ARTSblog

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Last fall, 30 top-level decision makers and thought leaders from government, business, education, and the arts gathered at the Sundance Resort and Preserve for the Fifth Annual Americans for the Arts National Arts Policy Roundtable, to discuss this year’s theme – The Role of the Arts in Educating America for Great Leadership and Economic Strength.

Their conclusions are profiled in a new report issued this week by Americans for the Arts that calls for individuals across the public and private sector to recognize the arts as the transformational tools they are for making schools stronger and students more successful.

The recommendations offer insights from this cross-sector group on how we can better work together to ensure policies and practices are in place to increase arts in our schools.

The business and public policy communities are building consensus that if the nation is to succeed, an education steeped in the 4 “C’s” (Creativity, Collaboration, Communication and Critical Thinking) is not a luxury, but a necessity.   Read the rest of this entry »

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Kirsten Kichenstein

After working in arts education for the past eleven years, I’ve transitioned to a new job where my day-to-day work is not administering an arts program.

While my new position still allows me to advocate for statewide arts education, I’m no longer an Education Director where every day I’m working alongside young people and teaching artists witnessing the transformation as teenagers discover their own creative voices and morph into someone new.

In this career shift, I can’t help but wonder, “Who am I now?”

Who am I without the daily struggle of encouraging a young person to take a creative risk?

Without the ability to directly experience the immeasurable rewards when that risk is taken, success is experienced and that young person will never again be the same?  Read the rest of this entry »

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Nina Ozlu Tunceli

I’m here in Chicago at the National Mayors Summit on City Design sponsored by U.S. Conference of Mayors, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Architectural Foundation.

Yesterday, I participated in working sessions with mayors, city planners, and architects to develop a series of recommendations to federal officials of how to streamline partnerships to create economic development and improve city infrastructure.

Specifically, I made several recommendations, including creating incentive funding for cultural districts and public art programs in federal infrastructure projects and economic development zones.

I am pleased to say that I was not the only carrying messages about the importance of the arts.  Read the rest of this entry »

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"Hide/Seek" catalogue from the National Portrait Gallery

“Above all I wanted to keep the exhibition open. I wanted to protect the Smithsonian in its entirety,” said Wayne Clough, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution earlier this week at the symposium Flashpoints and Faultlines: Museum Curation and Controversy.

Clough was specifically addressing last year’s controversy over pulling David Wojnarowicz’s film A Fire in My Belly from the National Portrait Gallery’s “Hide/Seek” exhibit—a show demonstrating the influence of gays and lesbians in modern American portraiture.

The Smithsonian’s day-and-a-half symposium at the Freer Gallery of Art focused on the role of the curator and museum officials in curating and handling topics that could be controversial.

My personal hope as I went into the symposium Tuesday night was that Clough would say something along the lines of: If I had known what I know now I would have tried to find a different way of addressing the controversy. But it came as no surprise to me or the 100+ art enthusiasts, Smithsonian employees, reporters, and others who had gathered when he didn’t apologize for removing Wojnarowicz’s film or even try to excuse his decision. Read the rest of this entry »

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Kenji C. Liu

This post originally appeared during the Emerging Arts Professionals/San Francisco Bay Area’s blog salon entitled “Cultural Policy 101″ earlier this month. You can view all of the postings from that salon on their website.

In my last post [for the salon], I suggested framing art as a human right, in the sense that community art is a practice that can sidestep or challenge the spreadsheet mentality that exists in the United States when it comes to arts and culture policy.

This is not to say that we can completely escape this mentality, as recent proposals to zero out arts grants by the City of Oakland show.

Oakland is a vibrant arts city despite the lack of robust institutional support. With some notable exceptions, much of it is grassroots or on the down-low.

Although we need this kind of city and state support and should advocate for it, if arts looks for its value only through the affirmation (funding) of the state, we are in dangerous territory.    Read the rest of this entry »

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Taking a break from her duties as co-chair of our 2011 National Arts Advocacy Day, Kerry Washington sat down with Americans for the Arts’ Graham Dunstan to discuss her personal arts experiences growing up in New York City, playing Ophelia, approaching acting as a social scientist, cultural diplomacy, and the importance of public funding for the arts.

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Randolph Belle & Family

This post originally appeared during the Emerging Arts Professionals/San Francisco Bay Area’s blog salon entitled “Cultural Policy 101″ earlier this month. You can view all of the postings from that salon on their website.

The (Oakland) in the title of this submission can probably be swapped out for many cities across the country, but the concept of cultural sustainability has been an increasingly pressing issue for me of late.

I look at my role in the arts community, my existence as an African American and what distinction should be made for me as an African American cultural worker.   Read the rest of this entry »

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Kevin Spacey

Just a few short weeks ago, actors Alec Baldwin, Kerry Washington, Kevin Spacey, and Hill Harper joined more than 550 arts advocates representing 40 states from across the country on Capitol Hill for National Arts Advocacy Day 2011.

