103693
Inspired by Recovery Efforts
Arts and culture chief executives from the around the world are digging in, planning for recovery through the COVID-19 crisis. From what I’ve seen of the efforts of the 75 executives I’ve worked with over the past month as the impact of the crisis on our sector has changed, evolved, and grown in its realities, I’ve been inspired. We’ve talked about the people on our teams, and their creative action to support staff and artists and boards. We’ve talked about communities and programs that are responsive: creating specific, practical support for people at this time. I’m hearing about plans that acknowledge the need for safety while also creatively planning potential operations. Create. Creative. Creating. That is us: Creative is what we do. With this background and collective thinking in mind, I offer these recommendations for your thinking now.
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103687
Spotlight on 2020 Johnson Fellowship Nominees: Celebrating How Artists Transform Communities
We need to celebrate the important work that artists do every day. They imagine creative courses to solve problems. They create welcoming spaces to exercise cultural and civil rights and to challenge the status quo. They orchestrate rituals of spiritual and emotional healing. They configure single words, movements, marks, sounds to make meaning, purpose, and full-on expressions of beauty that remind us of the most fundamental things we humans share. Especially now, as we strategize to ensure that artists are supported and integrated into COVID-19 recovery and reconstruction, we need ready stories of their unique contributions substantiated with the real impacts of their approaches. Beginning with this post, a new ARTSblog series will celebrate the 11 music artists who were the exemplary nominees for the 2020 Johnson Fellowship for Artists Transforming Communities. Vastly different in their artistry—from classical orchestral work and blues, gospel, and American roots traditions to punk rock, improvisational, and genre stretching forms—each artist in their own right is advancing community, civic, and social goals.
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103617
Black Owned Homes as Solutions to Cultural Space
Cultural space doesn’t just live in traditional retail space. Cultural space is born where culture thrives. While on the surface it seems that four artists created the Black art center Wa Na Wari, it is actually the continuation of the legacy of Frank and Goldyne Green, who were cultural space activists before there were words for this type of work. We don’t always think of our family homes as cultural spaces, but this Green home, and their other five properties, operated in this way. After the passing of Frank Green, artists Inye Wokoma, Jill Freidberg, Rachel Kessler, and I wondered what it would mean to rent it for a year as a cultural center. This social practice project was about the act of reclaiming so much of what has been lost in Seattle’s Central District. Our formerly redlined neighborhood has experienced drastic gentrification and displacement of our Black community. A neighborhood that was at one time 80% African American is now less than 10% Black. Wa Na Wari explores what it means for Black people to reclaim space in gentrified communities. Wa Na Wari is an art house and a community organizing effort. It is a model for how black homeowners can stay in their homes while also convening around black art.
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103616
Business Spotlight: Engineer Calls for Fusion of Arts and Technology in Human-Centered Design
I currently lead the art and technology program at Nokia Bell Labs. We call it Experiments in Art and Technology in honor of the seminal bringing together of engineers and artists in the late 60s and 70s within which Bell Labs played a crucial role. So, in my current role, I am a champion of the arts—especially new media art, art that involves emerging technology, and musical composition and performance. I lead our artistic collaborations and projects and act as a “curator” and “matchmaker” bringing together the very different worlds of art and technology. I believe that the arts could be (should be) more transformational in the way they inform more human-centric design. I believe that the arts should be deeply integrated into all companies but especially technology companies. I believe it is critical that the voice of the artist be heard and taken seriously in the context of business and in understanding the role that technology can play in influencing humanity.
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103606
Supervision.
Times have changed. The alarm has been struck, and it is declared that for the next few months we are living in a state of emergency. The alarm will persist in the background for months as we try to make sense of our world. For many, our lives have become paralyzed as we wait for announcements and instruction on how we are to continue working. Others continue their commutes to their jobs, as the essential laborers and custodians of our world. For now, many of us are remotely reporting via digital platforms, supervising the structures of a disordered world through virtual windows. As a curator of public programs, I am tasked with the delicate observation of people—understanding their needs, anticipating their questions, and often regulating their movement. It is in the nature (and definition) of this work that I care for all individuals through their experience in artistic environments. In the midst of this emergency, I have observed how institutions have immediately taken action to facilitate programs. I admire the resilience of the arts sector—its agility and improvisation are often pulled off with success, disproportional to anemic budgets with robust audiences. Yet, I am also dismayed that the arts, once again, confronts a different crisis, an unprecedented crisis.
