ARTSblog

Leslie Ito

The Cultural Equity Green Paper draws out three strategic directions for the future which are also being explored at this week’s Open Dialogue conference in Chicago hosted by TAAC, the Association of American Cultures.  They are:

• Equitable funding for all cultural institutions
• Equal participation in policymaking
•  Equity in multicultural leadership

As the green paper refers to, there has been a discontinuation of some “ethnic-set-aside” or multicultural grant programs and some new ones have sprouted with a new focus on more geographically-focused, community-building through the arts types of programs.  While some of the more savvy community-based organizations are continuing to access these dollars, the pot is shrinking. I am seeing more and more organizations beginning to shift their attention to individual donors.  Programs like the San Francisco Foundation’s Fund for Artists Matching Commissions which is now being replicated in Los Angeles by the LA County Arts Commission are training and incentivizing small and mid size organizations to engage individual donors.  Service organizations like Compass Point and the Grassroots Fundraising Institute are focusing particularly on fundraising in communities of color and ethnic specific giving circles are becoming more popular.  These are all signs that a shift is taking place.  While we must not let up pressure on equitable funding from both private foundations and government agencies, we must also continue to diversify revenue and individual donor development is still a relatively untapped area when it comes to culturally specific and diverse community-based arts organizations.

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I have been giving much thought to the sustainability of small and midsize community-based, culturally specific arts organizations over the years, both as a former executive director of one such organization and also as a funder. Recently, I’ve been thinking that much of what we can learn about how to serve these kinds of organization lies in their past. The history of many of these organizations go back to the days of CETA. While I have heard here and there the impact CETA had on community based organizations, I wonder if some folks out there might be able to share with us the impact that CETA had on your organization and then most importantly what we can learn from the program and how it applies to community-based organizations today. Read the rest of this entry »

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Yesterday I attended the “City as a Stage: Placemaking for the Performing Arts” convening presented by the Music Center/Performing Arts Center of Los Angeles County.  This was the second gathering in a series of three using arts and culture as a lens for re-imagining cities.  A cross-disciplinary group of civic, economic, health and philanthropic leaders gather to craft a new interpretation of urban vitality for the next decade.

Two wonderful examples of the “city as stage” were given: Barnaby Evans’ Waterfire, a series of 100 bonfires that burn on the surface of three rivers in downtown Providence and are accompanied by live music and performance on a biweekly basis from April through October. On the other coast, the Los Angeles County Music Center’s Active Arts Program takes a “do-it-yourself” approach with dance, instrumental and vocal music, and storytelling programs on the plaza where participants actively engage in these art forms.  Both projects move the arts out of the four walls and stages of performing arts centers and more importantly reclaim public space—in these two cases, the streets of downtown Providence and the plaza of the Los Angeles County Music Center and democratize participation in the arts. Read the rest of this entry »

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Greetings from sunny California.  I am excited to be an ambassador to this project and to help Americans for the Arts celebrate its 50th anniversary.

My hope is to have a productive and meaningful interaction around the topic of a cultural democracy.  Over the next 12 months, this will be a place where we can discuss our vision for the future of the arts through a culturally democratic lens, the obstacles in achieving this vision, and the strategies to overcome those obstacles and make that vision a reality.

My hope as an ambassador is that this cultural democracy green paper, its responses and the dialogue it catalyzes will be taken to the next step.  That as practioners and cultural policy makers, we will use these ideas and dialogue to inform our own work and make change in the current environment.  I expect this discussion may become spirited, as we are talking about how we can respect differences and contrary beliefs, as well as universalities within the context of arts and culture in America.   Read the rest of this entry »

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Welcome to the Green Paper discussion on Cultural Democracy. We encourage you to read the full Green Paper available in the tab above and make general comments at this time. Be sure to keep your comments brief—Leslie Ito, the Ambassador for this Green Paper will soon begin deeper, threaded conversations around specific paragraphs, sections or themes that appear in this Green Paper. Follow this conversation thoroughly by adding the Cultural Democracy feed to your RSS reader!

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