Yesterday, 800 artists and arts administrators from all over the bay area signed up to go to Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in downtown San Francisco for a day long gathering to consider the future of arts practice and provision amid changing times and circumstances.  This was the largest confluence of artists and arts leadership in recent memory, and like most such events provided those in attendance to not only consider the principal issues the arts & culture sector is facing, but also the rare opportunity to intersect and interact with peers.

To view the Grafitti Wall with entries by attendees at the Town Hall meeting and the Graphic Arts Summation at the wrap-up session, click on these links:
Grafitti Wall
Closing Session

Organized by a committee of 67, led by E. San San Wong (San Francisco Arts Commission) and Cora Mirikitani (Center for Cultural Innovation), this effort was made possible by a virtual who’s who of bay area arts organizations, foundations and local agencies who supported the planning and execution of the meeting.  What was impressive to me, was the across the board, widespread community effort by  the entire nonprofit arts sector, and that the attendance was balanced between arts organizations and individual artists.  Among these groups were some of our best and brightest thinkers and leaders - both on the stage and in the audiences.

This blog is an attempt to recap some of the day’s highlights, raise some of the issues that were on attendees' minds, and hopefully provide a forum for those in attendance as well as those who could not be there, to discuss some of those and other issues.  At the end of this blog YOU can enter your comment and we hope you will.

The Plenary Session sought to set the day’s tone by looking at the big picture of the bay area arts fabric – considering four issues:  survival, creativity, reach and impact  (which four issues were the four tracks for the day’s workshops and sessions).   Panel moderator, JOHN KILLACKY, the Program Officer for Arts & Culture at the San Francisco Foundation, used the SWOT model (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats) and asked the panel participants to discuss the issues in those terms.  The program agenda describes the prelude better than I could:  "Although the Bay Area is a uniquely rich artistic and culturally diverse locale and laboratory for aesthetic exploration, cross-cultural dialogue, community engagement practices, and the evolution of new organizing structures, many stakeholders in the arts ecology feel the pressures of change."

MICHAEL MORGAN – Music Director and Conductor, Oakland East Bay Symphony – opined that survivability necessitates that you (or your organization) constantly need to re-think “What it is that you do, and for whom”.  Ask these questions: “What impact can you have and what impact do you want to have?  Where do you fit?  What works for you?  Knowing when to stop and when goals have been met is important.  Michael suggested that collaboration is more important than competition, and that one of the weaknesses in our matrix is that we are sometimes oblivious to the potential of connection with each other.  He added that leaving something for the succeeding generations has got to guide our actions.

FAVIANNA RODRIGUEZ – Printmaker and Social Entrepreneur – and the youngest member of the panel, offered bay area creativity has been nurtured by the depth of diversity of the immigrant community, and that the bay area’s leadership in absorbing the multiple levels that community has to offer is one of the area’s strengths.  She thought that we have a level of experience in dealing with communities of color that other areas don’t yet match, and that experience is one of our assets – leading to levels of opportunities for collaboration.  On the weaknesses side, Favianna suggested that even though we are at the epicenter of technology in the bay area, we still don’t really take advantage of online / website opportunities that might link us.  And while we collaborate effectively within our own community, she thought we still don’t collaborate enough with other community groups in their change efforts.  She also thought that our outreach to young artists under the age of 30 still needs improvement; that we need to address high turnover rates in our arts organizations and that we need to identify and expand our organizational and business models so that they are more self-sustaining.

MOY ENG – Program Director, Performing Arts Program, The William & Flora Hewlett Foundation – noted with respect to “reach” the current simultaneous intersection (most pronounced in the bay area) of “live” and “virtual” time options, the impact of which has changed the cultural menu in the bay area.  She provided an extraordinary statistic:  next year, 200 million computers will be sold world-wide, but two billion digital devices (phones, ipods, navigation devices etc.) will be sold.  Somehow the arts need to be available as content on the growing dependence on these digital devices as the planet shifts its means to access information.

Moy also noted the still prevalent “sense of the possible” in the bay area, an asset not as strong in other areas, and that this attitude nurtured our creative environment.  But she also warned that content on the internet is now increasingly thought of as an entitlement; that downloaders feel that all content is and should always be – free.  That may be a future problem or it may be an advantage.

Noted audience researcher, ALAN BROWN – Principal in his own firm Wolf/Brown – talked about “reach” as having three different meanings:  physical reach (evidenced by the examples of audience statistics); emotional reach (how do the arts “grab” people); and reach as when one grows because of the transformative experience of the arts.

Alan offered – as an example of the reach of the arts – that if everyone in the Yerba Buena auditorium were to send out  some consensus message at the same time on the same day to its own email listserv and asked all those people to pass on that message, that it would likely be that the message would “reach” one third of the entire bay area population by day’s end.  That is the potential “reach” the arts community might have, and Alan challenged the community, as a whole, to test its reach, and do exactly that every couple of years.

Alan opined that the decentralized nature of the arts sector is like having 10,000 branch offices and no headquarters.  Without suggesting it is  good or bad thing, but simply a reality, we have no cultural CEO and so our decision making apparatus is hard to identify.  He thought that the glue that holds everything together in the bay area arts sector is the extraordinarily strong philanthropic community we have here that most communities can only envy.

On another plane, Alan thought we need to rethink the physical places where we offer art to the public.  Thus, for example, he asked:  “Where is the room you go to after a performance to discuss with other people (should you so desire) what you have just seen?”  Not the “green room” where performers await, not the lobby where ushers want you to vacate as quickly as possible.  Where then?  Are we not facilitators of social experiences – of people wanting to spend time together?

Alan offered that the arts scene is an ecology and growth is natural but cannot be forced.  You can fertilize it, but not make it grow.  (And he also offered that death in an ecology is not unnatural – but suggested that was whole other topic for another day).

