music, and dance classes at an affordable rate. Your job would be to launch a social media presence, but you’d also be tasked with finding new untapped sources of revenue and creative partnerships to help sustain and grow the important work this organization is doing for the community.

So, which position would you choose? (By the way—we’re also pretending the pay scale, benefits, and title level of both positions is the same, although we know that in reality, this would not be the case).

If you choose Organization B (which we’re defining as the highly-innovative organization), then according to ArtsFwd and EmcArts recent NextGen QuickPoll, you may find yourself feeling 80 percent more likely to want to “move up” in the organization. Granted, this is not a scientific study, nor was it intended to be. Also, I made up those above case organizations. But, the survey and exercise itself brings up some very interesting questions and illuminates some issues in our field that I believe need addressing.

The first question I had while reading the NextGen survey results was “How is innovation being defined?” Luckily, EmcArts read my mind and already had a definition identified; however, I think we see innovation happening in arts organizations all of the time. That innovation is happening on the stage, in the galleries, and in the orchestra pit. The unfortunate scenario is that not all arts organizations do a great job with translating that innovation from the front of house to the back of house.

When Americans for the Arts surveyed over 550 emerging arts leaders across the country in 2009, the most striking result we found was that 70 percent of survey respondents indicated their desire to stay within the field. However, less than 30 percent felt as though there was room for advancement within their current organizations. This is a core problem and will remain as such until we, as a field, identify solutions to address it.

Could innovating the ways we manage our organizations be the key to this problem? I believe that artistic innovation comes easily to arts organizations. What we’re not so good at is organizational change. And in order to innovate successfully at an organizational level, you have to be comfortable with organizational change. Innovation doesn’t have to mean that arts organizations need to change everything at once. As Dan Rockwell says, small incremental changes in how we do our work can lead to big impact.

This relates to another point from ArtsFwd’s survey, which found that highly-innovative organizations were “nearly five times more likely to report that their organization has ‘meaningful ways for employees to invest in themselves’ than non-or slightly innovative organizations.” These meaningful gestures can mean senior staff having regular mentorship lunches or meetings with entry and mid-level staff.

It can mean sharing professional development opportunities so everyone has a chance to attend something at least once, and then hosting an all staff meeting to debrief on key lessons learned from the conferences or workshops. It can mean creating opportunities for staff to sit in on meetings outside of their own department, and/or generating an open system for new ideas to be contributed, tested, and perhaps implemented.

Again, none of those examples require large organizational change or funding to get started—but they do need a level of commitment and prioritization on behalf of organization leaders and staff.

Andrew Taylor recently wrote that “arts organizations are dripping with opportunity for deep connection to the artistic core.” He’s right.

What they’re also dripping with is expertise, experience, and leaders that have an opportunity and a responsibility to develop and mentor staff. Not all arts organizations can pay the same salary that other sectors can. But next generation arts managers are generally attracted to this field because the arts made a difference in their lives, and they want to help make a difference for others. They want to be connected to the art and know what they’re working on behalf of. They have a desire to learn, grow, express themselves fully in their work, and make an impact not only within their organization, but in their wider communities.

Are we willing to risk losing that passion and energy because we’re only focused on innovating on the stage? I hope not.

(Editor’s Note: This post was originally posted on the ARTSFWD blog on May 21, 2012.)

(Arts Watch is the twice monthly published cultural policy publication of Americans for the Arts, covering news in a variety of categories. Subscribe to Arts Watch or follow @artswatch on Twitter to receive up-to-the-minute news.)

Michael DeLong

With topics such as creative placemaking taking center stage in discussions around the arts, the question of how artists engage as citizens offers a dynamic opportunity for exploration.

On April 24, 2012, Emerging Arts Professionals/San Francisco Bay Area (EAP) convened a panel in San Francisco at Intersection for the Arts around the topic of artistic citizenship. Joining the panel were a healthy mix of artists, curators, teachers, architects, and administrators that included Julio Cesar Morales, Jennifer Parker, Randy Rollison, and Lizzie Wallack, with moderator Sanjit Sethi.

Born out of a series of discussions by EAP’s Public Programs fellowship, the event tackled a range of questions related to the role of the artist in the community.

You can listen to the audio recording (courtesy of Stacy Bond) below and read on for highlights:

Invoking the Public

The engaged crowd warmed up with small group discussions, covering a number of key inquiries. Creative problem-solving and knowledge-sharing featured among these sessions, although pointed questions also sparked healthy debate.

“When we invoke ‘the public’ we tread on tricky ground, and also run the risk of forced or awkward encounters between the public and art,” one guest noted, citing a recent instance of well-meaning but poorly executed mural-making in an underserved area.

For many, murals in particular seem to symbolize the more uneasy aspects of community art initiatives, attracting questions around the role of artistic development in gentrification. What sort of questions and practices can move us past these misgivings?

Risk and Intention

Sanjit Sethi, co-director of the California College of the Arts Center for Art and Public Life, grounded the panel discussion by noting the center’s interest in and critical inquiry into conversations around what community engagement means. Noting how fraught such terms as placemaking, collaboration, and community have become, he acknowledged the inherent risk that comes with practice in the public sphere, further defining risk as a level of extension towards a situation.

