102062
2018 PAN Year in Review Trends and Themes: Site Responsive Projects
Annually, the Public Art Network (PAN) Year in Review recognizes outstanding public art projects that represent the most compelling work for the year from across the country and beyond. The projects are selected and presented by a jury of three professionals who represent different aspects of the public art field, including artists, administrators, and other public art allies. New this year, the PAN Advisory Council curated the selected 49 selected projects for 2018 under five unique themes to broaden the exposure of the selected works on ARTSblog and social media, and to provide context to the works through national trends and themes that are impacting the field today.
Site-responsiveness is a hallmark of public art, wherein the artist(s) commits to an investigation of site to inform the work. Creative investigation considers geography, locality, topography, community (local, historical and global), and history (local, private and national)—sometimes re-telling well-known stories and sometimes unearthing long forgotten or unheard stories. The 2018 PAN Year in Review projects featured below each serve as a social agent to explore local histories of what we build, create, and invent. Holding our histories to inform our futures, these works also explore human perception, evolution, conflict, and progress. Many of these projects acknowledge environments or communities that once existed in these landscapes, reinterpreting history of community in a contemporary and, in many cases, interactive way.
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102045
Feeling the Love in February: The National Initiative for Arts & Health in the Military
This February reflection takes me squarely into the midst of the incredible people working at the intersections of arts, health, and the military. One of the fastest growing networks at Americans for the Arts is the National Initiative for Arts & Health in the Military (NIAHM) Facebook Group. I am feeling the love for everyone who shares their programs and stories regularly in the NIAHM group, whose contributors represent a dynamic mix of individuals and organizations, state and local arts agencies, VA programs, arts and veterans service organizations—representing all branches of service, and all forms of art and art-making. Each day brings new postings of happenings across the country, new programs, new milestones, new art, and new inspirations. Our member postings run the gamut of understanding the deep historical roots of the arts in the military, to examples of how today’s veteran artists are carving out the unique history of the 21st century through their art. A sampling of the postings from just the last two weeks tells a rich story of the history and diversity of the arts as part of the military culture.
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102042
The Road to Relevancy: Landmarks for Community Arts Leaders
This is an incredibly challenging time to be a leader in any capacity, but especially in a community arts organization. Let’s be honest: as leaders, we don’t know with absolute certainty whether our ideas, our strategies—our leadership—will result in our vision of impact. This is especially true at this very emergent time. Arts funding is constantly under attack. We find ourselves having to repeatedly justify our existence, often pushing us into survival mode and stifling creativity in the very places it should thrive. Historically, community arts organizations have looked to large-scale, stable, and well-resourced arts institutions—our symphonies, operas, and museums—as models of success. While these elements have their place in institutional capacity building, I’m not convinced that these are the most important measures of success for creating more relevant, sustainable community arts organizations. Now, I’m not suggesting that you fire your Board or cash out your endowment investments. We should definitely keep the best of the best practices from our arts institution friends. I’m saying that we must also remind ourselves that the word community comes first in our field for a reason.
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102022
Arts Funding Affirms “All Politics is Local”
Last November’s mid-term election resulted in significant political victories for the supporters of arts and culture as a tide of pro-arts ballot measures successfully passed in the western cities of San Francisco, Tempe, Culver City, and Tacoma. As co-chair of the Washington state effort to create enabling legislation and, later, co-chair of the campaign in Tacoma, I believe the lessons from these successes bode well for future, similar efforts in other communities across the country. Perhaps Tacoma is a model for such cultural funding solutions, especially in mid-size and smaller markets. If so, we in Tacoma hope other cultural communities across the nation will be bold, build a smart proposal, make their case, and give voters a chance to show you how much they want cultural services!
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101985
3 Email Marketing Revolutions You Can’t Ignore in 2019
For email marketing success in 2019, you need to do two things: Be real and be really great. Here’s how to bring some humanity back to the inbox.