Finally, Alan cautioned that we still don’t really have any idea about how arts transforms people.  We don’t have a clue as to the cumulative impact of the arts on people’s lives in the bay area or anywhere.  At best, we are only beginning to built a lexicon that will allow us to talk about how art makes better human beings.

LUIS CANCEL – the new Director of Cultural Affairs of the San Francisco Arts Commission – suggested that the whole of the bay area arts community needs to adopt candor as it discusses how to address the various issues it faces, so that we can move forward quicker than if we talk around issues.  He thought one of the major challenges we face is the unhealthy economic climate for working artists to find the physical space in which to work.  (He was careful to distinguish working space with live / work space – as the bay area housing situation makes the latter challenge exponentially more difficult).

Luis offered that the bay area enjoyed some enormous advantages, including the huge amount of residents with enormous dollar liquid assets, and the growing tourism industry (16 million tourists last year, 2 million of whom were from foreign countries).

Formerly from the Bronx Museum of the Arts, as a newcomer Luis, like many others, is outraged that state per capita support ranks California dead last of all the states).

As to challenges, Luis thought we need to take greater advantage of online opportunities to help us to create more common connections.  And finally, he noted that we have to figure out how to make sure our nonprofit boards of directors take more seriously their obligation to raise funds for our arts organizations, noting that those Boards that do accept that responsibility have track records of success.

Concluding the session, JOHN KILLACKY asked the panelists for some opinions about what they would like to see for the arts in the future – five, ten years down the line.

MOY hoped for and was optimistic that the arts would move towards being an increased part of every child’s K-12 experience.

MICHAEL wanted to see the orchestras move towards really using the internet to distribute music content and increasing public access to what they had to offer.

ALAN  hoped that five years from now everyone would have an icon on the home page that said “groups” and that the arts sector would evolve in its capacity to harness the power of social networking.  He noted that all our managerial and other institutional experience resided in our minds, and hoped that we could develop some program to pay mentors to coach our administrators; that someday every arts leader would have the option to both be, and have, a coach.

LUIS thought we would continue our leadership in the diversity area and that would provide us ever newer opportunities.

And FAVIANNA hoped the arts community would have progressed in taking back some control of the way the media treats arts & culture.

BARRY:  What follows are some brief summaries of some of the day’s break out sessions by the moderators of each session.  Throughout the day I will be posting additional session summaries as I receive them from key observers and session leaders.  Check back today and over the course of the next four days and participate in the ongoing discussion of the issues facing the arts sector in the bay area by entering your own comment, observations, thoughts and ideas.  And please help us by alerting your constituents and clients about this blog discussion.

MICHAEL WARR:  Session:  “Beyond 501c3- New Structures, Leadership, and Sustenance for Tomorrow’s Arts Organizations”

The Panelists were: Todd Brown, Founder/Co-Director, Red Poppy Art House; Courtney Fink, Executive Director, Southern Exposure; Heather Hiles, Chief Operating Officer, RippleSend; Michael Warr, Poet, Transitions Consultant, Projects Director at CompassPoint Nonprofit Services; Josh Wilson, Acting Executive Director, Independent Arts & Media; and Moderator, Nancy Quinn, Founder and Principal of Quinn Associates.

Knowing there were panelists and audience members who were actively avoiding becoming 501(c)3s I gave a broad sweep of “real world factors” to be considered in the undertaking of sustainable alternates to the 501(c)3 model. Those factors included 1. The role of leadership (collective and individual), which plays a critical role in determining what is possible; 2. The local Arts Ecosystem (Does that system encourage fiscal agent relationships for instance?); and, 3. How will that system adjust to a changing economic environment. The feasibility of alternative models to the 501(c)3 cannot be determined in the abstract.

Ken Foster, Executive Director at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts noted from the audience that 501(c)3 status is a tool to use when it is helpful and avoid when it is not. There were examples of doing things differently within the 501(c)3 structure.  Courtney Fink spoke of how Southern Exposure “questioned and embraced its own model” of supporting its own artists and experimented in reinventing its programming.  In evaluating “what it does” Southern Exposure challenged itself to “Imagine a day when we don’t exist?”  The grants program it created has become a model of supporting smaller organizations and fueling the arts in San Francisco. This is an example of what the Arts Ecosystem makes possible, so is the Red Poppy Art House.

The Red Poppy is not a 501(c)3, but like more than 100 other local arts groups uses Intersection for the Arts as a fiscal agent.  Todd Brown described it as “less an organization and more an experiment that is always rethinking and questioning what it does and where it fits.”  Further refining and defining the Red Poppy he compared it to a “Mom and Pop corner store” that strives to be just as integral to the community’s daily life as opposed to the typical relationship of arts organizations and communities that have to wait for programming to start in order to participate or go out of their way to get there.

Turning things on their head the question was posed “While most organizations think of growing larger, why not consider growing smaller?”  Red Poppy’s Co-Director Meklit Hadero, also speaking from the audience, posed another significant question in determining the trajectory and path of an arts organization: What does success mean?  That answer should be different for each organization or experiment.  I heard some participants saying it takes different structures to pursue distinct missions and specific tools to build those structures.

Independent Arts & Media’s Josh Wilson spoke of his organization aspiring to be an association of producers sharing services that sustain art under an umbrella that brings community together.  Rejecting the hierarchic model, his group has an advisory board that makes decisions collectively, instead of following the typical Executive Director model. Social capital drives the organization’s engine.

Heather Hiles argued that the 501c3 model is limiting creativity in arts even arguing that when you are in a meeting with funders that it takes away from creativity. She encouraged advocacy and organizing around common interests to back up our demands for financial support.

One participant complained that “all these structures are strangling us” and that it “was impossible to find money as individual artists.” She offered a solution in which Californians could vote with their dollars by checking a box on the ballot for how much they want to give to the arts. 

