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.


Cathy Byrd

Live! From Maryland Art Place, Baltimore!

Posted by Cathy Byrd, May 17, 2010 0 comments


Cathy Byrd

May 14, 2010

On May Day, I watched for the first time the high energy starting ceremony of the American Visionary Art Museum’s 2010 Kinetic Sculpture Race. The teams that work for months to create outlandish amphibious vessels are known as much for their quirky themes and costumes as they are for their uncanny endurance skills. The community-based event is just one example of Baltimore’s interest in ephemeral public art. Contemporary art enters urban space in other ways, too—during the Transmodern Festival (April), the Evergreen Sculpture series (May) and Baltimore’s three-day Artscape festival (July) that features a midway with DIY artists’ projects.

MAP (Maryland Art Place)—the state’s oldest nonprofit contemporary art center—is only a 10-minute walk from the 2010 AFTA conference site. We’d like for the world to take note of Baltimore’s contemporary art scene. That’s why we’re launching a series of public art initiatives, beginning this summer with our first-ever project outside MAP’s galleries. At 6pm on June 23, MAP presents Everybody Suz-ercise! with Miami-based artist Susan Lee-Chun and a team of Suz-ercisers for the PAN Pre-Conference opening event.

The performance begins on the plaza at Market Place, just outside the doors of MAP, and proceeds to the edge of the Harbor where high mode team will finesse a choreographed routine on the green space across from the Aquarium. You can check out the faux fitness program created by The Suz @ www.TheSuzItsFauxReal.com.

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Joanna Chin

Confessions of a Technology Abuser (and the 9+ community arts websites on the path towards rehabilitation)

Posted by Joanna Chin, May 17, 2010 1 comment


Joanna Chin

In her green paper on community development in the arts, Maryo grounds her tips in the idea that the past helps give context to the present and future. However, an equally important way to contextualize one’s individual project is within the collective body of community arts work being done currently. Unfortunately, getting a handle on the amorphous blob that is “The Field of Community Development in the Arts” is an ever- increasing challenge, particularly given the rapid changes in the way that we store and share information.

Now, I know that as a young professional, I’m supposed to embrace technologies of all kinds and thank the online world for providing 24-hour, instantaneous information. But, sometimes (just sometimes) combing through 29+ pages of  Google search results makes me a little bit nostalgic for the days when the definitive publications on subject W were X, Y, and Z.

That was it.

No thousands of web pages, each containing a kernel of pertinent or significant information. No following trails of links to “x marks the spot” (i.e. that document that’s exactly what you were looking for), only to see the eternally-helpful “Page Not Found!” flash across your computer screen where the jackpot should have been buried.

Alas, those days of old-book smell and the whisper of (paper) pages under fingertips are dwindling and the challenge of finding substantive, legitimate information continues to grow.

Are you ready for slightly-embarrassing confession #2?

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