This year’s event took place at a critical time when legislators were battling over program cuts to reduce the deficit.

The day began with the Congressional Arts Kickoff where several members of Congress spoke to advocates about the importance of arts funding.

Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID), who chairs the subcommittee that oversees funding for the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) and the Smithsonian, said that while some in Congress believe that government should not support the arts, “I respectfully disagree.”   Read the rest of this entry »

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TerraCycle Graffiti Art

Yesterday, The New York Times’ small business blog posted an interesting piece from the CEO of New Jersey-based TerraCycle.

Tom Szuky not only encourages the use of NERF gun battles and partially-subsidized lunches for his employees as motivation tools and morale boosters for his employees, but he also uses art.

In order to spice up the workplace, Szuky says that he invites graffiti artists in to “paint our walls with cool, vibrant designs” and he invites artists to change up the outside of their offices on a weekly basis.

As we continue to talk about ways the art and business worlds can come together, we can’t overlook the simple things like buying local art to hang on the walls or planning social gatherings outside of work around local productions or concerts.

What ways have you engaged with the arts in the business world or vice versa?

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After delivering the 24th Annual Nancy Hanks Lecture on Public Policy as part of Arts Advocacy Day 2011, Kevin Spacey spoke with Americans for the Arts’ Ben Burdick about his involvement in Shakespeare High, a documentary debuting at New York’s Tribeca Film Festival this week. Spacey also talks about the most important reason to fund arts education.

Joining Spacey in D.C. was 2006 California Charter School Teacher of the Year Brad Koepenick who is also a producer of Shakespeare High. Koepenick tells Ben about his experience as a student and arts educator, and the impact that certain mentors have had on his life and career.

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Rebecca Nath

*This post was originally published on Arts for LA’s blog on April 18, 2011. Click on their organization names for more information on Arts for LA or Emerging Arts Leaders/Los Angeles.

As my long weekend in DC came to a close, I removed the ‘Arts Wonk’ button I had proudly worn as I strode through our nation’s capitol.

Merriam Webster defines wonk as “a person preoccupied with arcane details or procedures in a specialized field; <a policy wonk>; broadly : nerd” (italics mine).

Yes, for three straight days I had self-identified as a nerd—and I was more than happy to do so.

I received the pin earlier where my weekend as a bona fide arts wonk began: at the Emerging Arts Leaders Symposium at American University.   Read the rest of this entry »

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Jonathan Gay

When the iPad was introduced in 2010, the evolution of computer made five giant steps forward.

We were presented with a variety of uses including board games, books, and media.

This technology had its hand in the growth of business and pleasure, but what could this device mean for education, or even more specifically, in early childhood education?

As an art project manager for a preschool in Newtown, PA, I took that question one step further in a project I titled, “Art of the iPad.”

I believe that instead of fearing technology, now is the time to embrace it. I believe we must take steps to harness and adapt technology for children.

Something as simple as a touch screen device can have an impact on a child. The question that remained was how could I use this device in a way that would take a snapshot of the artistic mind of a child?   Read the rest of this entry »

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Washington's Gorge Heritage Museum

As part of the Local Arts Agency Listening Post we asked if folks had additional comments beyond the specific questions in the survey, and several members took us up on it.

I had the opportunity to speak with Leigh Anne Chambers, the Executive Director of the North Central Louisiana Arts Council in Ruston, LA.

The North Central Louisiana Arts Council serves the five parishes of Lincoln, Bienville, Claiborne, Jackson, and Union – one of Louisiana’s poorest regions.

The council used to receive funds from two separate grants from the state, but now they receive about half of that. They filled in the gaps with fundraising and memberships but they are still haven’t made up for the loss of the state monies.   Read the rest of this entry »

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Many of us know that “Three is a Magic Number” and can answer the query, “Conjunction Junction, what’s your function?”

Schoolhouse Rock!, the animated musical educational films that aired before and after Saturday morning cartoons from 1973 to 1985 (for me, it must have been the debut season…) taught me how to count, remember my grammar, and introduced me to politics:

I’m just a bill.
Yes, I’m only a bill.
And I’m sitting here on Capitol Hill.

Many of those songs are deeply ingrained in my memory bank and come flying out at the darnedest times.

They are instant, whimsical visits to my past that serve a purpose: I had fun learning something I needed to know. And almost 40 years later, I can still remember it.   Read the rest of this entry »

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Randy Cohen

I was recently asked by a major biz leader for “10 reasons to support the arts.”

He needed the points to help him pull an 8-figure inve$tment for a new arts center…Make it compelling to government and business leaders, he asked.

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

So, apart from the 10-1 flip (and with apologies to David Letterman), this is what I delivered:

10. 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.

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.   Read the rest of this entry »

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