Thank you to the many people who have been blog contributors to, and readers of ArtsBlog over the years. ArtsBlog has long been a space where we uplifted stories from the field that demonstrated how the arts strengthen our communities socially, educationally, and economically; where trends and issues and controversies were called out; and advocacy tools were provided to help you make the case for more arts funding and favorable arts policies.

As part of Americans for the Arts’ recent Strategic Realignment Process, we were asked to evaluate our storytelling communications platforms and evolve the way we share content. As a result, we launched the Designing Our Destiny portal to explore new ways of telling stories and sharing information, one that is consistent with our longtime practice of, “No numbers without a story, and no stories without a number.”

As we put our energy into developing this platform and reevaluate our communications strategies, we have put ArtsBlog on hold. That is, you can read past blog posts, but we are not posting new ones. You can look to the Designing Our Destiny portal and our news items feed on the Americans for the Arts website for stories you would have seen in ArtsBlog in the past.

ArtsBlog will remain online through this year as we determine the best way to archive this valuable resource and the knowledge you’ve shared here.

As ever, we are grateful for your participation in ArtsBlog and thank you for your work in advancing the arts. It is important, and you are important for doing it.


Merryl Goldberg

Arts Education and The Fifth Grade Promotion Speech

Posted by Merryl Goldberg, Jul 08, 2010 1 comment


Merryl Goldberg

Summer school is in full swing - and I wonder how many kids are being encouraged to use their imaginations as a part of their learning. My daughter was "promoted" from fifth grade this June and a speech made by the fifth-grade student association president, Zane, was recited at the promotion ceremony. All 90 or so fifth graders dressed their best, boys in actual shoes that for kids in southern California are quite an anomaly (flip flops and sneakers are daily wear) as well as their over-sized jackets on their frames that remain small especially compared to the girls, many of whom tower over the boys and who look very much like developing teenagers.

The two weeks prior to their promotion, boys and girls were separated from each other for a course in "human growth and development." I got a phone call during the session that my daughter had a stomach ache. As it turns out, my daughter was not alone: "Liana did complain today of an upset stomach," wrote her teacher in an e-mail. "However, it seems to be going around right now. It became an 'epidemic' during Human Growth and Development when all the girls had to learn about the boy parts. It was actually quite comical. That might have had a little to do with her extra nausea at the end of the day. I hope she is feeling better."

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Stephanie Hanson

It’s Time We Get Creative with Our Professional Development (from Arts Watch)

Posted by Stephanie Hanson, Jul 07, 2010 2 comments


Stephanie Hanson

A week and a half ago, Americans for the Arts staff were in trains, planes, and loaded down automobiles, headed for Charm City, aka Baltimore, MD, for our Half-Century Summit. Since I work directly with Americans for the Arts’ Emerging Leaders network and our leadership development programs, I spent time participating in Goucher College’s Leadership Symposium, and many of the leadership themed sessions at the Summit.

At the Summit, a recurring conversation in our sessions centered on how we as individuals and organizations could make professional development for our field a larger priority. And by priority, we don’t mean a larger piece of our dwindling budgets. The majority of arts organizations are struggling to figure out how to do more with less, and we need to develop ways to continue making professional development a priority during this tough economy.

In the results from the 2009 Survey to the field of Emerging Arts Leaders, I was shocked to discover that while 70 percent of our current emerging leaders consider arts administration their long term career, only 28.5 percent either strongly agree or agree that there is room for career advancement within their organization.

How will the remaining 41.5 percent of those who want to stay in the field realistically do so when they don’t feel they can grow?

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Ms. Lex Leifheit

Know Better, Learn Faster

Posted by Ms. Lex Leifheit, Jul 07, 2010 1 comment


Ms. Lex Leifheit

Lex Leifheit

“And I need you to be better than me

And you need me to do better than you.”