As an example, Randy Rollison, Intersection for the Arts’ Innovation Studio Director, highlighted the risk that institution took in joining the 5M Project, a four-acre mixed-use development project in downtown San Francisco. Having built its reputation as a scrappy organization in various locations throughout San Francisco’s Mission District, Intersection opened itself up to the perception of mission drift by its long-term supporters. And even as the newly opened possibilities afforded by the move outweigh such risks, the endlessness of such possibilities, too, comes with the risk of burnout through overextension.

When Jennifer Parker (Professor of Art and Digital Art and New Media at UC Santa Cruz and co-founder of OpenLab) co-created Art Here with the Gray Area Foundation for the Arts in 2011, her goal was actually to reduce as much risk as possible. A hack-a-thon that led to a matchmaking tool for artists and communities, Art Here facilitated direct discussion between all stakeholders in the project, and aimed for broad use by schools and nonprofits with the ultimate goal of accessibility in mind. This intention helped address the risk of artists creating projects that landowners or communities were not interested in.

Panelists (l to r): Julio Cesar Morales, Lizzie Wallack, Jennifer Parker, Randy Rollison, Sanjit Sethi (Photo by Danielle Siembieda-Gribben)

A Component of Responsibility

Within the concept of citizen, whether paired with artist, designer, cultural practitioner, or even banker, is a component of responsibility. This responsibility particularly comes into play when artistic practice engages in the public sphere.

Julio Cesar Morales, artist and Adjunct Curator at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, took a class several years ago at the San Francisco Art Institute on the very topic of artist as citizen.

“A lot of four-year and two-year art education programs train you to fail,” Morales said. They don’t train you to interact and become involved in your own neighborhood, making it crucial to build training for public engagement into art programs.

In 2005, Morales started Queens Nails Projects in reaction to the dot com real estate boom of a few years prior. Somewhere between a nonprofit and a laboratory, the space was founded to avoid the pressures of a commercial gallery while allowing artists to experiment freely and foment collaborations with surrounding entities.

For Lizzie Wallack, Project Architect of ProxySF, a two-block project in San Francisco using renovated shipping containers to create a flexible environment of food, art, culture, and retail, the sense of responsibility as an architect and designer is born from a sense of her own integration into the project. As a member of the very community the project serves, Wallack is both designer and client.

Collaboration Time

As the discussion turned to the theme of collaboration, Parker noted the need for centralized hubs to share information and resources, most likely to emerge in the form of digital tools. Is digital placemaking the next big buzzword? It will be interesting to see what strategies emerge for tying together disparate work being done in this area, and who will take such work on.

Artists Are of Service

The evening’s discussion was just one point along a much broader conversation, offering unique perspectives and perhaps raising as many questions as it answered. But a shared sentiment among the panelists and crowd can be summed up in Randy Rollison’s words:

“Art is of service. Artists are of service.”

(Editor’s Note: This post also appears on the Emerging Arts Professionals: San Francisco/Bay Area site.)

"Wave Arbor" by Doug Hollis at Long Bridge Park in Arlington, VA.

(Author’s Note: This post builds upon prior pieces by Dr. Elizabeth Morton and Angela Adams.)

I enrolled in Dr. Morton’s Exploring Evaluation for Public Art studio as a way to complement my experience as a working artist-art educator with a limited sense of the planning and evaluation process for public art. Over the course of the studio I came to see evaluation not as a zero sum game meant to occur after installation, but rather as an ongoing series of assessments conducted by and for major stakeholders, including, but not limited to, the intended audience.

While public art evaluation clearly includes examining the perceptions of the general public, it must also examine the processes and decisions that influence, direct, and ultimately, commission, new works.

One of the most rewarding aspects of this studio was the opportunity for cross-disciplinary dialogue created by the intentional interface of urban planners, designers (in this case, architecture & landscape architecture students), artists, and arts administrators.

Each of these roles fulfills an important and different function in the life cycle of the public art project; yet all too often we work in isolation from one another and/or use language that is particular to one discipline and foreign to another. The studio proved to me that we have a great deal to learn from one another and that increased cross-disciplinary collaboration will continue to yield exciting new contributions to the field of public art evaluation.

For example, as a predominantly 2D artist moving into the more design-based role of the landscape architect, the concept of site analysis took on an expanded meaning. From a conventional fine arts perspective, a site is a location where an artwork is placed, not necessarily a place that an artwork might inhabit over time. Artists would clearly benefit from the designer’s perspective of understanding site as an ongoing process, with multiple actors; yet this is a concept that is rarely discussed in undergraduate or graduate level art programs.

From the literature and the artworks the examined, it is clear that there is an increased trend in public art towards more integrated, design-based works. This finding presents both unique challenges and opportunities for the artist.

My group conducted the aforementioned Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) of sculptor Doug Hollis’ piece, Wave Arbor. Our study found that the sculpture is so well integrated into the surrounding infrastructure that many users did not recognized the work as a piece of public art.

From an interview with Mr. Hollis we learned that he was not necessarily concerned with whether or not Wave Arbor was recognized as such, but that he was interested in having his work function as a “beacon” for the park. Thus our findings reveal an interesting and sometimes conflicting tension is set up between the need to integrate work and the desire for iconic works that act as placemakers.

How designers and artists approach this tension remains to be seen. Clearly, artists would benefit from working with designers to expand their understanding of design function and program so that their proposals might grow in this capacity while still retaining some sense of the provocative or transformational.

Results from this past semester reveal that designers and planners similarly profit when they are exposed to the often unique perspectives that artists employ, and that it is to their benefit to begin this dialogue early in the planning process.

