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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.

1409 ITEMS FOUND


Alie Wickham

We Need Your Voice to Move the Arts In Healthcare Forward

Posted by Alie Wickham, Nov 03, 2010 7 comments


Alie Wickham

Alie Wickham

It’s been awhile since a post has gone up.  I apologize for that, however, this delay in posting is not just from my lack of time, but also from my lack of motivation to continue these posts.  I am going to be frank and honest with all of you: These Green Paper posts can ONLY make a difference with EVERYONE’S help!! This means you! I could suggest improvements, and attempt to facilitate discussions as much as I want – I love talking about the arts in healthcare, it’s my passion! However, how are we supposed to grow and be innovative thinkers as a field without the input of all of you? Ladies and gentlemen, artists and healthcare providers, students and professionals, it is now your time to step up...do you want me to keep writing and suggesting topics of discussion? PLEASE RESPOND! Thank you!

Now for the post...

The following statement comes from the “Moving Forward” section of the Arts in Healthcare Green Paper:

Arts in healthcare is steadily moving forward. Increasingly, healthcare administrators are not only welcoming but also financially supporting arts programming in their institutions. Medical and nursing schools see the value in incorporating arts in healthcare courses or content to help their students develop essential skills such as observation and communication. Arts institutions, schools, and colleges are partnering with healthcare organizations to provide arts programming and health promotion experiences in community settings.

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Scarlett Swerdlow

Do You Have to Support Public Funding To Be an Arts Advocate?

Posted by Scarlett Swerdlow, Nov 08, 2010 4 comments


Scarlett Swerdlow

Thinking ManSome questions take on a strength and resolve in my mind that it's like all the events I experience and all the facts and stories I acquire point back to the question.

All roads lately lead to this: "What makes an advocate an arts advocate?" A simple question, but does it have a simple answer?

How do you define an arts advocate? What are the denominators that all arts advocates share? Is it about stances on specific issues -- a belief in public funding for the arts and arts education? Is it about actions -- supporting museums, theatres, orchestras, dance companies, etc., with your own money? Is it about motivations -- a conviction that culture makes communities better places to live, work, and raise a family?

As I've been trying to answer the question, November 2 has come, but it hasn't gone. Here in Illinois, the race for governor was won by about a half percent. We will have to wait months to know the meaning and impact of Election Day, the changes it championed and the things it left the same.

So, I'm still stuck on the question, but in some new ways:

What will National Arts Advocacy Day be like in 2011?

This spring, I'll be in Washington, DC for National Arts Advocacy Day. There are 5 newcomers to the Illinois congressional delegation (technically, one of the 5 races isn't called, but it looks like Republican Joe Walsh will oust Democratic incumbent Melissa Bean by a few hundred votes).

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Oh, the Humanities!

Posted by , Nov 09, 2010 0 comments



In the world of arts and arts education advocacy, we sometimes forget that it’s not just the “arts” that are facing scrutiny and budget cuts.  The humanities are facing the budget ax as well, and not just at the elementary, middle, or high school level, but at the college level.  Recently, the State University of New York at Albany announced last month that it would cut programs in Russian, French, Italian, theater, and the classics due to budget constraint.  And it’s not just budget cuts that are the problem; since 1966, the number of bachelor’s degrees awarded in the humanities has dropped from 17% to 8%.  Some might argue that there is no use in funding humanities departments if there’s no one majoring in those disciplines.  But as a history major, I can’t imagine a university without a French department, or theater, or languages, et al.  These aren’t just a huge part of history, in fact, they are history (no pun intended).  How can one study law without studying the classics?   Can you even hope to study foreign affairs without knowing another language?

Worried “that students won’t develop the kind of critical thinking, imagination, and empathy necessary to solve the most pressing problems facing future generations,” a group of college leaders is working to combat these cuts and the apathy that has built up toward humanities. I think this may be an uphill battle, though.  If this month’s election results are any indication, I can’t imagine funding for humanities at the university level (especially at state-supported schools) receiving anything but the same treatment the arts have received.  For me, it goes without saying that the long-term impact of cutting humanities programs at the university level will be devastating.  When even the best college students can only muster a D+ on a history test surveying topics from high school civics, there is cause to be alarmed.

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Ms. Barbara Schaffer Bacon

Community Arts Loses Valuable Resource (from Arts Watch)

Posted by Ms. Barbara Schaffer Bacon, Nov 10, 2010 0 comments


Ms. Barbara Schaffer Bacon

With little fanfare, the Community Arts Network (CAN) website went dark in September. CAN was led with passion by founders Linda Frye Burnham and Steve Durland. Through Art in the Public Interest and CAN, Linda and Steve worked to “promote information exchange,  research, and critical dialogue within the field of community-based art.”