Thao With The Get Down Stay Down, “Know Better, Learn Faster”

Over a week has passed since the 50th Anniversary Summit, and what a whirlwind week it was. Back at SOMArts Cultural Center we closed out an amazing turnaround year. We more than doubled our gallery attendance, revived our intern and volunteer programming, launched a website, renovated our lobby and office spaces, invested in long-overdue equipment upgrades, fought to protect our city funding, and lived to tell about it.  And yet, in many ways we are just catching up. There’s so much to do and it feels like the more we succeed, the more people we connect to who have urgent needs and high expectations.  Such is the life of a thriving nonprofit.

At convention, I connected with peers who had similar stories. We’re all exhausted. So we sat in the audience and listened to panels talk about new models, veering between skepticism and hope.

I came to convention still stubbornly hanging on to the idea that a “new model” was a structure I could study and apply to my organization—that magical combination of for-profit innovation, technology application and nonprofit altruism.

I left convention having reached the conclusion that we need to stop treating “new model” like a noun, in panels or anywhere else, when what we’re talking about is changing the system. We’re asking how we can achieve dramatic organizational change necessitated by the factors mentioned above, but succeeding via thoughtful communication and a process of enrolling (vs. influencing) stakeholders in one’s vision.

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Ms. Barbara Schaffer Bacon

The Third of July: Happy Community Arts Day

Posted by Ms. Barbara Schaffer Bacon, Jul 02, 2010 3 comments


Ms. Barbara Schaffer Bacon

In the history of the community arts movement in America, July 3 stands as a notable day.  On this day, we celebrate the birthday of one giant, Robert Gard, born in 1910 and the passing of another, Ralph Burgard, in 2008. Gard and Burgard each created processes and pathways to creative engagement for individuals and communities.  Each advanced the idea and value of community arts development through direct community work and the creation of infrastructure to promote community arts development and grow a movement. Each worked tirelessly to advance the right to creative expression for residents in every Americans city, town, and hamlet in America.  This makes the juxtaposition to the 4th of July, a day when we celebrate our freedoms, just – sweet!

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Mr. Ian David Moss

New and Emerging Business Models

Posted by Mr. Ian David Moss, Jun 30, 2010 2 comments


Mr. Ian David Moss

Ian David Moss

On Friday afternoon, I sat in on one of the AFTA Summit's Visionary Panels, "New and Emerging Business Models."  Moderated by Adrian Ellis of Jazz at Lincoln Center and AEA Consulting, the high-powered panel also featured Adam Huttler of Fractured Atlas (aka my boss), Clara Miller of Nonprofit Finance Fund, and Terence McFarland of LA Stage Alliance. (Ben Cameron and Shay Wafer were originally scheduled to appear, but could not make it; McFarland sat in for them instead.)

The panelists each brought a somewhat different perspective to the concept of “new models.” Ellis emphasized a separation between means and ends, defining a new model as an alternative way to accomplish one’s core mission (which presumably remains the same). Nonprofit Finance Fund’s Miller cited high fixed costs as the bane of many nonprofits’ existence and drew a laugh from the audience when she defined a new business model – the only one, in fact – as “reliable revenue that is greater than expenses. Any questions?” Huttler quoted the University of Wisconsin’s Andrew Taylor in describing Fractured Atlas’s model as “mission-oriented around sunk costs, profit-oriented around marginal costs.” Put another way, Fractured Atlas will seek grant funds and other contributed revenue to help pay for one-time expenses such as start-up capital, but always with the expectation that any new program or activity will eventually be able to sustain itself through earned income. McFarland described his organization’s historical reliance on earned income, noting that when he took the leadership reins the proportion of revenue that fell into that category was an astonishing 95%. While that percentage has since fallen somewhat, LA Stage Alliance still employs novel strategies such as marketing its connections with member theaters to interested parties in the private sector (such as newspapers). Despite the economy, LA Stage ended last year with a six-figure surplus.

Sparks began to fly a bit during the next exchange, when Huttler pointed to the contributed-income model (in which the people using the product or service – the customers – are not the same as the people paying for the product or service – the donors) as being inherently problematic. In his view, though the sector is likely stuck with it to some extent, this arrangement can distort programming because those holding the financial cards have a disproportionate amount of power to direct outcomes. Ellis responded that this is in fact what distinguishes the nonprofit sector from the private sector -- why would we change our mission in response to the market instead of changing how we accomplish our mission?

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