Arts Intranet

How does the American public feel about the arts? Do they value artistic activities and arts education? We asked these and other questions in one of the largest public opinion studies about the arts ever conducted.

In 2015, Americans for the Arts partnered with the National Endowment for the Arts to conduct the Local Arts Agency Census, the most comprehensive survey of the local arts agency (LAA) field to date. More than 1,000 LAAs responded to the survey on topics ranging from budgets and financial outlook to specifics about their programs and services.

In order to more clearly see the work ahead of our field in terms of diversity we included questions about board and staff demographics, diversity initiatives in LAA programs, and about formal diversity policies. The answers we received paint a complex picture, but in general, the demographic composition of LAAs show that as a field, we can do better in representing all our constituents.

A new report from Intermedia Arts provides evidence of the burgeoning community arts movement. Its author, William Cleveland, provides thoughts on some of the report’s findings and what it means for the future. Read more about the full report here.

Once upon a time, in the summer of 1993, I joined High Performance Magazine as a contributing editor. The magazine, then in its 14^th year, was being published by artist, Steve Durland, and journalist, Linda Burnham out of the 18^th St. Arts Complex in Los Angeles. At the time, High Performance was covering an art scene that the mainstream arts community was going out of its way to ignore. Nevertheless, the magazine established itself as the voice of the burgeoning community arts movement in the U.S., providing a first hand, first voice window on artists and arts organizations making art at the crossroads of social change, and community development.

In mid-2015, the Oregon Community Foundation and the Oregon Arts Commission conducted a survey Oregon to gather information about what kind of arts education was provided by non-profit organizations during the 2014-15 school year. 152 organizations voluntarily responded, and while this self-selected sample may not reflect the work of all nonprofits providing arts education, it does offer interesting insight into the landscape in our state.

Most importantly, the Oregon Arts Education Snapshot confirmed that nonprofit organizations play a robust role in offering arts education opportunities for students.

The use of data is changing the way cities across the United States tackle arts education inequities. Community-wide efforts, including our own work through the Arts Access Initiative in Houston, continue to use data to consistently measure results, use as tools for learning and adapting, and ensure efforts are aligned with agreed-upon ambitious goals and visions for equity of arts education and creative learning in our cities.

Simply put, data matters in arts education.

For those of us that grew up in or around the 1970’s, the most recognizable use of data was in a chewing gum commercial.

“4 out of 5 dentists surveyed recommend sugarless gum for their patients who chew gum.”

Brilliant advertising.  It was brief, easy to understand, and repeated ad nauseam …….. and so it stuck, like gum.

In the 21^st century, the world is filled with data. And the field of arts education is no different.

At a recent training session on Chicago’s South Side, I discussed the challenges and opportunities of providing arts education in CPS with a small group of arts instructors. One spoke of overcoming the violence and acting out that are a part of everyday life in her elementary school. Another shared the triumphs of their school’s out-of-school-time dance club. Access to the club, especially given the difficult circumstances these young people face, is making a difference in their lives.

Earlier this month I was in Cambridge, Massachusetts, giving a lecture on arts and public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Institute of Policy. In lieu of standard hotel accommodations, I was offered the chance to stay in John F. Kennedy's senior year suite in Winthrop House—and of course I jumped at it. Sitting down at Kennedy’s desk—complete with an Underwood portable typewriter—I was profoundly moved. I thought of his inspiring words and they resonated with the event and work of the week to come, Arts Advocacy Day, when citizen advocates take to Capitol Hill to make the case for federal support for the arts and arts education.

I am certain that after the dust of centuries has passed over our cities, we, too, will be remembered not for victories or defeats in battle or in politics, but for our contribution to the human spirit.

This is the second of four blog posts on Americans for the Arts’ new public opinion survey.

In December 2015, Congress increased the appropriation to the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) from $146 million to $148 million. That was certainly good news to arts advocates, but was that per capita increase of less than one cent (to $0.46 per capita in 2016) in line with the public’s will—too little, too much? That same month, Americans for the Arts put the question of the government’s role in arts funding to the American public with the following results:

This is the first of four blog posts on Americans for the Arts’ new public opinion survey.

