Local Arts Agency — These three words strung together cause confusion among the general public and within the arts industry.
What is a local arts agency? Even local arts agencies have asked this of me.
I receive inquiries from many discipline-specific organizations who are creating arts locally — aren’t they local arts agencies, they wonder.
Illinois neighborhoods, villages, cities, towns, and regions are coming together and forming what could be considered local arts agencies (LAAs). However, provided with a commonly accepted definition or description, often the leaders in these efforts are reluctant to jump into that ‘box.’
Yet more and more non-LAAs seem to find a connection to LAA issues and want to join our Local Arts Network.
If I have to spend so much time explaining what an LAA is, does that label still fit?
Does it have relevance and resonance? Who falls under that nomenclature today? Is it exclusionary? Is it too wide-ranging?
Do our definitions and parameters still make sense? Does the label mean anything?
Does the box actually have more boxes inside? Or does the box need some holes poked in it for some breathing room?
Are we trapping ourselves and our communities into a box that isn’t really there?
As our communities shift, change, learn, and evolve, the arts in our communities should as well. Here in Illinois, we see a growing investment in creative placemaking activities.
Regional networks are in the research and development phase to co-market the arts for a particular part of the state, mostly led by colleges. New organizations and initiatives are starting up to promote the arts within a specific neighborhood such as the Hyde Park Arts Alliance and Southside Arts & Humanities Network.
Developers and aldermen are getting in on the act by working with arts communities on projects like I Am Logan Square. Convention & visitors bureaus are creating websites to bring the arts community together and promote their value as a tourist draw.
Chambers of Commerce hold art festivals, gallery hops, and networking events like in Chicago’s East Lakeview and Rogers Park neighborhoods, as well as Lincoln/Logan County and Geneva.
Cities are partnering with artists and arts organizations to re/develop new cultural spaces to drive economic activity such as in Waukegan, Elgin, Minooka, Carbondale, and Monmouth. Agencies like the Institute for Arts Entrepreneurship are launching to support creative business development.
These are but a few examples of many I could cite.
All of these key supporters and instigators are leading a charge for cultural collaboration and growth. Community development specialists, city planners, and new urbanists understand and are utilizing and promoting the arts in their work.
The traditional LAA work doesn’t seem exclusive anymore. Are LAAs still the primary caretakers of the arts in communities, those distinctly interested in cultural democracy and the holistic development of creative communities, or is their focus changing?
Are they leading the transition to a new normal? Who will step in to lead these agencies and new hybrids?
Where do new initiatives, departments, businesses, and programs invested in cultural community development fit in? Do ‘traditional’ LAAs still share a unique essence?
What is the current and changing ecological reality in our highly diverse communities?
I don’t ask these questions in search of real answers. I ask in order to not trap myself or those I serve inside a box.
I ask to let the thought linger a bit…weave in and out…poke and scratch….provoke or affirm, perhaps. And these questions just lead me to more questions.
What I do know, without question, is that my work as the director of community arts development is becoming evermore expansive and exciting.
Community arts development…another box to poke around in.
Maybe tomorrow…