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103607
In the Hands of a Loving Heart
On this last day of National Poetry Month, we have a special gift from musician and composer Hannibal Lokumbe, whom Americans for the Arts is proud to honor as our 2020 Johnson Fellow for Artists Transforming Communities. Hannibal composed this poem out of intense concern for the dire moment that all humankind is experiencing and the many people we hold dear. It was inspired by a recent dream in which his mother appeared holding her hand silently over her heart. As we ache for the breath, the embrace, the embodied presence of family, friends, and colleagues, Hannibal’s words remind of the enduring power of the spirit and heart to connect us in this time of physical distancing, duress, and loss. I leave you in the hands of Hannibal’s loving heart.
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103605
Pre-historic Optimism in the Age of Corona
I often ask my students what they want to be when they grow up. I wanted to be a paleontologist. I loved dinosaurs and spent hours in my school’s elementary library reading up on every dinosaur book and watching every documentary I could get my hands on. Had I been a child during this pandemic, my ideal scenario would be curled up in my school library with the internet and a treasure trove of dinosaur books at my disposal. However, that’s not feasible for most of my students. In fact, roughly two-thirds of the Cleveland Metropolitan School District students don’t have access to a computer or similar device at home. One third of our families do not have access to reliable high-speed internet. But what is waiting for them—once the district hands out hotspots and computers—is something I wish I had access to at their age. They will have access to each other, a support network of friends and teachers who are eagerly awaiting them. In particular, one teacher who is so excited for the moment they reconnect because he has collected a handful of dinosaur facts he can’t wait to share with them.
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103604
New Report on Arts/Non-Arts Partnerships Digs Into How They Work Best
Ninety-one percent of all local arts agencies (LAAs) in the United States have at least one partnership. It is one of the most prevalent and consistent strategies for LAAs to expand their influence and address community issues. A just-released study from Americans for the Arts, available as part of the 2019 Local Arts Agency Profile, dives into how, when, and where LAAs in the United States enter partnerships with for-profit businesses, government or public sector entities, and non-arts nonprofits. Overall, it indicates that while almost all LAAs enter partnerships, the alchemy of pursuing, setting, and sustaining those partnerships varies. At the same time, with a few marked exceptions, the goals that the LAAs and their partners are pursuing in those partnerships are relatively stable, regardless of the type of partner involved. Collectively, LAA partnerships are a common and useful technique for expanding the impact and influence of LAAs, particularly in efforts to address non-arts issue areas in the community.
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103602
Social Media for Creatives
Social media, without a doubt, is an essential tool in marketing—especially when it comes to selling artwork. It can be overwhelming to determine how to use it to build your brand as an artist, but it doesn't have to be.
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103596
Unpacking the 2019 Profile of Local Arts Agencies Study
During the last half century, the local arts agency (LAA) movement in the United States has flourished—with the number of LAAs growing from 400 to 4,500. They provide programs, services, and funding to strengthen their local arts and cultural sector, integrate the arts into the fabric of the community, and make the arts accessible to all. It is no surprise, then, that Americans are now more engaged in the arts than ever before, with nearly three-quarters of the adult population attending the arts and nearly half personally involved as arts makers. It is because of this vital presence that tracking the health, operations, and impact of LAAs is a matter of pressing concern. The 2019 Profile of Local Arts Agencies is our annual survey of local arts agencies. It focuses on a core set of LAA indicators—budget trends, partnerships, programs and services, and diversity and equity policies. I conducted my first LAA survey for Americans for the Arts in 1991; the one constant over the years is my ongoing appreciation of how LAAs evolve to keep pace with how their community evolves.
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103594
Re-envisioning Internships During COVID-19
Amid this COVID-19 pandemic, many arts organizations—as well as those outside the sector—have been working to determine how to offset financial impacts on their organizations. One type of program that finds its head on the chopping block is the internship program. For organizations that provide arts internships for an hourly wage or a seasonal stipend, the expenditure for an intern or an internship program may appear to be an added burden at a time when we must all make difficult choices. At Americans for the Arts, we too have unfortunately had to cut our own Summer and Fall internship program to save on expenditures.While that decision had to be made for the organization, the Equity in Arts Leadership team has been able to reimagine the organization’s 28-year-old Diversity in Arts Leadership (DIAL) internship. We recognized the stress and collective trauma our country—and our world—is experiencing during this time, and determined it was important for our team to focus our internship restructure on a deliberate, community-centered approach. In deciding to move forward with our internship program, we had to ask ourselves many questions regarding the feasibility of continuing this program this year.
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