Nathaniel "JR" Russ

Artist Advocacy - An essential part of Arts Administration

Posted by Nathaniel "JR" Russ, Apr 15, 2015 1 comment


Nathaniel "JR" Russ

In December of 2013, the National Assembly of State Arts Agencies released a fact sheet about support for individual artists. They began the report with the following:

“Artists form the foundation of a state’s creative environment. They act as creators and individual entrepreneurs who provide many of the products and designs that drive innovation and shape a state’s cultural character. Many artists also work as educators, providing training in creative skills and passing on cultural traditions from one generation to the next.”

This is a descriptive, not a prescriptive statement. This is something that many, if not most, if not ALL of us, can probably agree with to some degree. And it is important to keep this in mind, as arts administrators, when it comes to artist advocacy. Because artist advocacy is a matter of culture and values.

There is urgency here as the case creative economy has been repeatedly the focus in recent years of arts advocacy. In a cycle we know too well, artists might spur the development or revitalization of a neighborhood, but often they are driven out by the very success they heralded. I live in an area in Washington, DC called Brookland. I am very fortunate to live in the Brookland Artspace Lofts, a building specifically with affordable live/work space for artists. I have a 2 bedroom apartment, a little over 1100 sq. ft., and pay $1,205 a month total so with a roommate, about $600 each. If I were not living in this building, I probably would not be able to afford living in Brookland with all its new development.

But I digress. Artist advocacy as a general modus operandi is important because as arts administrators we are generally the ones providing the paycheck to our artists, if not one of many paychecks, that they cobble together to make a living. And every time there is a decision made about money, there is an opportunity to better support the artists involved in your work, from crafting the budget, to making the case to your Board, to crafting the pitch in your annual end-of-year campaign.

When putting the budget together, it’s the difference between putting in a modest stipend versus estimating how much time you expect the artist to spend on the project and looking at what they should be compensated according to minimum wage, at the very least. In making the case to the Board, it’s choosing to support the value of working with professional artists and not the reinforcing the stereotype of the starving ones. With your end-of-year-pitch, it involves not just making the case for supporting and valuing quality art, but supporting and valuing quality artists. And there is a chance to continually inform your community of the artists involved in the art, ESPECIALLY with social media, from the moment the creative process begins, to the opening, until closing.

It’s not just about providing artists financial support. As a Grant Manager co-administering the Artist Fellowship Program at the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities, one of our priorities were to explore additional benefits to being a Fellowship recipient. We did a needs-assessment, and found that the topic most of our artists were interested in learning more about was communications and marketing. So we provided a workshop led by a public relations company. No, this was not directly contributing to the financial well-being of our artists, but we were helping them build their own capacity to market themselves and their work. While this might not be the advocacy we normally think of, I had to make the case to our leadership that it was worth investing in this opportunity, it was worth investing in our artists. And even that I would argue is artist advocacy.

Because artists are the foundation of our area’s creative environment, artists are the ones driving innovation and defining our communities’ cultural character, artists are the one providing training in creative skills and passing on cultural traditions. The creative economy case for supporting the arts has been more than prevalent on a macro and policy level. Now we need to pivot and be able to make the case for supporting artists as top-of-mind on a micro and budgetary level.

This requires some introspection and holistic thinking, it means looking beyond the silos we work in and considering long term impact. The goals aren’t as immediate or direct because ultimately artist advocacy is looking at what will help create a sustainable and viable working environment and landscape for artists to do their art and make a living. And it is about realizing that artist advocacy is a direct reflection of the culture and values we reinforce with the decisions we make, even budgetary and programmatic ones.

I think it fair to assume that as arts administrators we all value artists in general. We could not do what we do without artists and their work. And I make it a point to say that to the artists I work with whenever I’m thanked for the work I do. However I would argue that there is a difference between artists benefiting inadvertently, versus being intentional and specific about how we support artists in the decisions we make, acknowledging that what can seem like very abstract numbers have very concrete financial consequences when checks are finally deposited.

So put your artist advocacy tinted glasses on. Because we can’t afford not to.

Interested in joining the conversation? Meet us in Chicago for the Arts Leadership Precon during Annual Convention 2015!

1 responses for Artist Advocacy - An essential part of Arts Administration

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April 16, 2015 at 10:15 am

NASAA's Support for Individual Artists fact sheet is updated each year, and our 2015 version is now available. Here are the latest facts about how state arts agencies support artists: http://www.nasaa-arts.org/Research/Grant-Making/ArtsEdGrantMakingFactShe...

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