If there was a common thought in the room it was that more collectivity is needed.  There was a strong sense of cooperatives being more a part of our future in the arts community.  Heather Hiles described that future being made up of more community-led groups.  And Nancy Quinn summarized our commonality when she ended the session by saying being "mission-driven is at the heart of cooperation."

JESSICA ROBINSON:  Throughout the Arts Town Hall, the Reach track focused on what we as artists and arts administrators can learn about audiences and communities, and how that knowledge can help us connect with them better.  In the earlier session, I was particularly taken by Alan Brown's five modes of engagement: inventive, interpretive, curatorial, observational and ambient.

It's been my experiences that when we think about marketing, we spend too much time focusing on the observational form of engagement (the old goal of "getting butts in seats"), at the expense of a deeper investigation of how we might deeply engage our audiences in a way that changes their lives.... or at least makes them want to come back.

And so the second Reach session, "Reaching Tomorrow's Audience: New Ideas In Action," was designed as an opportunity for those on the frontlines to share some tools around how to engage audiences, particularly using newer technology.  My hope was to avoid a "talking heads" panel, but instead create a "skill-share" atmosphere that would enable everyone to go home with some useful tools.

I think it was a success.  Ron Evans from Artsopolis talked about his strategies for motivating arts attendance in the South Bay; Jez Kuono`ono Lee and I spoke about our work with CounterPULSE, using our blog as an extension of our live interaction with audiences; Nishat Kurwa of Youth Radio spoke about their dynamic programming to develop young voices, and shared a very funny Youth Radio clip entitled, "Psychics are the new Psychologists"; Nicole Neditch relayed the inspiring story of how a handful of Oakland art galleries banded together to form a gallery crawl that has become a social phenomenon; and Chris Wiltsee spoke about his inspiring work creating a youth-run record label.

Much of our time was spent telling our stories and sharing specific tools that we all use in the work that we do.  Through this, a few common ideas emerged:

1) Incentivize-- when you're asking audiences to do something new (whether post to a blog or participate in a chat room), it's good to offer an incentive-- a contest or prize for participation

2) Create the content, and then get out of the way-- when you're using social networking or blogging, you have to let the participants have their own voice... even if you don't like what they have to say.

3) Collaboration, not competition-- this was a theme for the whole day, really.  Nicole's story about what can happen when art galleries start seeing themselves as collaborators rather than competitors was a really powerful illustration.

After the panel, a colleague approached me and said how good it was to see "all you young people" on the panel sharing our ideas.  It struck me that we hadn't particularly set out to create a youth-oriented panel-- it just happened that way.  It was particularly gratifying to me to see such an age range in the leadership and participation at the Arts Town Hall. From Favianna Rodriguez in the plenary session, to panels throughout the afternoon, younger leadership was well-represented throughout the gathering.  And we were all united in honoring the "evergreens" in our community-- those who have been doing this work for 30 years or more.  I so appreciated that range.

As I said at the panel, I believe that the lines between our communities, our audiences, our constituents, and our participants are becoming more and more blurred.  I am hopeful that as we expand our ideas of who are audiences are, we can also expand our concepts of how to engage them.
 

SABRINA KLEIN:  “Justice: A frame for the arts in the 21st Century”
We talked about justice and how frequently it is identified as a specific need (e.g., homeless kids or adults with Alzheimer’s) that can be targeted by arts-based activities.  Carl Anthony expanded the conversation about justice by putting it in the context of all of us being the end products of 13.7 billion years of life in the universe, and projected the future as deeply as possible.  He pointed to a clear intersection between environmental justice, racial equity, and sustainable communities and the role of artists in that intersection. We can pull ourselves outside of this moment in time and open ourselves up to “deep time” where past, present and future call for us to act consciously on behalf of ourselves and our communities. Paloma Pavel then talked about her personal journey as an artist and activist when she realized that she had the power to make small gestures become significant by randomly repeating them, hence launching the grassroots movement to commit Random Acts of Kindness and Senseless Beauty.  Jayeesha Dutta traced her local, focused work in establishing MindPower Collective through personal experience of social inequity on a global level.  Then the group broke out in to smaller discussions to reflect on the intersections between Justice and Art.  The discoveries included:

· we can all tell our stories through the frame of justice, if we reflect about what matters to us in our art-making

· we need to change our language to tell our stories in ways that help us make the justice frame clear to our listeners

· although everyone’s story and everyone’s art-making were different, they shared common threads

· beauty has a tremendous role to play in working toward justice

· and personal transformation in the specific and particular provides access to universal understandings and connections.

LILLY KHARRAZI, Alliance for California Traditional Arts
Issue Track 4:  IMPACT “To Be Traditional is To Be Political” facilitated by the Alliance for California Traditional Arts    3:00-4:30 pm

Workshop description: Traditional Arts are far from “safe” or “conservative” ventures.  This panel  of artists, community organizers and activist’s impact communities here and abroad with their work.  What challenges do they face as artists or émigrés who have been historically ignored?  What sustains the spirit and life of these art makers? What are the issues they face? This workshop produced by the Alliance for CA Traditional Arts will be a lively show and tell, coming directly from the experiences of artists and activists whose art making is reaching beyond Bay Area zip codes.

This session was born out the work that ACTA (Alliance for Ca Traditional Arts www.actaonline.org )  is passionately devoted to.  We work with California’s diverse cultural communities through our funding opportunities, advocacy and convenings to ensure that important cultural values and assets of the past will continue into the future.  Embedded in this complex idea are a multiplicity of issues that touch upon definitions of what is traditional, how will cultural continuity look in the future, what impacts our indigenous communities, how to support endangered languages which is a lifeline to culture, identifying culture bearers and master artists of today and tomorrow, and how the following  generations will continue, adapt or abandon their cultural inheritance.

