Arts Intranet

We are all advocates of the arts.  If you are in the profession in any way – educator, administrator, creator, or all of the above – you are, by nature, an arts advocate.  And all of us agree that one of the key points in arts advocacy is making arts education a priority.  But did you know that it’s not just a priority, but according to the federal government, it’s a part of the core curriculum?

In the session “Beyond Liking It: Prioritizing Arts Education,” Laurie Lock and Lynn Tuttle talked about the things that can do as arts education advocates to ensure the future of arts programs in our school, whether we are addressing continuing funding in difficult times or trying to establish funding for new programs.  Some thoughts from the session:

Penny Ross eyed my “I Wish to Say” office from across the room and I beckoned her over and invited her to dictate a postcard to the President.

It was early in the morning at the Americans for the Arts Annual Convention in San Diego, and Ms. Ross clearly had something to say.

She started her postcard to the White House like this: “I live in Chandler, Arizona. Arizona has eliminated all of the funding for the arts.”

Ms. Ross went on to tell me that she’d been teaching art to junior high students for 12 years, but that her job was just eliminated. “They don’t want to spend money on art supplies,” she said. “But the annual budget was $500. And that served 1,000 students.”

MA Senate President Pro Tem Stan Rosenberg

This blog continues my conversation with Harvey White that took place during the "Heating Up STEM to STEAM" session at the Americans for the Arts Annual Convention earlier this summer. Read Mr. White's initial comments here.

Sen. Stan Rosenberg:
"No, it’s not dumb, but I also want to do a little counterpoint here to see where you might go with this…OK, so I think the key role for the business leaders is to provide the leadership to push the government in the direction to make the investment and make the investment in a wiser way.

We spend $5 billion on education K-12 in Massachusetts. I don’t think it’s fair to go to the business community and tell them to give us another $1-2 billion to run that system. But I would sure love to use the leadership and capacity that they have to push the governor and other people to use some of that money more wisely.

Harvey White:
But you have no qualms at all in saying to the business that you ought to spend another billion on factories?

At 2:05pm on Sunday, June 27th the New York Neo Futurists were preparing to take the stage to perform 10 new plays to celebrate the culmination of the 50th Anniversary Summit. That’s right—a total of 10 brand new original short plays based on dozens of interviews with attendees and the group’s experience as the Artists in Residency at the 2010 Summit. I was fortunate to not only be interviewed by the New York Neo-Futurists (henceforth the Neos) but also to participate in their “re-charging movement-based activities” during the Networking Break on Saturday.

I jumped at the opportunity to interact with this group of dynamic performers by scheduling an interview. I know of the Chicago Neo Futurists from an episode in 2003 of the radio program This American Life, which adapted the idea of performing 30 plays in 60 minutes from the Neos’ show, Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind (Although the radio broadcast only included 20 acts in 60 minutes.)

The Neo Futurists opened at the Stage Left Theater in Chicago on December 2, 1988. Written and performed by the eight-person ensemble, the Neos were first conceived and directed by Greg Allen. The New York version debuted in 1995 but after two years took a hiatus. Resurrected in their current form in 2004, the New York Neos and are now going strong performing Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind at the Kraine Theater (85 East Fourth Street).

Drawing from their namesake, the Italian Futurists, the Neos come from a rich tradition of performance artist history ranging from the Dadaists and Happenings in 1960s to low-tech participatory theatre in the 1980s. Eschewing the ideas of conventional theatre performances: character, setting, plot, and the separation of audience and performer, the Neos thrive on audience interaction. Attendee interviews were just one way that the Neos facilitated this in Baltimore.

Rich Mintz

At the Americans for the Arts Annual Convention, I had the pleasure of listening to Camille Schenkkan of Arts for LA giving an unusually lucid and helpful introductory summary to online tools for donor development and management.

I think those of us who work in online fundraising for a living — especially those of us who mostly work with large organizations, the kind that have a dozen or more people in the marketing department, and technical staff to handle the donor database, and so forth — sometimes forget how mystifying all of this stuff is to a lot of people.

If you’re doing three jobs at once, in an environment where there’s never any extra money lying around, with a board of directors (or a major donor, city council, etc.) breathing down your neck — sound familiar? — what you want is not a bunch of platitudes about the “next generation” and the “new normal.” You want someone to tell you the dozen or so things you need to know, and the half-dozen or so things you should try to do this month or this quarter.

Four Americans for the Arts Advisory Councils -- the Arts Education Council, Emerging Leader Council, Private Sector Council, and the Public Art Network Council -- are currently seeking nominations for new council members to serve three-year terms from January 1, 2012 through December 30, 2014.

Americans for the Arts asks, first and foremost, that the councils advise our staff on programs and services that will build a deeper connection to the field and their network members.

This gives council members the opportunity to be spotlighted as national leaders and to give back to the field by connecting the national work of Americans for the Arts to the local level.

Here are quotes from current leadership council members on the value of serving in that role:

“Having people from across the country serve on the council gives Americans for the Arts insight into the unique challenges we face on a day-to-day basis. It helps connect ELs at a very grassroots level by connecting networks and creates a web of resources and support for ELs.” – Ruby Harper, Emerging Leader Council