In December 2015, Congress passed the new Every Student Succeeds Act reauthorization, with a provision that includes the arts in the definition of a “well-rounded education.” Arts advocates certainly found something to celebrate with that, but just where does the public stand on the issue? Later that same week, Americans for the Arts conducted a nationwide public opinion survey on the arts and arts education. Findings showed:

With the 2016 arts advocacy season upon us, I’ve updated the popular “Top 10 Reasons to Support the Arts.” Changes this year include #3 with the updated BEA/NEA’s new Arts in the GDP data as well as the addition of the public’s support of the arts as part of a well-rounded education (#2).

These are just 10 of many case-making arrows to include in your arts advocacy quiver, but we know there are many more. What is your #11?

2016 is off and running, and guaranteed to be a dynamic presidential election year. Along with a new administration in Washington, five broad cultural and economic trends are sure to impact sectors across America--affecting our work in the arts in the coming years. Candidates at all levels of government will need to evolve positions on each of these trends so we can work more strategically to ensure that the arts continue to thrive and enrich the lives of every American.

With the start of a new year comes the start of a new General Assembly session, at least in my home state of Virginia, and also for three-quarters of our states’ legislatures. And for our state so begins the battle for increased funding for our state arts council—the Virginia Commission for the Arts. This Wednesday, arts leaders and supporters from across our Commonwealth will gather for Arts Advocacy Day when we will meet with our state representatives to plead our case. And just what is that case?

 “[Cultural activities] enrich and expand on my understanding of what binds us together as a community, where we have come from and perhaps where we are going.”
-ArtsFund Patron Survey, 2015

Arts advocates often talk about how cultural organizations play a critical role in creating a vibrant, thriving economy, in definining civic identity, and in building an engaged and connected population, but how do we support that claim? 

Happy New Year from all of us at Americans for the Arts! Together our work has helped transform America’s communities through the arts.  

Share with ARTSblog readers one way the arts helped transform your community in 2015, in the comments below and on social media! Tag us @Americans4Arts.

Congratulations on your success in 2015! We look forward to an exciting and productive New Year.

When a potential supporter for creative youth development approaches me, one of the first things I tell them is to look at the numbers. This model works. Students who participate in rigorous, arts-based after school programs perform better in school and have higher graduation rates than that of their peers who do not participate in the arts. I reference programs such as The Wooden Floor in Santa Ana, Say Si in San Antonio, ARTS in San Diego – the results are impressive. It is at this moment that I have their attention. I have connected my work to something they value: academic success.

A young dancer recently told me she would be so happy if architects of community change and innovation and planning came to her with a request to put her skills to work for her community. Nothing would make her happier as an artist.

She’s just waiting for the invite! So, why doesn't this happen more often? And why do artists find it so hard to get a seat at the community planning table?

In recent meetings about the role of arts in community building and development, including the four regional meetings of the New Community Visions Initiative this fall, participants from the arts told us that they have a hard time getting a seat at that table. They sense that people in other sectors don’t seem to take arts seriously as a community development partner.

How does a hardworking artist become an economically thriving one? In today’s art world, talent alone is rarely enough. Without sufficient financial support, most artists will struggle to get ahead—or even stay afloat—but direct funding for the arts is getting increasingly harder to come by. In 2014, individual artists received less than 5% of the grant dollars awarded by nonprofits or state arts agencies for arts-related work [Sources: The Foundation Center; National Assembly of State Arts Agencies]. What’s more, the vast majority of support that individual artists receive from non-governmental institutions is filtered through fiscal sponsors, a step that not only creates an additional obstacle for artists, but also cuts into the total dollar amount that they receive.

If I ask what “C is for,” many of you reading this would probably respond by recalling the lyrics of Cookie Monster’s famous song. Throughout history, from the cave wall to the Facebook wall, art has forged connections by communicating specific ideas and emotions in a relatable, memorable way. The idea that art can be used not only to entertain, but also to communicate important messages, has been demonstrated effectively by educational children’s television shows. Numerous studies over the years have shown that children who watched Sesame Street programming outperformed their peers in English, math, and science, and had more positive attitudes toward school.

“The function of education is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically. Intelligence plus character—that is the goal of true education.” As we reflect on the life of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. this week, I was reminded of this one of many, but not often cited, quotes by Dr. King.

Recently, the Arts Education Advisory Council of Americans for the Arts met for its midwinter meeting in Los Angeles. We spent much of our time discussing equity and the need for access to the arts for all students, pre-K through high school. We took a tour of the Colburn School, an outstanding music conservatory with numerous community engagement programs. The mission of the Colburn School is to admit students who have tremendous artistic promise and provide them with full tuition, including room and board, so that they can focus solely on their musical careers.