Our participants were chosen for this panel because each of them are engaged in doing work with peoples who have been historically silenced.  They are silenced by a variety of complex reasons which can be because of their minority status, racism, political policies, self-hatred, generations removed from the source culture, etc.  They have made an impact on the population they work with nationally and internationally by engaging in traditional arts.  By doing so, their work de- facto becomes politicized.  ACTA was deeply honored to have our grantees share their experiences with us yesterday:

Douglas Mundo, Executive Director of Canal Welcome Center of San Rafael (www.canalcenter.org) works in a social service setting that primarily serves day laborers.  An important program of the Center is the arts and culture component that serves the Mayan population that in the Bay Area is over 5,000 strong.  Accompanying him were members of the Mayan community: Mario Gongora, Jordi Gongora, Gerardo Ortiz, Alma, Pech, Leticia Chacon and priest and artisan Ernesto Olmos who began the seesion with invocations to the divine.  We stood with him as he led us in  salutations to the four directions and downwards toward the earth’s center.  He blew the conch shell and other hand made wind instruments that evoked sounds of the natural world like the wind and gentle bird calls.  Our senses were filled by the sound and sights of the natural world. One flute that had two small bowls at its end were lit with tiny pools of fire.   Other members of the community including younger boys danced for us a regional dance from the Yucatan.  They wore their regional dress which is hand embroidered with motifs of the natural world as well: flowers and vines.

(Q--Think about the lives that people live. Day laborer here, sending money home,  keeping a connection to your culture, your language, your customs. Is this the story of all immigrant groups?  What are the challenges here for an indigenous community in particular? In a time of innovation and globalization, how can one articulate one’s power in practicing traditional arts? )

Door Dog Music Productions, founders of the San Francisco World Music Festival (www.sfworldmusicfestival.org) was represented by executive director, Michael Santoro and program director, Kutay Derin Kugay.  As artists, activists and educators their mission has been to showcase and empower artists that have historically been under-represented due to cultural, political and economic barriers.  These are primarily traditional artists. Working with communities closely in the U. S. and abroad, they have created opportunities for collaborations from diverse cultures.  They shared with us their work in the Kurdish communities here and in Turkey.  Joined by two Kurdish women musicians, we heard a song sung and written by Ms. Duygu Bayar, a 21 year old who accompanied herself with the frame drum.  Her short song sung in a Kurdish dialect, we were told was written to commemorate the death of a child who got caught in the crossfire of police breaking up a Kurdish event in her hometown.  The free usage of the Kurdish language has been denied to the population for decades.  Ms. Bayar who is a children’s choral group director came to the U.S. last year to perform at the SF World Music Festival.  Her children, ages 8-16 sang in the SFWMF  in several languages including Kurdish and upon their return to Turkey, Ms. Bayar was questioned about her activities with the choral group.  She fled back to the US and has is now a pending political refugee status.  She has been sentenced in absentia to 15 years in prison.  Her children who are over 12 will be facing a court sentence next week.

We also heard from Ms. Ozden Ostoprak, an accomplished conservatory trained vocalist and musician who accompanied herself with the saz (lute), singing in another Kurdish dialect.  Her daughter Berfin, age 12, joined for the last song.  They are supported in our Apprenticeship program to assure the continuation of this strong and beautiful tradition. 

(Q-Can traditional arts practice mobilize communities and make one’s voice heard?  What is the role of culture bearers as community leaders? How do politics and cultural identity intersect? )

Ma’afa is a kiswahaili term for “disaster” or “terrible occurrence”.  This word has been used to describe the results of the European slave trade that brought the Africans to the new world.  We heard from Ms. Wanda Sabir, artist, journalist, and founder of this remembrance ritual which takes place at dawn each October. (www.maafasfbayarea.com)  Ms. Sabir talked about the generational memory of trauma and healing that must take place in order to understand the connections of culture that link every African together in the Diaspora. The ritual is by and for African Americans utilizing drumming, dance, and libations.  It is the catalyst for art making, community dialogues and introspection.  It is a time to reflect on the legacy of slavery, its economic, political and social impact on African peoples in order to heal from the trauma.  We saw a slide show of the ritual observance which is available on the website.  Ms. Sabir also spoke of the reluctance of some in her community to be so Black-identified which resonated with our next speaker.

(Q- What does a community do when your histories have been erased or denied?)

A natural segue to the work of Voice of Roma (www.voiceofroma.org) followed.  Sani Rifati and Carol Bloom are the founders and activists of VOR.  As a people and as a culture, the Roma have been and continue to be misrepresented, mythologized and romanticized as “gypsies”. VOR’s domestic work presents authentic Romani culture, music and art to No. California audiences. Abroad, they are involved primarily in Kosovo and through a variety of services work to increase safety, stability and economic opportunities of the Roma, particularly women.  Each year they produce a spring equinox event called the Herdeljezi.   Sani spoke passionately about people robbing his identity and culture.  What resonated with Ms. Sabir’s point of community participation was that the Romani peoples have been hesitant to publicly form an activists’ block, due to historical reasons of persecution. Both the Maafa ritual and Voice of Roma have been the inspiration for other communities to adopt their cultural programs.
 
(Q-How can one develop into a cultural organizer? )

Please post your comments and feedback.  We would love to hear from you.   Thank you for attending our session and thanks in advance for your thinking.

LINDA SCHANFEIN Great group of varied arts administrators and individual artists interested  in developing cultural facilities and how to find and develop live/work spaces.We discussed the basics…….vision, finding space, true to the mission, financing and most of all being creative in your approach to leasing.  How to negotiate a lease, Opportunities in creating raw arts spaces, how to program arts spaces, finding the right tenants. Building communities. Being flexible in your search and your goals.  The dilemma in finding live/work space.  Creative ways to develop live/work on a small scale……does it work?  Discussed an example of live/work in a condo environment……rules, regs and the community of artists.Basically the positives and negatives of that structure.  Excellent questions from the group. Several things I left them with:

1) In your search for art space – what’s your vision of the space and how will it function,

2) Is it financially feasible ………how do you get to that point. 

