Joanne Riley

The Value Proposition for Arts and Culture

Posted by Joanne Riley, Mar 08, 2010 0 comments


Joanne Riley

The Cultural Alliance is a United Arts Fund and, like everyone else, we struggle to be relevant and meaningful even during good times. In tough times like these, our challenge is greater–it is difficult to stand next to battered women or hungry babies and ask people to give to the arts. While we think it makes sense, it is not always an easy sell.

We did some research and found that during the great depression, the corporate community created the York Symphony Orchestra that still performs to this day. Their thinking, that symphonic music would help York survive terrible times, is a thought we embrace today.

It’s good for business if the community is one where people move to work and live. Businesses who feel they have a cultural or creative community to offer their employees will stay and/or relocate here. But in times when just keeping the doors open is a struggle, where is the value proposition for arts and culture.

The Cultural Alliance kicked-off its 11th campaign last week.  We sent two strong messages:

  • Creative thinkers make better workers.
  • The Cultural Alliance demonstrated what its grants did for both the arts community and the human service community.

Our featured speaker created a “did you know” presentation which highlighted what artists are able to accomplish when given a challenge requiring out of the box thinking. She took everyone on a tour of what happens in the social service realm when art is embraced. She highlighted art as a method of communication with the Grief Center–talking about children who had witnessed car accidents, suicide, or murder. The counselors indicated that art is the only effective way for them to communicate with these children. While it seems so tragic, the connection to arts is visceral and inspires our solicitors, about 320 of them, to go out and ask for more.

We have yet to see if this strategy will lift the campaign. We are semi-confident that it will improve our bottom line and educate the community about what we can do to make York a better place to live. I’ll let you know later where we stand.

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