In this Blog Salon’s first post, Maurine Knighton opens with a quote from William Bruce Cameron, “Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.” The second half of that quote – “not everything that counts can be counted” – speaks directly to why the work of the Evaluation Lab is so timely and essential to the advancement of cultural equity in the arts. Artists and cultural workers who are deeply embedding social justice in their work are at the margins of our sector in funding and their work is made invisible by the majority of established institutions. Additionally, the work they are doing is rarely summed up by the standard metrics that funders require –– statistics culled from box office receipts and demographic surveys. Measuring change is an admirable task that will be innovated from the ground, not the air.

I want to live in a world where there’s room for both studio artists and community artists.

I really want to live in a world where artists have the freedom to move back and forth between those two perspectives and – especially – to allow those two perspectives to inform one another.

I believe in art for justice’s sake, in art for learning’s sake, in art for discovery’s sake, in art for empowerment’s sake. I’d like to believe that when we say “art for art’s sake” we could mean any or all of that.

Evaluating the social and aesthetic efficacy of arts and social justice work requires disrupting mainstream evaluation practices that distort—or even undermine—the connections among art, culture, and social justice. We have the opportunity to embed creative, culturally relevant human-centered design into the way we evaluate our arts and social justice work. Our values and practices in our communities can be reflected in the way we evaluate our work.

“Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.”  Undoubtedly, we’re all familiar with this quote, which is popularly but erroneously attributed to Albert Einstein.  (In fact, this statement first appeared in 1963 in Informal Sociology: A Casual Introduction to Sociological Thinking,” written by sociologist William Bruce Cameron.) 

Whether or not Einstein said it originally, there’s irrefutable truth in the statement. And, this idea causes us to think about two key aspects of evaluation and assessment: what’s the best way to measure what we believe we can, and how to deal with the “unmeasurable.” 

In 2014, Animating Democracy, in partnership with the Art x Culture x Social Justice Network (ACSJN) and the Nathan Cummings Foundation launched the Evaluation Learning Lab. The lab builds practical knowledge and resources in three areas as they relate to arts and social change projects and programs:  measuring social impact, evaluating artistic/aesthetic dimensions, and equalizing power in evaluation.

Over the past year, guided by the Lab’s theory of change, we’ve gathered 20 artists, arts practitioners, funders, and evaluators in learning exchanges that combined case studies, presentations and discussion around existing evaluation theories and approaches, analysis of current frameworks, criteria, guidelines, and tools, and development of new tools for ethical practices.

There’s a very specific reason we pitched a session to the National Arts Marketing Project Conference on behalf of the Philadelphia-based Wyncote Foundation.

In a year’s research in 2014, we set out to understand the conditions and capacities that are encouraging innovation in the deployment of digital technology in the cultural sector, particularly among legacy cultural institutions. 

In 1883, John Michael Kohler, who was in the business of making cast iron farm implements and cemetery crosses, looked at a watering trough and realized he could add four ornamental feet to transform it into the company’s first bathtub. 120 years later, that same innovative spark is what turned a simple dorm room project into Facebook, a $200 billion company that changed the world and ignited a new era in entrepreneurial innovation.

How many of us have had the conversation around Arts Integration and Arts for Arts sake? Value in both right? We know from countless examples and research studies that the best benefit to a child is to have a arts specialist, arts integration AND a teaching artist to provide the ‘expert’ outside perspective. This is something I know in my core –something I teach my graduate candidates at CCNY. So I had to laugh when it took me nine years to apply this same structure to the teaching of Advocacy –which I did for the first time this year and the results have been triumphant! 

Did you know September is National Preparedness Month (NPM)?

Have you reflected on the significance of the ten-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina? If so, have you been inspired to take steps in your arts organization to make it more resilient?

For South Arts, National Preparedness Month and the ten-year anniversary of Hurricane Katrina are momentous with the two occasion’s eventually giving rise to ArtsReady, a national initiative which has a mission to make emergency preparedness a high priority in the arts.

All across the country, students are back in school and this month, and Americans for the Arts and KRIS Wine are teaming up again to support arts education.  The arts can positively impact the entire school culture—especially student motivation, attitudes, and attendance— and research further demonstrates the myriad benefits of an education in the arts.  Recognizing these facts, Americans for the Arts and KRIS Wine are proud to announce the launch of the sixth annual “Art of Education” contest. Through this program, KRIS will award 16 winning schools a total of $25,000 in grants to support their arts programs.