3) Learn how to negotiate for what you want………find out what the bottomline is and go from there.

4) Don’t give up on your goals and always network your “vision” to others……..you never know when an opportunity will present itself.


JULIE FRY – Board of Director Roundtable
The group realized during the introductions that the participants were from fairly small organizations, and so we agreed that we would discuss how to build a small board.  Topics included the optimal number of board members (it depends on the needs of the organization) and how to find potential board members (one participant attends a dinner hosted by a board member purely for board recruitment).   We discussed the need to balance having new, young and diverse voices on the board to reflect the community the organizations serve, with the need to have board members who are connected to potential donors.  Some participants made it clear to their board members that they need to contribute to their organization (charity begins at home) before they can make any fundraising asks and it was agreed that setting board members up for success by providing them with the fundraising tools and training they need is imperative.  One participant mentioned that they identify potential board members from their audience and invite them to participate in an organizational planning process.  That gives both sides a chance to engage with each other before issuing a board invitation.

Overall, my sense is that there are great ideas in practice for board development, and that it would be great to have an ongoing forum for small and mid-sized organizations in particular to share their ideas – what works and what doesn’t in recruiting and retaining highly-engaged board members.
 

BELINDA TAYLOR:  "What We Know About Audience Participation."
We deliberately took a wide-ranging, nontraditional look at what is meant by audience, from ticket buyers -- the so-called "butts in seats" (to use the crass industry term)-- to people like and unlike ourselves, but who universally lead busy lives, engage in some form of personal arts practice in their lives, and who want their kids to have an array of arts in school.  We explored consumer trends -- people wanting to engage more meaningfully with arts presenters, wanting to control and customize their arts experiences, waanting to be part of the process rather than passive receivers. Are we, as arts-makers and presenters, willing to lift the curtain and let them in on the fun?

The audience at hand, those seated in the screening room at Yerba Buena Center, responded well to our eclectic approach to the topic of marketing. Two of our panelists described inspiring arts-related advocacy and social marketing campaigns. Tenoch Flores of Fenton Communications described Fenton's campaign that used art to advocate for an idea: creating a positive image of American Muslims through an on-line film contest. The winning video is circulating now on the Internet. Tenoch measures the many hits it has received as "mind share." Louise Music of the Alameda County Office of Education Alliance for Arts Learning Leadership spoke of the Alliance's campaign to use an idea to advocate for art.  The idea: Art IS Education, a galvanizing concept that resonates at many levels and is helping to restore arts learning to public schools in Alameda County.

Arts participation researcher Alan Brown provided a peek (pre-publication) at new research into personal arts practices among folks living in the Central Valley and Inland Empire.  He reported that 80% of those surveyed engage in broadly-defined "creative" activities which may or may not have much to do with what we consider "art." Is cooking traditional foods art? Is gardening art?  Possibly. I wondered if these "art in everyday life" hobbies and activities correlate with attending arts events.  We will have to await the Irvine Foundation-funded study results for an answer.  Carlos Velázquez, marketing director of Teatro Vision in San Jose, provided a close up view of his organization's effort's to serve many constituencies at this Latino/Chicano company.  Relying on a values-based marketing approach, he focused on a handful of local teachers to launch educational outreach; the payoff was huge: students, entire schools, families and community people made the connection to the teatro.  However, the range of mono and bilingual language skills was challenging.  Meeting these challenges required tremendous work...multilingual outreach, translation of materials, performance supertitles ...and ingenuity.  But it has paid off with increased attendance. Making the teatro a welcoming place for many diverse people (market segments) is a challenge that Carlos and his colleagues continue to meet.

FRANCES PHILLIPS: Finding Balance: Living to Create
I took away from this conversation a spirit of generosity—three speakers were trying hard to address identified needs of artists and three artists were wise and thoughtful in sharing their life/work balance advice. The room was packed and a show of hands suggested that visual artists dominated.

Judilee Reed, Executive Director of Leveraging Investments in Creativity (LINC), talked about key needs of artists that surfaced in the Investing in Creativity study of U.S. artists: demands and markets, direct support, artists’ space, information, and health insurance. In each of the cities and regions where LINC is operating, local partners identify the theme to be addressed. (In the Bay Area, it is helping four community foundations increase direct support to artists.)

Linda Park, a program officer at New York Foundation for the Arts, described the evolution of NYFA Source (www.nyfa.org/source), a national data source for artists which began as the artists’ hotline and has evolved into a web based tool—likely to serve more than 110,000 artists this year.

Don’t be fooled by the name “The Actors Fund”: it has long served the needs of artists in front of and behind the camera, a broad swath of performing artists and, now, visual artists. Research demonstrates that artists are twice as likely to be uninsured than other members of the general population (though most of the artists in the room were insured).  Dan Kitowski, M.S.W., Manager of the Health Insurance Resource Center, introduced the Center’s Web resource for artists, www.ahirc.org, which includes a PDF that is focused on San Francisco and Oakland.

I invited performing artist and poet Marc David Pinate; choreographer Judith Smith, and visual artist Amy Franceschini to describe how they support themselves, and challenges they face in balancing personal and professional goals.  Marc had an amazing array of jobs (at least three) and art activities (far more than three).  Because of having a disability, for a number of years Judy was able to work as artistic director of Axis Dance Company without paying herself. While she’s now salaried, she pays her administrative staff more than she pays herself. Amy just took a full-time teaching position at University of San Francisco, but up to this point was piecing together multiple jobs. Many challenges were identified, from Amy’s loss of both her apartment and studio space several years ago to Judy’s wish to pay her dancers a living wage.

The artists were asked to share the advice they would give to emerging artists. Their answers where generous and inspiring. Here’s a sampling:

Judy: Make your home your sanctuary; set your own schedule; meditate; therapy/therapy/therapy, whatever that means to you; seek advice; find the friends you can bitch and moan to; set personal goals; define your limits and know when to say “no”; find a passion outside of your art; thank everybody and don’t expect anything back from that.