One overriding theme from this semester revealed that while public art is often appreciated by an audience, it remains difficult for users to articulate how or why an artwork impacts them specifically. Existing literature also suggests that once equipped with more knowledge about an artwork, users feel empowered to share their experience.

Both of these finding were reinforced by our POE of Wave Arbor. While many interviewees thought the work was “cool,” most were hard pressed to elaborate as to why. Asking users to describe the sculpture or provide alternate names yielded important clues about the public’s reception of the work. Many users thought the sculpture generated alternative energy, for example, and our evaluation demonstrated that there is an interest in seeing such work.

From my perspective as an artist and art educator, user hesitation to evaluate or opine about aesthetics is not surprising. This finding presents a great challenge and one that we should collectively embrace.

While I appreciate the inherent usefulness of the internet in my life, I cannot explain how a series of zeroes and ones is ultimately transmitting this blog to the reader.

Likewise, how can we expect the public to evaluate an artwork without a basic understanding of design language?

If we know that an informed user is a more enthusiastic user, how might better art literacy change the perception of, and ultimately support for, public art and public art funding?

How might we incorporate such literacy into all stages of the public art process, beyond a small plaque that is often overlooked?

Stephanie Riven

I recently spent a semester at Harvard as a visiting practitioner in the Arts in Education Program at the Harvard Graduate School of Education.

While working directly with the Arts in Education Program, I was also able to audit classes at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and attend special lectures and programs sponsored by the Harvard Business School. Needless to say, the entire experience was fascinating on many levels.

As one might expect, the differences between the course offerings and student culture in the above mentioned schools were striking—yet many of the future challenges students in these different institutions will face are the same.

Based on my experience, the talented students in the Arts in Education Program tended to orient themselves towards issues related to process—the process of learning and the integration of concepts in advocacy, education, research, and policy. Though each of these students expressed a deep commitment to their work, many also expressed trepidation about entering an uncertain job market that is famously under-resourced and socially marginalized.

By comparison, the students I encountered at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government and Harvard Business School were excited about their potential to begin something new. They were learning how to become entrepreneurs by developing skills related to organizing, team-building, and risk-taking while they were also growing in their understanding of how to garner financial, cultural, and social capital for their future ventures.

These students were learning how to network, build creative associations and think through the necessary steps to arrive at innovative solutions and profitable business ideas. They were learning that experimentation is central to everything they want to do in the future. These students were excited about creating or being a part of something big—and their enthusiasm was contagious!

You might not expect that the two groups of students would approach their work similarly; but, as part of the arts in education curriculum, students are encouraged to spend time developing entrepreneurial projects that they then present to a fictitious foundation. This past academic year, several Harvard Arts in Education students recognized that the skills and ideas afforded to public policy and business school students are likewise necessary to develop effective leaders in arts education.

Projects included everything from using technology as a means of furthering museum participation to developing online literacy initiatives that use multimedia storytelling techniques to encourage creation and collaboration amongst their users. In short, the Arts in Education students received first-hand experience as entrepreneurs.

In reflecting on the current set of arts leaders, I would hope that they, too, could have some time and space to develop the same entrepreneurial perspective and business acumen as those in the business world.

As a consultant working with small and midsized nonprofit organizations, I find that many arts education organizations have budgets that remain stagnant—they are in a vicious starvation cycle because leaders and boards aren’t willing or don’t have the ability to find the necessary capital to launch an earned-income stream, expand programs strategically, commit to an evaluation, or hire the next generation of staff.

One hypothesis is that today’s arts education organizations are reluctant to take on these necessary challenges because we have not given our leaders the tools that they need to reverse the cycle.

This formal and professional level training must include, but not be limited to the following:

•    Identification of the resources that will be needed for their projects whether they involve policy, research, teaching, or advocacy.

•    Practice and support in studying how strategy is developed.

•    Mentorship and training in identifying and making critical decisions that involve the allocation of time, talent, and dollars to the activities that have the greatest impact.

•    Roleplay and training in garnering resources from the wide network of individuals, foundations, corporations, and government agencies that are poised and ready to respond to their requests.

•    Encouragement of experimentation and risk-taking.

Can we learn from the Arts in Education entrepreneurs at Harvard and bring more business focused training to current and future leaders in our field so that organizations can become more vibrant and entrepreneurial?

Register today to save up to $175 and join us in San Antonio from June 8-10.

As if the video wasn’t enough, here are some more reasons why you should attend:

This year’s Americans for the Arts Annual Convention focuses squarely on how arts organizations can change and thrive in The New Normal—a landscape of economic uncertainty and shifting demographics. And for me, the key word is “change.”

There are so many opportunities for nonprofit organizations of all shapes and sizes to rethink how they do what they do, how they could do it all better, and what needs they are really interested in serving.

It’s the new ideas and innovations coupled with best practices that always makes the Annual Convention exciting for me, whether it’s attending as a staff member of Americans for the Arts or as an Emerging Leader 13 years ago for the first time in Atlanta.

Sessions on arts in healing, programming for culturally specific populations, and serving veterans through the arts will present what the discoveries of arts groups on the cutting edge. And speakers such as Luis Ubiñas, president of the Ford Foundation, and Naomi Shihab Nye, inspiring poet, will remind all of us why we chose the nonprofit arts field in the first place.

Whether you’re attending the Emerging Leaders or Public Art Preconferences or the main convention, you’ll also have the opportunity to network and have a great time with colleagues from across the country.