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101967
Mapping Our Progress Toward Cultural Equity
Since 1960, Americans for the Arts has worked to ensure equitable access to a full creative life for all people. While the type and quantity of work may have varied over time, the commitment to equity, diversity, and inclusion has not. In 2015, our Board of Directors encouraged a more specific, strategic, and long-term commitment to cultural equity. As a first step, we spent a year working with board, staff, and membership to develop a new Statement on Cultural Equity. Formally adopted in April 2016, it honed our commitment and goals around cultural equity, articulated our definitions and areas of measurement, and delineated bodies of work for the organization: internal capacity and competency, funds generation to underwrite the work, external education, professional development pipeline transformation, dedicated research, and investments in equity-related public and private sector policy. We pledged, in the statement, to evaluate and report out on our progress and learnings over time. Today, we are happy to share the first of those reports, which covers April 2016 to August 2018. The report is called Mapping Our Progress Toward Cultural Equity, and it is the result of a collective effort from over 60 staff members at Americans for the Arts.
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101954
A Reflection from MAPC’s First Artist-in-Residence
Over the last 18 months I’ve gotten to work with 10 different planners at the Metropolitan Area Planning Council in a variety of departments: Land Use, Public Health, Environment, Government Affairs, and Strategic Initiatives. I was also involved in project development conversations with Municipal Collaboration, Transportation, Clean Energy, and Data Services. Many of these projects grew out of the conversations I had in the first couple months of my residency, when I met with directors from all the dynamic practice areas at MAPC about how they imagined arts and culture could be woven into their work. I was inspired by the depth and breadth of their focus areas, and the opportunity to not just to imagine possibilities together, but to put the ideas in action, was very exciting. I’ve met so many community members, leaders, and youth who shape our region. It’s been a rich residency and I am grateful for the experience.
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101951
Cultivating Fertile Ground for Art & Artists in Planning Agencies
January 2019 marks two years since I launched the Arts & Culture practice at the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), an independent state agency serving the 101 cities and towns in Metropolitan Boston. MAPC has an entrepreneurial and innovative culture for a government agency, and our Arts & Culture practice was conceived and operates in that spirit. We deliver technical assistance in cultural planning, creative placemaking, creative community development, arts and cultural data collection and analysis, and cultural policy. And we have an Artist in Residence who serves MAPC as an agency and works with some of the cities and towns we serve. It has been quite a ride! The impetus for our launch came from two sources: a desire to implement the arts and cultural priorities in our agency’s MetroFuture regional plan, and my dogged determination since entry into the urban planning field in 2009 to do place-based social justice work that engages arts, culture, and creativity at the core.
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101950
Artists & Planners Partner in DC: Innovating Engagement & Instigating Systems Change
A few years ago, the District of Columbia Office of Planning (DCOP) launched an ambitious local government creative placemaking initiative. DCOP designed a multi-year, multi-neighborhood effort that would build community in areas experiencing rapid change. Supported by the Kresge Foundation’s Arts and Culture Local Systems Program, “Crossing the Street: Building DC’s Inclusive Future through Creative Placemaking” used arts and culture to activate space, foster conversation, promote inclusive experiences, highlight neighborhood assets, and advance planning. What became apparent as we embarked on this journey with curators, artists, and communities was the impact that an artist-municipal framework could have: planners began to think like artists, and artists began to think like planners. We also had not fully accounted for the unique lens, approach, and connections that artists make when working in a community. There are many lessons learned from our Crossing the Street, but we will focus on two distinct areas: 1) a new way to engage community; and 2) systems change. Inherent to both areas was a single underlying facet: the role of artists-municipal partnerships.
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101955
The 10 most read ARTSblog posts of 2018
ARTSblog once again was a vibrant space for sharing and learning across all sectors of the arts field in 2018. All told, we published more than 215 blogs by authors working in public art, healthcare, government, marketing, local arts agencies, the private sector, and at Americans for the Arts, plus artists, arts educators, leaders at every stage of their careers, and many more. We hope you got your fill of your favorite topics and posts—but if you’re looking for a quick snapshot of the year that was, here are the 10 most viewed ARTSblog posts from 2018.
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101938
Business Improvement in Colorado Historic Corridor Tied to the Arts
Small business is the heartbeat of the economy—that’s certainly the case here in Lakewood, Colorado—population 155,000 in a city that occupies 44 square miles between Denver and the foothills of the Rocky Mountains. We have seven large organizations with 1000+ employees, but nearly 7000 entities employ 50 or fewer. Primary employers are critical. But the math is crystal clear … small business rules the road. But as the new millennium arrived, not every part of our City’s economic engine was hitting on all cylinders. Lakewood’s 40 West Arts District is located in the oldest part of our City along West Colfax Avenue—a historic commercial corridor that is just now emerging from 30 years of economic decline, with the arts at the vanguard of its renaissance.
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