Amy: Intern and volunteer, spending as much time as you can at arts institutions (a handy way to use your Project 20 hours if you have racked up a lot of parking tickets in San Francisco); if you can’t afford something, barter for it; think about what you want your world to be and make that what you create. (Amy has no space to garden where she lives and has made a major project that has gardening at its core.)

Marc: Be true to your art; take workshops and learn new skills; being the best performer/artist that you can be is more important than being a self-promoter—

if you are really good, opportunity will come to you; invest time in your community—fun comes from working with other people; include others in your work; have a spiritual practice; exercise—use your body.

Hearing the artists’ challenges and advice, Judilee wondered if the researchers and program designers in the room were doing the right things, “At best, it is our job to incentivize local communities to think strategically about how to create programs on your behalf.” Some things that panelists found to be inspiring were a recent gathering of urban planners in Cleveland who were interested in artists’ role in rebuilding urban areas (Judilee); studies linking arts activities with economic activity (Linda); a shift in the use of language from “networking” to “community” (Linda); building of new live-work developments in Oakland (Judy); state and national political candidates’ focus on the topic of health care reform and a very useful tool for those who want to get involved in artists’ healthcare: www.artistsunitedforhealthcare.com (Dan).

Audience members wanted more help with affordable space and with kinds of support that could benefit artists with families.  In our particular room at Yerba Buena Center, many had health insurance but affordable studio and living space remained on the table as a question to rally around.

BARRY:  Clearly there is no shortage of challenges facing the arts in the bay area as elsewhere – everything from money woes and daunting fundraising demands, to competition for audiences, from content issues, to generational succession, from figuring out how to mobilize our advocacy efforts to opening lines of new collaboration.   And there are also extraordinary opportunities for us to grow as a field.

If you would like to comment on any of the issues raised here – or any other issue not touched on in this summary re-cap of yesterday’s gathering, please scroll down and enter your comment.  We hope that over the next four days we might begin an ongoing dialogue and discussion within our community that can continue offline in thousands of conversations.

One central consensus opinion from yesterday was that we need more opportunities to gather as we did.

This morning when I awoke and looked out the window (I live in a relatively rural part of central Marin country – a canyon that enjoys wildlife in abundance), I saw sitting right outside my bedroom window a young mother deer and her two new babies – not more than a couple of weeks old, still a little unsure on their feet, but enormously curious.  The mother kept a close eye on them as they explored, and they were so cute and precious that one could not have failed to be captivated by the wonder of new life.  The differences between these magnificent little animals and human beings are fewer than we might imagine, but one is that human beings have the capacity to make art, and it is that capacity and the end product that is our legacy; it is our art that survives us, and that helps us to give meaning to our existence.  There can be no doubt that we have one of the best products that any sector can possibly offer the public.  While the obstacles we face and the threats to our hopes are real, together we can overcome them.  I would like to once again personally salute each and every one of you out there who are dedicated to creativity.  Bless you all.  Your contribution to the well being of all of us is incalculable. What you do is extremely important.

Thank you,

Remember – Don’t Quit.

Barry

Artists can find information about available insurance options in California and more information on ABX1 1, by going to the Artists United for Healthcare website - www.artistsunitedforhealthcare.org

Here are two other links on health care issues:

www.calhealthreform.org
www.itsourhealthcare.org


I.  OPTIMISM IN THE RANKS OF ARTISTS:

This month’s issue comes to us from Claire Peeps, Executive Director of The Durfee Foundation in Los Angeles, and the current President of the Board of Directors of Grantmakers in the Arts – the national association of foundations and other funders active in the arts & culture sector.  


Claire poses the following question for your consideration:

“Does optimism matter in the arts?   

If artists feel optimistic about opportunities available to them, do they produce more art, or better art?

I ask because “fostering a climate of optimism in the arts in Los Angeles” is one of the goals of the Durfee ARC grant program (Artists’ Resource for Completion).   Eight years into the program, I’m curious.  

We articulated that goal for ARC because of the negative feedback we got to a former, larger grant program that Durfee operated.   For a few years, we made three grants of $25,000 each to Los Angeles artists.  The artists were selected through a nominations process.   

We got a lot of complaints from the arts community that it was great for the three artists who were selected each year, but dispiriting for everyone else.  They asked, how can we get in your line of vision?  What are the odds that I’ll ever receive one of those awards?  In an arid landscape that offered little support to individual artists, several said they might as well buy tickets for California Lotto.  

So we changed course.  We discontinued the larger awards program and redirected that money into the ARC program.  Now we make 60-70 smaller grants each year to artists in L.A.   We thought the new strategy might bring hope to the L.A. arts scene, that it might stimulate forward movement, be an incentive to productivity.

Has it worked?  Do artists in L.A. feel any more optimistic about the arts climate today than, say, five years ago?   Is that reflected in the art being made here?    Should funders – or anybody – be concerned about artists’ attitudes towards their work environment? Besides grants, what else fosters optimism in the arts?”  

We asked several California working artists to respond to Claire’s inquiry, including:

• MARK ALLEN – multimedia artist and the Director of  The Machine Project in Los Angeles
• Hip Hop Artist GEOFF GALLEGOS - DOUBLE G -is a musician living in Los Angeles, and director of the DaKah Hip Hop Orchestra
• New Mexico based Photographer TONY GLEATON
• Los Angeles based musician RASHEED ALI
• Architect, designer and environmental artist FRITZ HAEG
• Multimedia artist and Director of LA Freeways ANNE BRAY
• Los Angeles-based writer and the director of the Alpert Awards in the Arts - IRENE BORGER
• Los Angeles based multimedia artist DANIAL NORD
• LIONEL POPKIN – a Los Angeles based choreographer

HERE ARE THEIR INITIAL RESPONSES.  (Claire, Cora Mirikitani at the Center for Cultural Innovation, and I would like to know what you think, and invite your comments, thoughts and ideas.  Please scroll down to the bottom of this blog and enter your comment.)