If you haven’t been to Annual Convention before, you should know there’s more than enough content, inspiration, and know how to help you and your organization adapt to the current arts landscape and look to the future. And if you have been to Convention, remember that your experience and voice add to the discussion about the future.

See you in San Antonio!

Ursula Kuhar

Local. Public. Value. Arts.

Try creating a cohesive, comprehensive sentence that reflects our field using these four words.

These simple words that occupy so much complexity within our industry, and an entire day of dialogue at the first Americans for the Arts Executive Directors & Board Member Symposium held on April 15.

It was an exhilarating experience to participate in a peer exchange with diverse leaders from organizations around the country including Americans for the Arts President & CEO Bob Lynch, Jonathan Katz of the National Association of State Arts Agencies (NASAA), and Mary McCullogh-Hudson of ArtsWave.

In order to frame our work as arts leaders forging into a “new normal” in the industry, Bob shared the history and context of the local arts movement in America, rooted in the discovery of the Americas to the first established arts council in 1947 by George Irwin in Illinois, to the evolution of today’s local arts enabling organization that provide cultural programming, funding, community cultural planning, and of course, advocacy activities.

Jonathan Katz broadened our horizons on how to apply public administration models of public value into our mission and Mary shared a case study of how her organization became a force of community building within the greater Cincinnati region.

The unifying idea of this leadership symposium focused on community—not only our organizations and the community of artists throughout the country, but our neighborhoods, our civic leaders, and our constituents.

This is being put into practice in Allegany County, MD, where Andy Vick and the Allegany Arts Council are engaging in the community through thriving and bustling arts and entertainment districts. In San Jose, CA, diversity has become a pivotal point of civic pride and innovation in public art and cultural celebration. Abel Lopez of GALA Hispanic Theatre in Washington, DC, emphasized the importance of access within our neighborhoods by providing opportunities to our audiences as a vehicle for civic engagement and stimulating dialogue.

My learning from the day’s events can be applied three-fold—administrator, artist, and educator:

• As an administrator, I further realized the importance of harnessing local arts in our organizations and the phenomenal power of partnership with peer organizations and civic leaders. The advancement of our organizations is not just about us anymore, it’s about collaboration.
• As an artist, I realize my work as a musician is a factor in the public value equation and is a responsibility I take seriously.
• As an educator, the information I acquired enriches my teaching and scholarship. We are charged with expanding the knowledge of arts policy for future arts administrators to propel them and the field into greater accomplishments.

Since the end of the symposium, those four little words mentioned previously have been constantly reeling in my head.

They compose an equation for the future of our organizations, and with hope and hard work, will provide answers for arts to be a sustainable, engaged, and valued part of the fabric of our communities.

Randy Cohen

Almost one year ago, I posted The Top Ten Reasons to Support the Arts in response to a business leader who wanted to make a compelling case for government and corporate contributions to the arts.

Being a busy guy, he didn’t want a lot to read: “Keep it to one page, please.”

With the arts advocacy season once again upon us…(who am I kidding, it’s always upon us!)…here is my updated list for 2012.

10 Reasons to Support the Arts

1. True prosperity. The arts are fundamental to our humanity. They ennoble and inspire us—fostering creativity, goodness, and beauty. They help us express our values, build bridges between cultures, and bring us together regardless of ethnicity, religion, or age. When times are tough, the arts are salve for the ache.

2. Improved academic performance. Students with an education rich in the arts have higher GPAs and standardized test scores, lower drop-out rates, and even better attitudes about community service—benefits reaped by students regardless of socioeconomic status. Students with four years of arts or music in high school average 100 points better on their SAT scores than students with one-half year or less.

3. Arts are an industry. Arts organizations are responsible businesses, employers, and consumers. Nonprofit arts organizations generate $166 billion in economic activity annually, supporting 5.7 million jobs and generating nearly $30 billion in government revenue. Investment in the arts supports jobs, generates tax revenues, and advances our creativity-based economy.

4. Arts are good for local merchants. The typical arts attendee spends $27.79 per person, per event, not including the cost of admission on items such as meals, parking, and babysitters. Non-local arts audiences (who live outside the county) spend nearly twice as much as local arts attendees ($40.19 vs. $19.53)—valuable revenue for local businesses and the community.

5. Arts are the cornerstone of tourism. Arts travelers are ideal tourists—they stay longer and spend more. The U.S. Department of Commerce reports that the percentage of international travelers including museum visits on their trip has grown annually since 2003 (17 to 24 percent), while the share attending concerts and theater performances increased five of the past seven years (13 to 17 percent since 2003).

6. Arts are an export industry. U.S. exports of arts goods (everything from movies to paintings to jewelry) grew to $64 billion in 2010. With U.S. imports at just $23 billion, the arts achieved a $41 billion trade surplus in 2010.

7. Building the 21st century workforce. Reports by The Conference Board show creativity is among the top-five applied skills sought by business leaders—with 72 percent saying creativity is of high importance when hiring. The biggest creativity indicator? A college arts degree. Their Ready to Innovate report concludes, “…the arts—music, creative writing, drawing, dance—provide skills sought by employers of the 3rd millennium.”

8. Healthcare. Nearly one-half of the nation’s healthcare institutions provide arts programming for patients, families, and even staff. 78 percent deliver these programs because of their healing benefits to patients—shorter hospital stays, better pain management, and less medication.

