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.


Alix Refshauge

Citizen Spartanburg

Posted by Alix Refshauge, Apr 15, 2010 0 comments


Alix Refshauge

Last night I attended a forum that was organized by Citizen Spartanburg, a grassroots movement that aims to "inspire citizens to pick up the banner of Spartanburg's future and march forward".  The group believes hard-working citizens not only have the power to transform their community but are responsible for getting involved and defining what they want the community to be.  The forum was held in HUB-BUB's gallery space.  It was a one hour meeting with 5 City Council members and the Mayor - all speaking briefly about why they ran for office and what their passions in the community are.  At the end of the meeting, the moderator asked each one to answer the question: "what do you want to see everyone here do to make Spartanburg a better place?"  The answer: "get involved, on any level.  Show up.  Treat your neighbors with respect."

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Liz Bartolomeo

Behind the Scenes of Arts Advocacy Day

Posted by Liz Bartolomeo, Apr 15, 2010 0 comments


Liz Bartolomeo

Actor Jeff Daniels speaks to attendees of the Congressional Arts Kick Off at Arts Advocacy Day

More than 550 arts supporters took to the halls of Congress on Tuesday for Arts Advocacy Day. Advocates (and a few special guests) met with their members of Congress to talk about the importance of developing strong public policies for the arts, increasing public funding for the arts, and incorporating the arts in education reform.

The day started with the Congressional Arts Kick Off. This “pep rally for the arts” featured rousing remarks from guest artists Kyle MacLachlan and Jeff Daniels. And U.S. Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) received the 2010 Congressional Arts Leadership Award from Americans for the Arts and the U.S. Conference of Mayors.

“[I]t is a true honor to be recognized among the ranks of these leaders with the Congressional Arts Leadership Award. Thank you for your support and for your ongoing work to bring the voices of America's artists to the chambers of Capitol Hill,” said Speaker Pelosi upon receiving the award.

After the kick off event, Americans for the Arts presented testimony before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on the Interior. Witnesses included: Terri Aldrich, Executive Director, Minot Area Council of the Arts; Brig. Gen. Nolen V. Bivens, U.S. Army (ret.); Jeff Daniels, Golden Globe-nominated film and stage actor; Kyle MacLachlan, Emmy-nominated TV, film, and stage actor; Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter; Charles Segars, CEO, Ovation; and Robert L. Lynch, President and CEO, Americans for the Arts.

They asked Congress to support a budget of $180 million for the National Endowment for the Arts in the FY 2011 Interior Appropriations bill.

Read official testimony from the hearing here or watch video of all witnesses online here. And to view photos of all the Arts Advocacy Day events click here.

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Mr. Ian David Moss

The Future of Leadership

Posted by Mr. Ian David Moss, Apr 13, 2010 3 comments


Mr. Ian David Moss

(My thanks to Jean Cook of the Future of Music Coalition and Adam Huttler of Fractured Atlas for their contributions to this article.)

We hear a lot of talk about the coming leadership transition in the arts. Baby Boomers are nearing retirement age, and Gen X’ers and Millennials are itching to take on increased responsibility. Both for the good of the arts as a whole and for the individuals involved, we need to make sure that, when the time comes, the people getting behind the wheel will have had some experience riding shotgun first. Hence our conversations have frequently centered on professional development, training, networking, and mentorship as strategies to better prepare our young(er) drivers.

It's important to recognize, though, that the conversation isn’t—or shouldn’t be, at any rate—solely about passing the keys from one generation to the next. That’s something that has been happening since time immemorial, and is part of the normal cycle of nature and humanity. What’s so newsworthy about that, really? Naturally, there are lessons about leadership to be handed down from the elders to the newbies – and our conversations on ArtsBlog have boasted some elders’ generous attempts to do just that. Every so-called “emerging leader” who knows what he or she is talking about acknowledges that there is much to learn from those who came before, and that we would be foolish to pretend that we already have the answers. After all, the calls for mentorship are coming more from the younger generations than it is from the elders.

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Ebony McKinney

Organized with a Capital "O"

Posted by Ebony McKinney, Apr 09, 2010 7 comments


Ebony McKinney

So how do we, emerging arts leaders, embrace the new creative economy, but not become what Angela McRobbie described in her essay “Everybody is Creative: Artists as New Economy Pioneers” as “a society of lonely, mobile, over-worked individuals for whom socializing and leisure are only more opportunities to do a deal”. How do we stay afloat, while helping to drive innovation and keep a diversity of (popular as well as thoughtful, well-crafted) art alive in our communities?

What do we do first?

Get organized. As individual arts and culture workers each of us must build our own capacity for risk and to make mistakes. Build it, try it, fix it is my new mantra. I am working to be both a planner and doer, to be ambitious and creative, while building in time for self- reflection, evaluation and course correction. I’ve also found that risk and learning can be supported through shared leadership, mentorship, collaboration and coordination.

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Selena Juneau-Vogel

Are We Taking Advantage of Interns?

Posted by Selena Juneau-Vogel, Apr 09, 2010 4 comments


Selena Juneau-Vogel

Marc’s Seder post about the youngest person in the room asking "why are we doing things the way we’re doing things?" got me thinking—are we really letting the youngest in the room ask the questions?

I want to remind myself and my fellow Millennials that with all our pounding on the "glass ceiling", our subversive questions, and our demands to sit at the adult table, let us not forget that there are others that follow us. In our fit to close the generation gap before us, we are not always as attentive as we could be in preventing a gap behind us. Who’s that behind us? Who’s the youngest in the room? She’s the one that you’ve had silently de-duping the mailing list for the last two weeks at the desk in the basement by the boiler. She’s your intern.

Unpaid internships are quite the racket. Our parents didn’t intern at all but now there’s inflated pressure to spend every summer from 14 to 22 and often beyond in servitude (no, not service) just to get into college, then into grad school, and THEN get a job. I’m exaggerating a bit, but I think we’ve all seen the trend.

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