MARK ALLEN:  
I can only answer in terms of my own experience, so this is machine-centric, hopefully still useful?

I think that optimism is an interesting idea to talk about and to try and foster. For me the thing that I find most sustaining is feeling like I'm part of a community, and that there is an audience for the work. A really big part for me with Machine is to provide a place that supports sincere enthusiasm on the part of the audience towards the performers and the performers towards the audience. I think people in ones field are often the most intense audience, and what we do is emphasize that constantly shifting position between being a teacher, an artist and a fan (sometimes over the course of one evening). I think having a place and community which one feels connected to is incredibly important to sustaining a creative life.

I think the role of money in art communities can be incredible complicated. Obviously, everyone can't (and shouldn't) reach the same levels of economic and cultural success, and it can be difficult for people when the status positions shift among peers. I agree that multiple smaller grants is healthier for a community than fewer large grants, especially since once people get into the position of acquiring enough cultural capital to look good to a grantor, they most likely need the money less anyway.


GEOFF GALLEGOS (DOUBLE G):
There’s nothing as optimistic as a deadline for a gig.  It seems very easy to fall into a despondent mindset when it feels like my stuff won’t reach completion. The nature of inertia in and of itself is motion. When I’m in motion, I don’t have time to set into a negative mindset about something that isn’t happening.  Whether or not my art is perceived as “better” is irrelevant, because without a sense of optimism, my art would be “nonexistent”.

As a participant in both programs, I can say that both have been of great help at different times.  The Artist Award kept my dream alive. My project (daKAH Hip Hop Orchestra) was pretty much dead in the water when the artist award came in 2002. The “Unfinished Symphony” CD saved the ensemble. If that CD hadn’t come out when it did, the musicians would have most likely started to discount the success potential for daKAH, and gradually drifted away.  In addition to that bailout, on two other occasions, ARC rescued daKAH’s ass. In 2002, we needed a music copyist, and some other production assistance for a Grand Performances California Plaza show. In 2007, we needed a rehearsal for a USC Spectrum Bovard Concert Hall show. Both of these steps kept us from completely humiliating ourselves onstage.

To specifically answer the question, each artist has different needs for different budgets depending on the project. Is there a way to incorporate a program that would live in between? Like a large-project ARC-type entity, where the project is underway, and needs more than $3,500.00 to seal the deal, but doesn’t need a Lotto ticket. I think the decision to cultivate a stronger ARC program was the right move. There is a way to stretch $3,500.00 when you’re at the end of a project. The 99 Cent Store does work in production. More individuals receiving a boost would logically create a lighter spirit amongst the artists, not to mention more exhibitions to attend.

To address the sushi discussion, I love the ideas that were circulating about the artist database that can be unified through Durfee. That step, in and of itself, has the potential of generating forward motion, by simply creating an active audience of artists that support each other’s endeavors.


TONY GLEATON:
I'm ambivalent about your question about fomenting a climate of optimism , I don't think I believe in optimism.

I'm 59 now and I'm not sure what if anything makes a difference or if it should?  We produce art because it is a calling.  A way to talk to god. Not to get laid or become wealthy or to lord something over a peer.  I believe that this should be our intention. You aren't an artist because of who you are you are one because of what you do.   The ranks thin quickly after art school. Does society owe me something, no. DO I owe society, yes.

I grew up in a middle class home with little or no connection to the art aside from the occasional field trip with classmates to the museum of fine arts.  latter in life I became an artist, or at least Josine Starles explained to me that I was  an artist and had me read Shaw's, Man and Superman.

There is little or no irony in my work, I don't produce work that is edgy or provocative and I don't feel part of any community, this maybe more out of habit and dysfunction rather than choice.

My job is not to do work.  My job is to find a way to do work.  Everything sets up against sustained excellent artist achievement.  Without embracing hubris or folly I struggle with ideas and my own mind. In the end I try to produce work that comments thoughtfully and at times tenderly on the things that concern me


RASHEED ALI:
Optimism is a prerequisite for all great endeavors of the heart. All humans feel great energy from the perception that there is "forward movement" in their lives. Whether such movement is an illusion is debatable for sure. What cannot be questioned is that "hope springs eternal" when there is just the slightest bit of optimism for an artist.

Does optimism promote artistic energy? Without a doubt! Do artist require more optimism than the 'average' (non-artistic) person?

 I would say that the path of an artist is so filled with obstacles that just the slightest bit of optimism is channeled and utilized to create new works.  I suppose that we artists are akin to that rare species of flower that can survive on air alone! So, I am saying that a little bit can go along way with the emotional frugalities that artist must operate with. Economy of enthusiasm is the watchword for every mature artist who must make their way through the middle course of a career without devastating emotional lows or exuberant highs. Like some hyper-active and hyper-sensitive race horse, we artists are attuned to a certain manic-depressive pathology that is difficult to escape.

What is the cure?
Art is indeed a strange pursuit. Many times artist must spend long periods of solitude to achieve conception, thus taking them out of the 'public limelight'.  This leads to a feeling among some artists that only those who are best at self-promotion can 'attract' the attention of funders & critics alike! This may be the truth but if it is, then I would say that it is 'a sad truth' indeed!

The solution is; there must exist grants or opportunities for artist to be rewarded for "coming out of the woodshed" with a great work. Surely, I have sat on the ARC grant panel and also been a recipient of this grant that doesn’t require an artistic sample but we need some grants for those artist who “exit the cave” or “come from the mountain top with the stone tablet!”

I really do think that there are many great works out there that are being ignored for lack of such a reward. I’m sure that there are many artists without an imminent invitation to present who have a great work “up their sleeves”. I would love to sit on a panel and earmark new funds for some great movie, play, dance, book, music that I just experienced from out of the wilderness.