9. Stronger communities. University of Pennsylvania researchers have demonstrated that a high concentration of the arts in a city leads to higher civic engagement, more social cohesion, higher child welfare, and lower poverty rates. A vibrant arts community ensures that young people are not left to be raised solely in a pop culture and tabloid marketplace.

10. Creative Industries. The Creative Industries are arts businesses that range from nonprofit museums, symphonies, and theaters to for-profit film, architecture, and advertising companies. An analysis of Dun & Bradstreet data counts 904,581 businesses in the U.S. involved in the creation or distribution of the arts that employ 3.3 million people—representing 4.25 percent of all businesses and 2.15 percent of all employees, respectively.

11. What is your #11? Share with us in the comments below…

Want to post these reasons on your wall or take it to a meeting with your mayor? Download these 10 Reasons to Support the Arts in 2012 from our main website.

Keep up the great work!

Arts Watch is the bi-weekly cultural policy publication of Americans for the Arts, covering news in a variety of categories. Subscribe to Arts Watch or follow @artswatch on Twitter to receive up-to-the-minute news.

Sahar Javedani

If you’re reading this now, chances are that you’re in a place of contemplative or active transition—and I commend you!

Many of you know that after seven years of working as a choreographer with parallel work in nonprofit arts administration and education in New York City, I recently moved to Philadelphia to start the next chapter of my life which included re-evaluating my commitment to a career in nonprofit administration.

In my last two years in New York City I had aligned myself with an organization that channeled some of my greatest strengths (dance education, career/professional development, nonprofit administration) into one role. After years working at least three simultaneous jobs, I convinced myself that I had “arrived.”

What followed was one of the greatest learning periods of my life.

Holding the reigns of running my own program within a larger organization confirmed that I was indeed entrepreneurial, self-driven, motivated, an excellent networker, etc. These talents were coupled with equal frustrations in communications, core values, and logistics within the organization.

I will refrain from going into detail, but I do feel compelled to share some valuable books that encouraged me along the way.

These are just a few of the books that I have found instrumental in shaping my future in the nonprofit sector coupled with periodic re-visitations to this great motivational video:

• One of the most helpful reads I came across was Quitter by Jon Acuff.

• Some of you may be entering the creative workforce with fresh eyes, bright complexions, and unfettered enthusiasm much like this recent article in Business Insider on How Millenials Work.

• Before you start that new job, or even better, agree to an interview, check out best-selling author Rosetta Thurman’s book How to Become a Nonprofit Rockstar and her blog post: 11 Reasons Why New College Grads Should Pursue Nonprofit Careers.

• I also found this post by Nonprofit Nate on Why Compensation Matters helpful.

• If you are contemplating a change of environment, re-assessing your commitment to the field, or brainstorming a start-up, I would suggest checking out Dave Ramsay’s EntreLeadership program coupled with Knowing Your Value by Mika Brzezinski.

Do you have any other great reads to add to my list? Feel free to share in the comments below.

While the FRSS will get much of the press because U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan presented it, the study is of little consequence to the progression of arts education other then outright stating of significant declines in the amount of offerings across the board.

On the other hand, move over Charlie Bucket, the longitudinal study is the golden ticket arts education advocators have been praying for.

The longitudinal study gives the data for students of Low Socioeconomic Status (low SES) with both high and low arts exposure, and their counterparts in the High Socioeconomic Status (high SES).

The matrixes measured for each of the four categories include high school graduation rates, civic involvement, recorded grade point average, college graduation rates, average test scores, volunteer rates, other extracurricular activities, and labor market outcomes.

The results are startling, not because they affirm what advocates have said for years, but because of the achievement gap between low SES/low arts and low SES/high arts.

Looking at graduation rates alone, low SES/low arts had a dropout rate of 22 percent, compare that to low SES/high arts with a dropout rate of four percent. The low SES/high arts students are even below the overall sample average of seven percent.

For the mindset of these low SES/high arts students, we need only to look at the percentage of eighth graders planning to earn a bachelor’s degree 74 percent compared to 43 percent. These are motivated students and compared to their low arts counterparts they are 14 percent more likely to vote in a national election or local election, 21 percent more like to volunteer, and 29 percent more likely to read the newspaper.

Looking at grades and curriculum, the high arts students have an average GPA of 0.39 points above low arts and were 10 percent more likely to enroll in calculus while in high school.

It should be noted that the high arts students are inherently involved individuals, as they are participants in athletics and service organizations. However, students who are involved in other activities but are low arts do not have as high of GPA or curriculum gains as high arts students.

This is all fine and dandy, but why am I saying that this is hugely important when combined with the FRSS data?

Because in secondary school music alone there was a drop of 19 percent of offered programs for students in the low SES, but the high SES saw an increase of 6 percent between 2000–2010. In affect, the advantage is going to the advantaged, while the disadvantaged are becoming disenfranchised.

But there’s more: of the high SES, 62 percent of schools offered five or more courses in the music, while low SES only measured 32 percent.

One area the low SES has dominated though is in collaboration and integration. Music teachers in low SES are 14 percent more likely to consult with other teaches to incorporate units of study from other subject areas into the music curriculum and 17 percent more likely to utilize an integrated music instructional program with other academic subjects (and 18% with other arts subjects).

Like music, visual arts have rather similar data (in secondary schools): a drop in offering for the low SES of 13 percent and only 22 percent of the remaining programs offering five or more courses. Compare that to the 95 percent of high SES schools of which 56 percent offer five or more visual arts classes.

