Valerie Beaman
Last year at the Americans for the Arts Annual Convention in Seattle, funders and arts organizations alike were in a panic about the economy and draconian cuts in arts support and services.
This year in Baltimore, while the economic picture remains challenging, clear progress was evident as funders and arts organizations discussed new ways of adapting and shifting models. It’s all about collaboration and the blurring of lines between private and public, for profit and nonprofit, high art versus populist art.
This past year, the Obama administration brought in film artists to help brainstorm on a solution for capping BP’s gusher in the Gulf of Mexico. Rocco Landesman, head of the National Endowment for the Arts, talked to cabinet leaders asking how can the arts help with their problems, which developed into a partnership with the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Department of Transportation.
Liz Lerman’s Dance Exchange is working with the U.S. Navy on a huge arts-based learning project. And Peter Sellars, stage, film, and festival director, wants to know why shouldn’t artists bring their creativity to bear on solving the ills of the California prison system. Why not, indeed?
Michael Marsicano, President & CEO of Foundation for the Carolinas, told us the old silos and boundaries are disappearing. If the majority of funders are saying we only fund social services in this time of great need, then let’s find more ways to integrate the arts into social issues. This is exactly the technique that Rocco Landesman used to incorporate the potential for the arts to be included in the U.S. Housing and Urban Development Department Sustainable Communities Regional Planning Grant. There are plenty of applications already in play.
The Museum of Modern Art and P.S.1 Contemporary Art Center in New York recently joined forces to address one of the most urgent challenges facing the nation’s largest city: sea-level rise resulting from global climate change. The installation presents the proposals developed during an architects-in-residence program.
The Arts & Business Council of New York promotes diversity in arts management careers and provides multicultural youth who have an interest in either the arts or business with a hands-on introduction to work in the business fields of the nonprofit arts sector. These interns’ future careers are informed by their experiences working in nonprofit arts and they often end up on arts boards, promote arts giving where they’re employed, and some actually end up working in the arts.
Arts and Business Council of Miami recognized the needs of Miami’s retirement population and has just launched BRAVO, a volunteer program specifically designed for Boomers & Retired Arts Volunteers with AARP as one of the funders.
And speaking of mending the prison system, I met Michael Shields, executive director of Art Behind Bars, at convention. He’s bringing art programs to the prison in Key West and is looking for funding to expand his program. While Mr. Sellars is thinking more along the lines of recreating the entire system, a program like Arts Behind Bars is a good place to start locally. We need to continue to focus on the needs of business and the community and find ways to change the nature of our funding requests, to become part of the solution for a better community.
I don’t know about you, but I came out of the Baltimore convention with such an optimistic sense of movement, of genuine excitement about the future and sustainability of the arts. Unusual collaborations are not always easy, but are surely worth exploring. I hope you’ll share your interesting collaborations with us for inspiration.
Arts Watch is a weekly cultural policy publication of Americans for the Arts that covers news in a variety of categories related to cultural policy including Culture and Communities, Arts Education and the Creative Workforce, Public Investment in Culture and Creativity, and Philanthropy and the Private Sector. The newsletter also features an Arts Watch Spotlight item and Arts Canvas – News from the Field, a short piece written by a different Americans for the Arts staffer each week.
Popularity: 13%