CAN was grounded in the belief “that the arts are an integral part of a healthy culture, providing both intellectual nourishment and social benefit, and that community-based arts provide significant value both to communities and artists.” The site and the volumes of writing Linda and Steve contributed and commissioned helped to legitimize the community arts field here in the United States.

CAN site usage was high. It averaged 40,000 –50,000 visitors per month. 28,000 of those were unique visitors, and each visitor viewed an average of six pages each. Fifty-eight percent of respondents to a user survey indicated the CAN was among the top five preferred websites and 40.7 percent of respondents indicated it was in their top three. A respondent to a 2007 user survey expressed the site’s value well:

CAN shines a light on the depth and, more importantly, breadth of community arts activity. It turns out that community arts do not just exist for a few lucky people in one corner of the world, but by thousands of people in schools, prisons, lumberyards, police forces, girl scout troops, senior centers, on boats, on trains, in bars… the list is endless. CAN helps to contextualize these highly individual experiences in the broader community arts landscape and promote discourse about the field. CAN is building a body of evidence that community arts are not marginal, but rather constitute a large and vibrant part of the greater arts landscape.”

Ironically, CAN goes dark as the community arts and participatory arts practice and projects on which Linda and Steve shined a light seem to be gaining in recognition and support. Thanks to the Open Folklore project, a joint effort of the Indiana University Libraries and the American Folklore Society, the CAN website, as it existed at the beginning of September 2010, has been preserved in an archive.

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Americans for the Arts

Do You Know the Way?

Posted by Americans for the Arts, Nov 12, 2010 1 comment


Americans for the Arts

BY: Terry S. Davis, UNM Center for the Arts

What do you do on a Monday night in Montgomery, Alabama?

If you had been like a lot of locals this week, you would have gone downtown to see the touring production of Fiddler on the Roof. On a Monday night. In Montgomery, Alabama.

I got to the Montgomery Performing Arts Center, pictured above, about 20 minutes before curtain surprised to see a crowd of people in the lobby. So many people were there that I could not make my way to the Will Call window to pick up my ticket.

They had not opened the house yet — some minor technical difficulties with the show that had arrived that morning and would depart after the curtain came down — which meant that all of us were packed into the lobby, which was quite large. A lot of people had come out on a Monday night in Montgomery, Alabama, to see a show.

What brings us out of our homes to the theater?

If I knew that answer, I’d be a featured speaker at the National Arts Marketing Project in San Jose. (It’s been a week of travels.) Several dozen arts marketers are going to gather in a room today to start discussing that very question. As long as I’ve been in this business, I confess I don’t always know the answer. Nor do the others who I will share a room with today, experts though many of them are.

Certainly we understand that people come out for the shared stories of theater, to hear, for example, the tale of a poor Jew in Russia struggling with maintaining balance and traditions in an ever-changing world. But why on a Monday night? Or, more to the point, why not?

In spite of the packed nature of their lobby, the Montgomery Performing Arts Center (MPAC) had not sold out the performance. The question for those of us in San Jose today will be what might we have done, had we been marketers for MPAC, to fill those seats that went empty that night.

Or the seats that went empty on Sunday night in Kansas City’s Music Hall for the performance of Cats I saw. Or the vacant seats in Bass Hall in Fort Worth for Spring Awakening on Tuesday. Or the unsold seats in Popejoy Hall we will have for many of our shows yet this season.

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Megan Pagado

"Failing" with style

Posted by Megan Pagado, Nov 14, 2010 0 comments


Megan Pagado

I entered my undergrad as a double major in Broadcast Journalism and Public Relations, if only because I wasn't sure exactly what I wanted to do. During my sophomore year, I was called to film a number of intro segments for a small niche cable channel's series. Excited, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, I headed to the studio, sat down in front of the camera and and got ready to film my first intro.

All I have to do is read the teleprompter. That's it. Shouldn't be too difficult, right? Okay, here we go...ugh, messed up. Can we do this again?

My voice was raspy, I was fumbling my words, I was nervous and in all honesty, I just didn't enjoy it. It didn't energize me the way I thought it would. In the end, they had me film one (ONE!) closing segment for the series where I read their website and phone number. I had, for all intents and purposes, failed, at least at reaching the goals both I and others had created for myself.

Succeeding is awesome. Knowing that you met your goals and that other people are happy with your product is amazing. But what happens when you fail? What do you do with those mistakes?

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Hoong Yee Krakauer

An Intimate Breakfast with 600

Posted by Hoong Yee Krakauer, Nov 13, 2010 4 comments


Hoong Yee Krakauer

Chip Heath

There are 600 people here at the conference.  "We only catered for 600." Bruce Davis grinned as people began migrating from the exhibitors into the cavernous ballroom for the morning plenary and to hear Chip Heath.

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