The unexpected number in all this comes from the consulting with other teachers to incorporate units of study from other subject areas into the visual arts curriculum indicator for low SES, which stands a staggering 17 percent above high SES.

So what’s the conclusion?

The students who benefit most from high exposure to the arts are receiving less of it then they did 10 years prior. Granted we had the Great Recession and states have to balance their budgets, as a native Californian (and boy, did we get hit hard in 2008) I understand.

That does not mean we are off the hook. As Secretary Duncan has said time and again, “we’re either going to invest in education or not, it comes down to the values. Everyone has to step up or we’re going to struggle.” (March 2, 2012)

Please join us at the Emerging Arts Leaders Symposium, coming on April 15 in Washington, DC (just before Arts Advocacy Day)! Spend a whole day with other amazing arts managers—share your knowledge and learn something new.

Stephanie Hanson

I am consistently inspired by the innovation that comes out of the Emerging Leaders Network, and this week’s blog salon was no exception.

We heard from representatives of 11 Emerging Leaders Networks, and gained some insight into what was happening in their communities. This week, bloggers have questioned and affirmed why they continue to dedicate their careers to the arts; wrote about examples of artists and arts organizations leading authentic community engagement; questioned the social inequity of unpaid interns; and shared a list of Things We Wish Someone Had Told Us at 25.

We gave ourselves permission to fail, permission to have multiple interests outside of the arts that may or may not intersect with the field, and reminded ourselves not to get stuck in a structure that no longer works for us as individuals or organizations.

It’s clear that emerging arts leaders are looking at their careers, organizations, and neighborhoods in a different way than arts administrators who have come before them. I believe it’s important that we honor the hard work of those who started in the field before us. Without them, we wouldn’t have the National Endowment for the Arts, the structure of public funding support, or the diversity of arts, cultural, and community engagement organizations that exist today.

There are four generations currently working and leading in the workforce, and we must find ways to work with one another, share our strengths, and support each other’s weaknesses at all levels of the generation spectrum.

To me, this blog salon demonstrated how many mini ripple effects of change are taking place in communities across the country at the same time. This is change at a very fundamental level that has the potential to reform our field in the way that Diane Ragsdale envisions in her post (and is our muse for this salon).

I want to thank our esteemed bloggers this week for writing about such big issues with conviction and courage. Thank you also to our readers, commenters who continued the dialogue and discussion, and to everyone who shared a post via social media or email. We are also grateful for the support of Claremont Graduate University and the MA in Arts Management program who sponsored the 2012 Emerging Leaders Blog Salon.

It’s up to us as arts administrators, organizations, and educational institutions to support, nurture, and lead the impending change that is currently shifting us (and our audiences) in our seats.

The only guarantee in our lives is that change is going to happen, and the more we work together to ride the wave instead of fighting the current, the easier it’s going to be.

If you’d like to continue discussing many of the topics presented during the blog salon, please consider joining us in San Antonio this June for the Emerging Leaders Preconference just prior to the Americans for the Arts 2012 Annual Convention. Generously sponsored by American Express, the Emerging Leaders Preconference will help participants discover the path from arts professional to community leader. This preconference features workshops by professional speaker, author, trainer, and coach Rosetta Thurman. She has worked with more than 60 young professionals groups, associations, universities, and foundations to spark real conversations around today’s most important organizational issues. Experience her authentic, engaging, and inspiring ideas in Six Ways to Rock Your Arts Career. Register today!

Molly O'Connor

Working part time at a bookstore to pay for college, it was in 2001 when I first learned about the Tulsa Race Riot of 1921. I was shelving books when I came across a copy of Up from the Ashes by Hannibal B. Johnson.

I recall flipping through the pages, stunned that such massive atrocity that had taken place in my home state. And how was I just learning about this? The riot was certainly not included in Oklahoma History class.

Since that day, I’ve discovered I’m not the only Oklahoman who has been oblivious to the Tulsa Race Riot, the most horrifying act of racial violence in American history.

While this incident made national news, local history books and classes were devoid of information about this violent attack on the community of Greenwood. Even today, researching the event often leads to more questions.

There are discrepancies in the numbers of fatalities, and, as always, history has been written and controlled by those who have committed genocide. The mysteries of what really happened on May 31, 1921 are perhaps lost in the ashes.

For Oklahomans, how do we collectively reconcile this deep scar in our history and take steps to heal the wounds that still hurt and divide us? How do we ensure that we learn from the Tulsa Race Riot so that history does not repeat itself?

For me, I have found artists to be excellent teachers of this message. Here are some artists who have inspired me:

Playwright and artist Vanessa Adams-Harris recently performed at the North Carolina Black Repertory Theatre in Big Momma Speaks. This one-act vignette by Hannibal Johnson chronicles a survivor’s story as she seeks peace and healing.

Vanessa: “Art moves, heals, and tells. It connects us better to the experience of being human by exploring the complexities, good, bad or indifferent to our conditions as humans and it supports our questions of: do we fit in here, and if not, where or how do we fit in?”

Visual artist Eric Humphreys created “Is the Whole World on Fire?” This body of work chronicles the riot and will be on display at the Ralph Ellison Library in October 2012.

Poet and writer Deborah Hunter grew up in the Greenwood area, but it wasn’t until 1971, the fiftieth anniversary of the riot, that she first heard of it.

Deborah: “Because it just wasn’t talked about.”

Yet, it was much later she unveiled her own ties to the event.

“My mother’s older sister was a race riot survivor. I had no idea until I saw her picture on the wall at the Greenwood Cultural Center.”

