Americans for the Arts

Recently, United Technologies Corporation (UTC) celebrated 25 years of sponsorship of the arts and they decided to celebrate the public art way. Since they wanted greater logo real estate as corporate sponsors, they decided to commission original works and installations on their own. This session presented a case study of UTC's sponsored public art in Madison Square Park, NYC and Broadgate Arena, London, UK. The most interesting component of this case was how they used surveys, conducted by Audience Research & Analysis, to measure the impact of this endeavor.

How to you measure the value of public art, which by nature, has a more elusive, serendipitous, and iterative visitor experience than say a theatre or museum?
How can you design an assessment survey that documents valued added to both the consumer as well as the sponsor? (The presenters generously shared their powerpoint with me for this blog).

Jay Wilkinson of Firespring has developed a list of criteria to assess whether your non-profit website is strong or not. By the way, most non-profits score between 60-65 on Firespring's website scorecard. He cautions that many non-profits fall victim to the common mistakes of web design. In organizations with small staffs and small budgets, they typically develop websites in house or by volunteers; by necessity, they have to do it cheap. But when organizations enable their website to animate their mission, they approach this tool as an investment in their communications and in program dissemination. Jay stressed understanding the end user of your website, which he referred to as: information seekers, volunteers, employers, job seekers, donors/contributors, public agencies, peer non-profits, etc.

In his keynote kickoff of the NAMP conference, J. Walker Smith (a.k.a. Research Rockstar to Julie Peeler) explained that time is the new currency in a time-starved world. He studies lifestyle trends and ultimately seeks to understand the ways in which people understand the 'good life' what people want to get out of their lives. To marketing directors and brand developers, this information is the Holy Grail. But it keeps shifting and, in fact, Walker proposes that the extent and range of this change in consumer behavior has not been seen since World War II.

I liked 90% of what he said but the missing 10% gives me pause and I want to stir the pot a piece.

Ann Daly recently gave a women's business conference keynote, Finding the Leader in You. She also also spent several days with a think tank on arts leadership sponsored by the Americans for the Arts. Those experiences have got her to thinking.

If you want to be a leader, below are her top ten pieces of advice. Would you add any? Leave a comment.

1. Think big
Our greatest need isn't for leaders in the arts, it's for leader of the arts. How can you prepare yourself to speak knowledgeably and comfortably not just about the arts, but about how the arts intersect with the rest of our culture and its most pressing issues?

2. Read widely
Unfortunately, and for understandable reasons, our field tends to be insular. Leaders, however, are drawn to big and new ideas (read on). As such, they are hungry for information, trends, and conversations from everywhere in our world, not just in the arts. Get curious.

3. Create new ideas
Ideas are the essence of leadership. If you aren't someone who generates new ideas, then you can serve the field well and significantly as a manager. We are suffering from a shortage of great managers, too.

We at Americans for the Arts are having some fun about the office getting really excited about heading to Las Vegas for the Risk & Reward Annual Convention , so we started to kick around a list of "must see Vegas movies" to watch between now and the end of the month. Of course "Lucky You" is currently showing in a theater near you, but maybe you want to rent some of the movies below  {in no particular order....}

If the list below gets you excited, you will want to make sure you are registered for Convention before it closes this Friday, May 18.

• Casino. (1995). Robert DeNiro, Sharon Stone, Joe Pesci. Martin Scorcese (Dir.) 
• The Cooler. (2003). William H. Macy, Alec Baldwin
• Viva Las Vegas. (1964). Elvis Presley. Gotta see The King in Vegas!
• 
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I am a new Americans for the Arts Action Fund member, now what?

On behalf of the Americans for the Arts Action Fund, welcome and we appreciate your support.  Within 4-6 weeks of joining, you will receive in the mail a Welcome packet including your personalized membership card and unique membership ID#.  You can begin to take advantage of your Arts Action Fund benefits including:

Over lunch today, Elena Park, from the Metropolitan Opera, gave a richly textured case study of how an organization, steeped in tradition with a deeply loyal constituency, innovated over a 2 year period without sacrificing its values or standards. The Metropolitan Opera is not your average venue it is one of the largest opera companies in the world, yet it has been artistically and socially isolated. Since 2001, the Met experienced an audience decline from 90.8% box office sales to 76.8% box office sales in 2005. Through a major re-visioning of its visual image and its institutional culture, the Met turned things around and operated at 84% capacity last season and this year looks even better. How did they do it? What can be learned from their story?

The Leadership Track at the Annual Convention is about vision and inspiring others to think and work differently. Examples of leadership can be seen in every session at convention, but in the Leadership Track it is on stage and under the spotlight. Come learn how to lead by cultivating the best in oneself and in others, and how to lead an organization through a new initiative or institutional challenge.

Engaging the Arts for a Creative Workforce
Graduation season is now upon us and soon the job market will be replete with fresh eyed graduates, eager to apply the skills they learned in school to their first jobs.  After listening to speeches that troll the smorgasbord of opportunities available to them after they leave their alma mater, they will depart their schools convinced that they have been adequately prepared for success. 

But to what extent is this true?  Both the art and business communities have been buzzing with the claim that the workforce in the United States is far from where it needs to be creatively. 

Career 360 is a new dimension of convention this year. It is happening on Saturday afternoon, June 21 and runs concurrently to ArtVenures and Walk&Talks. Looking for some career advice or ways to lead a sustainable career in the arts? This program is for you!

Career 360 begins over lunch with Talk Turkey (or Tofu) and a facilitated roundtable on various career development topics. Grab a sandwich from the buffet in CenterStage and head over to the Philadelphia Ballroom for the following discussions:

Career 360 is a new, innovative dimension of our Annual Convention. So far,
the feedback we have been receiving confirms that lots of people are really
excited about participating in a full menu of discussions, appointments
and sessions.

At Career 360 Clinics, we have the best consultants in the country at your feet.
Looking for advice on your organization’s strategic, fundraising or marketing
plan? What about your community’s cultural policy plan or your local creative
economy initiative? Ask questions about public art master plans. Meet with
some coaches. Talk to arts administration faculty.

To make the most
of this opportunity, come prepared with specific questions, issues and topics.
You will only have 30-minutes – !use it wisely! - but you will get pointed
in the right direction for next steps.

The consultants
listed below will be available for 30-minute appointments. Sign up will be
available at CenterStage on first come, first serve basis.

Convention is right around the corner and I can taste the anticipation in the air! I am hearing from so many people about how excited they are to see each other, to attend sessions and just be in the same room together. Yes, I oversee two program tracks (Leadership and Career360) and I will be working throughout the three+ days. But my convention experience is more than my job. It reconnects me with why I do the work that I do. Sometimes I attend other national convenings and it takes energy away from me. The people at our convention fill me with energy; they feed my soul. I can’t wait.

We have invited some attendees to blog their convention experience and I’d like to take a moment to introduce them now.