ARTSblog

I was really pleased to be in a talk with Bill Ivey and Congressman Jim Cooper (D-TN) yesterday at the Center for American Progress about the key issues that are facing our cultural industry. These issues are well articulated in Bill Ivey’s thought-provoking book arts, inc. I feel it is important for American cultural policy to fully explore the changing needs and cultural landscape that encompass today’s nonprofit arts, for-profit arts, unincorporated arts (like so many of our national choruses), and individual artists.

Watch video of the event on the Center for American Progress Web site.

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Summer is all about finding that delicious summer book to read. The other night, I was at Kramerbooks, one of the best bookstores in DC. Their selection makes you feel erudite and ignorant at the same time. I thought I would send along some of my favorite books. I confess I am a divergent reader as this list demonstrates. And it is in no particular order. So if you are looking to pick up something new and interesting, noodle around in some of these ditties.

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We are really excited to be heading to Seattle for the 2009 Annual Convention. Although Americans for the Arts hosts the convention, it is really YOUR convention. You are the presenters, participants, and consumers of this event. You are the ones who make it successful. We just set the stage for you to connect, listen, and learn from one another. 

We are currently accepting proposals to present. DEADLINE: AUGUST 1.

Below are some suggestions for what separates a good proposal from a weak proposal.

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As creative professionals, we are especially attuned to the nuances of “well coming” and “well going.” Put another way, we know how to walk on stage and walk off stage really well. We understand the importance of first impressions and we know how to make a lasting impression within those fleeting moments. Most professionals overlook these vital socio-cultural clues. Not us. Never underestimate the asset of this skill. We also know how to honor the power of closure—for ourselves and for our audience. What separates a good ending from a great one hinges on the difference between heightening the experience and making it a teaching moment. A good performance will leave you wanting more, a great one will leave you with powerful questions without easy answers.

“Be patient toward that which is unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves. Do not now seek answers which cannot be given to you because you would not be able to live them. And the point is, to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually without noticing it live along some distance day into the answer” ~ M. Rilke

And so, today, I exit this stage, not because I don’t enjoy the privilege of working with you through Americans for the Arts, but because I am making a commitment to pursing my next role as “Professional Coach.”

{deep bow}

Rebecca

Rebecca Borden, PhD
E: rebecca.borden@gmail.com
W: www.rebeccaborden.com (coming soon!)

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Podcast: Download (4.5MB)

In this Podcast, Bob Lynch—President and CEO of Americans for the Arts—discusses the range of leadership skills that are most valued by the nonprofit arts field. His discussion moves from a meeting with former military generals to the Emerging Leaders program at Americans for the Arts.

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by Laura Reeder, Founding Executive Director, Partners for Arts Education, Syracuse, NY

The 21st century movement toward less didactic and more collaborative education for our next generation has been especially focused on the place of the arts in learning. As our schools and community partners work to redesign the classroom with more experiential opportunities, we are also redesigning the shape of leadership and resource delivery to serve these new environments.

As the director of a state-level service organization for arts education, I am trying to determine whether the changes are good or not.

It is good that with popular emphasis on the holistic, simultaneous, contextual, imagistic, and intuitive characteristics of artistic or right-brain function, the arts are seen as an ally to education. Historically, arts and education communities have been allies when they found themselves on the bottom of the funding ladder together. They shared an identity that appeared to take more from society than it could give. That was not so good.

To seize current opportunity and make use of our shared potential, schools, cultural organizations, policymakers, funders, and individuals are using consortia to surround arts education with leadership at all levels and through many perspectives. There is a strengthening of national, professional networks to do this.

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There are moments where you sense things so intensely they have a texture and vibration all their own. One experiences joy and humility in the same breath and it brings a lump to your throat even though you are smiling broadly. I had many grateful moments like these over the course of Convention. To me, our Convention is a graduation experience of sorts (true confessions from a former high school teacher). It happens in June. It’s a culmination of a year’s worth of work. And, when it happens, you forget all the hard times in between and fall back in love with your work all over again. If we did a yearbook, this text would be on my senior page.

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