Her poem, Doomed to Repeat pays homage to the atrocity.

In 2011, the Jacob Fred Jazz Odyssey released the album Race Riot Suite. This work received critical acclaim and community concerts provided a cross-cultural forum for discussion about the riot.

Arts organizations in the vicinity of Greenwood have also been instrumental in telling the story. The Greenwood Cultural Center presents performances and exhibits that focus on the historic Greenwood community. In 2011, Living Arts hosted “053121-90 Years Later,” an exhibit of artwork by high school students.

I feel strongly that artists who are creating works that raise awareness about injustice and atrocities are powerful agents of change.

In a world where people are still discriminated against and dehumanized based off of class, race, gender, sexual orientation, physical ability, national origin, or age, this work is needed now more than ever.

Readers: please share examples of artists who have created works that bridge communities and provide a forum for discussion about human rights and justice.

Tara Aesquivel

Thinking about the economy can be rather depressing. For many people, it can seem like a volatile god: a mysterious force that affects everything and we mere mortals have no control over its whims.

Let’s start with a basic idea of what I mean when I write about “the economy.”

Economic analysis is often an attempt to make the complex world of interconnectedness more comprehensible by quantifying everything, usually through monetization. In other words, the world is complicated so we make charts.

The “economy” is everything that happens. Economics is a (left-brained) method of analyzing everything that happens, and it’s mostly focused on measuring everything in dollars and euros.

This focus on monetization is problematic for the arts because the value of artistic products is not always calculable by how much it cost to make them or by how much people are willing to pay for them. In fact, we often strive for the opposite—to give away the arts for free and know that they are priceless.

The subversive tack accepts economics for the way it is and uses the system to our advantage. In order to do that, we need to know the basic principles and be able to speak the lingo: quantification.

The arts sector is getting much better at quantifying the value and impact of the arts. Here are three great examples:

• National Endowment for the Arts report on arts education
• The Otis Report on the Creative Economy of the Los Angeles Region
• The Cultural Data Project

I took my first economics class in graduate school. I had no idea what to expect. As it turns out, the heart of economics can be summed up in a phrase: “supply and demand.” This is something we already understand in the arts.

If a show isn’t selling, it’s common practice to give away comps. (Low demand + high supply = low price.) If there is a special gala event where only 20 people can have dinner with a famous artist, the tickets will be very expensive. (High demand + low supply = high price.)

The general idea behind arts advocacy, outreach programs, marketing, and my subversive tack is to create higher demand for the arts. (We can’t really control the supply of art.) As I wrote in my first post for this series, we need a new strategy.

Some people think the growing importance of creativity and innovation in the business sector will answer our prayers. I’m as excited about the Creative Class and the knowledge economy as anyone; however, I do not believe that idealistic visions of post-industrialism will automatically instill love and appreciation for the arts in the minds of our fellow Americans.

This seems to be especially true since a lot of “how to be creative” offerings present creativity as a skill you can attain by attending a workshop, reading a book, or following ten easy steps. This instant-gratification mindset will not lead anyone to lifelong participation in the arts.

So what do we do? Well, I don’t exactly know, but I’m willing to explore.

Here are some new ideas that are worth a look:

Social Entrepreneurism: This is a trending practice that represents the need for new ways of doing good. On April 21, Emerging Arts Leaders/Los Angeles (EAL/LA) will hold a Creative Conversation that will explore ideas and lessons from local social entrepreneurs.

Rethinking the 501(c)3: Having a mission doesn’t mean your organization has to be a 501(c)3 nonprofit. For example, environmental groups have been quick to embrace the new B Corp status. EAL/LA member Jennifer Espinoza shared with us why she chose to start her new organization with LLC status. EAL/LA itself operates under fiscal sponsorship with Community Partners.

Whatever new and exciting practices emerge and prove to be effective, the arts deserve a significant place in our culture and lives and vice versa. Every person deserves to enjoy the arts and culture in their life. To love art is to be human.

To wrap up, the arts are everywhere, in everything, for everyone. Our human desire for the arts will not be suppressed, despite whatever obstacles arise. The arts inevitably arise in philosophies about who we are, where we’ve been, and where we’re going.

It’s been a pleasure to write this series of posts.

Here’s to a bright, deeply artistic future in which we’re all working together—a future where my interests in the arts, education, sustainability, and economics feel less like a split personality and more like a unified front. Thanks for reading.

Madeline Orton

On a recent visit to a community arts center, I was struck by the effortless inclusion of advocacy in the director’s curtain speech.

Plugs for the city rolled off her tongue like: “Don’t forget to check out our wonderful restaurants,” and my favorite, “If you’re looking for a new place, you should buy here—it’s a great time to buy!”

As someone who works for an arts advocacy organization (ArtPride New Jersey) nothing makes me happier.

Before I get on my soapbox about why you should be permanently stationed on yours, I want to point out two things: 1) neither of these comments is directly about the arts center and 2) the director is in her mid-20s.

When I have conversations about advocacy I receive a small range of reactions. Some people are thankful for the work advocacy groups do on their behalf, but don’t think they have the time to get involved. Others believe in the importance of advocating annually to their elected officials to protect funding.

Finally, some, like this community arts center director, build advocacy into everything they do all year long. Their advocacy efforts do not end at preserving funding, but extend to maintaining close contact with elected officials, the board of education, businesses, and other community organizations to ensure continued investment in their organization’s success.

I know that when this director calls for a visit during budget season, decision makers will not only know who she is, but will also have a clear understanding of the impact her organization has on the community—because she never stops telling them.

The economic climate, paired with advertising and social media overload, presents a challenge for advocates. For this reason, it is important to make your voice heard year-round—a habit I believe will become more widespread and automatic in the years to come.

A co-worker once told me that arts advocacy is not a job, it’s a way of life, and that is a mindset that serves us well. There should be no “off switch” for advocacy because opportunities are everywhere.

This does not just include meeting with elected officials, it also means talking about your organization’s city as a destination (creative placemaking presents a great opportunity for this), inviting decision makers to all major events, and arming all members of your staff and volunteers with the information they need to be ambassadors for the organization.

Finally, I mention the director’s age because, while an organization may have specific spokespeople, everyone can be an advocate.

I have learned that many early-career arts administrators don’t get involved for fear of not being taken seriously, feeling it is not their place, or simply believing it does not relate to their job.

Involvement in advocacy efforts can provide leadership opportunities for emerging leaders and develop a vital skill that will serve them, and the community, well for years to come.

Now is a great time to get started on making arts advocacy not just a part of the job, but a way of life.

See you at Arts Advocacy Day in Washington, DC (or on Twitter: #AAD12), and happy advocating!

Sara Bateman

In my first post for the Emerging Leaders Blog Salon, I discussed the need for producing collaborations and partnerships in order to elevate ourselves from arts leaders to community leaders.

If the arts are to become a cultural zeitgeist, where we can leverage our work to address the social inequities of our time, we must be open to partnerships, collaborative environments, and shared leadership.

In searching for this combination as an emerging leader, I feel it is important to not only to leverage our new perspectives and fresh energy, but also to learn from the examples of those who have already been pushing the field forth.

Throughout the past two decades, the arts have been recognized as a way to revitalize communities across the nation. We’ve seen that programs celebrating an individual community’s character, history, people, and values through art have the potential to communicate and empower a neighborhood’s voice in a manner that can create powerful place making and important systemic change.

But who is best placed to initiate and leverage this type of work? Is it a local artist, a small community center, an arts council, or a major institution?

While all mentioned above are capable and have already initiated successful community and civic engagement projects, local arts agencies in particular are in a unique place to spearhead revitalization, change, and engagement through the arts.

The Tucson Pima Arts Council (TPAC), under the leadership of Executive Director Roberto Bedoya, lends us a strong example of partnership success through the lens of a local arts agency.

When asked about why local arts agencies are best positioned to serve as a leader for community and civic engagement work, Bedoya remarked that, “It seems so elementary in some ways. You’re supposed to serve the public and what better way to serve the public than by supporting civic engagement projects. Ultimately, that work is grounded in relationships and relationships are the essence of civic life.”

Under Bedoya’s leadership,  the Tucson Pima Arts Council has become an exemplary model for arts and civic engagement work. Evolving out of the council’s professional development and artist-in-residency programs, Bedoya was able to leverage a modest amount of money from city and county allocations and form a partnership with the Kresge Foundation that enabled TPAC to launch its arts and civic engagement work in a robust manner.

The Kresge funding helped develop the P.L.A.C.E. Initiative, which stands for People, Land, Arts, Culture, and Engagement. With a platform to celebrate the distinctiveness and identity of the Tucson region, TPAC selected 15 projects that were blending arts and civic engagement work to be funded for a two-year period.

One of these projects was Finding Voice, an innovative literacy and visual arts program that is dedicated to helping refugee and immigrant youth develop second language skills by researching, photographing, writing, and speaking out about critical social issues in their lives and communities.

The relationship between Finding Voice and the Tucson Pima Arts Council highlights how local arts agencies can aid in cultivating successful projects based around arts and civic engagement. More than just simply acting as a funder, TPAC has become a collaborator and a partner.

In addition to helping the project financially, TPAC has aided in brainstorming organizational strategies, provided community outreach and press communications, assisted with exhibition preparation, and provided professional development opportunities to Finding Voice’s founder Josh Schachter.

Schachter noted that, “Building my own capacity to connect arts and civic engagement has been a real key element to our partnership. Knowing how to facilitate very sensitive conversations in the community that come out of the artwork is really its own art form.”

Being an artist and having the capacity to ignite civic engagement can be two very different skill sets. In the process of their collaboration, TPAC has become a crucial link in providing the civic engagement component and pushing the program beyond the art.

And beyond the artwork it has gone. The participating Finding Voice youth have presented their work publicly in the Tucson region to raise awareness around issues including immigration, war, health, poverty, and education through community forums, exhibitions, and public art displays.

In 2008, the program founders and select youth had the opportunity to travel to Washington D.C., where they exhibited their photographs in the U.S. Senate and participated in a Congressional briefing where students presented their work and policy recommendations. The Finding Voice program, with TPAC’s committed support, has allowed for civic engagement to occur on all levels, from local community engagement in the Tucson region to national awareness.

With their finger on the pulse of the community, local arts agencies are in a unique position to build partnerships and push forward art that serves as a means for engagement and change. With several years of successful projects under their belt, Bedoya observed that the community they serve is responding well to the work being done and that people are beginning to understand the value of the arts to respond to social issues.

As emerging leaders, lets take a cue from leaders like Bedoya and project innovators like Schachter, and push the envelope on how the organizations we work within can leverage partnerships that support the important issues our communities face.