Yes, I do think there is an element of ‘wilderness’ to the art landscape of Los Angeles, after all it’s a very big place. Certain kinds of arts are more ‘centralized’ than others and they can benefit, others are not and therefore they are subjected to neglect. When I sat on panels I felt that certain events, like ‘Red Cat’ (I think that’s what it’s called), helped to centralize attention. I could only lament that my pursuit (music) didn’t seem to have anything similar since music festivals are more driven by “the known” rather than the unknown entity. This is where real optimism could exist for artists; in the feeling that there are venues & avenues for access for those new works when they are ready. Opportunity creates optimism.


FRITZ HAEG:
Based on my own experiences, I can’t say that feelings of optimism have directly lead to more or better art. But I imagine it must be true on some level, because it is hard to imagine art of any value growing out of a pure state of pessimism. These are impossible things to measure, but they are important to consider.

I believe that the current Durfee grant system of many small grants has been an effective way to have a broad positive affect on the Los Angeles arts community. I think it makes sense to spread the support around, and see how those early and strategic infusions of support can be a catalyst to greater work at critical moments.

However, giving out grants all at the same level may lead to a monotony of project types & scales. Perhaps it might make sense to establish a few levels of escalating support over time. A young first time applicant might be qualified to apply for $2000 or less, perhaps with a few categories above that, with one or two grants at $10,000 or $15,000. This diversity of support levels might complement each other. The lower grants would provide small strategic help early on in the career, and the larger grants would be a more prestigious sign of accomplishment, allowing the honoree to be ambitious with their work well beyond what they would ever have the means to do otherwise.

Of course a Durfee grant is not just financial support, it is also a sigh of validation & encouragement. It says that the work you that you are doing is important and valued. These messages of support are infrequent for artists in Los Angeles. So, yes, I believe that Durfee has contributed to some sense of optimism among the artists that they have supported over the years.

Since those that identify themselves as artists are supposed to be the most creative individuals in our society, I believe in their capacity to do whatever is needed to make their work. In fact it is often with resistance and oppression that great work is made. The really great artist will always find a way, but it is the less sure and skilled ones that will always complain that they don’t have what they need to do their work.

I firmly believe that connectedness, community & communication (not money) is the most vital requirement for a great and fertile arts community. This is one reason why Los Angeles is so challenged, but in an interesting way. Artists are finding their way around the isolation of the city by making their own spaces of connection, making their own culture, not waiting for the big institutions to provide what is needed. There are a few vital institutions like Machine Project that are supporting (and creating an amazing level of optimism for) hundreds of artists just by providing a place to be inspired, and to connect with others of like mind.


ANNE BRAY:
from  USA   United States  Artists  Selection Panels 2007
   
  “We must use all the skills at our disposal: our voices, our bodies, our spirits, even our blood, to create the vehicles that will carry our words, our dreams, our imagined places into the consciousness of the world, often against great odds and at great peril to all we hold dear.”
 
 –Thomas Allen Harris
 
Media - By Thomas Allen Harris
 
 “Oh, blessed Mother, please forgive them, for they know not what they do.
         We, your children, toil in the forgotten places, among the memories of a time before they came. We are the keepers of the ancestral fire; we stoke the hearths that once gave succor to those voices whose stories still whisper in our hearts and flow with the blood in our veins. We are the truths that will not be silenced and the testament to all that mankind does in your name, for good and for ill. We rise with the brilliance of a thousand stars in the dark night and burn with the steadfastness of Ra in pursuit of a destiny that is of our own making, blessed with your patrimony, honored to carry your flame.
         (Artists are) the consummate outsider. Outside of convention, outside of mainstream culture, outside of the convenient boundaries that mark the hallowed ground of popular acceptance, Hollywood success, steady paychecks, and stultifying homogenization that also equates to spiritual death. We are driven by the necessity to speak from a reality that is based in its very “otherness,” in the fact that we have been marginalized and overlooked after having been enslaved, used, consumed, and then discarded. Once they have moved on, we are left to pick up the pieces and make sense of who we are now, who we once were, and how we have come to be in this place, at this time. We cannot go backward, so we have no choice but to push onward, we who are given the task of telling the stories that help to heal our people and inform those who thought they knew us. We must use all the skills at our disposal: our voices, our bodies, our spirits, even our blood, to create the vehicles that will carry our words, our dreams, our imagined places into the consciousness of the world, often against great odds and at great peril to all we hold dear.
         But through it all we persevere. For as outsiders we have developed incalculable strength of will and power of conviction to surmount every challenge that confronts us. And because we have been tested by fire, the work we make is of a singular nature: vital, compelling, alive, daring, complex, yes, even tortured, yet also filled with a lightness of spirit, absolution, and grace. We forgive through our art, yet we do not forget. And it is the remembrance of who we are, who we have been, and who we are meant to be that teases our art into the realms of the universal and allows all who view it to share in the celebration of the simple act of being human in an inhumane age.
         We artists stand at the crossroads, prepared to make the ultimate sacrifice so that those who come after us will be able to partake of a divine sacrament, united by that which is most enduring within our hearts, our unflinching love and devotion to Truth.”


DANIAL NORD:
I do believe that optimism can help to foster and sustain creativity.
Grant-making organizations can contribute to a sense of optimism in a community, provided that they are sensitive to the needs of the working artists whom they aim to support. Depending on the specifics...  Grants that are given through a secret nomination and selection process can generate a certain excitement, but can also, perhaps inadvertently, create a sense of cynicism and negativism among the majority of artists. Thoughts like “I’ll never be chosen because I’m not connected to the right people, It’s a racket…” however true or untrue, can constrict hope and damage the collective psyche of the community.

Grants that have arduous and complicated and expensive application processes can be intimidating and generate negativism. Furthermore, orgs that offer general support on a statewide or nationwide basis and then select (predominately) people form their own city, can generate cynicism and do a disservice to the population at large.
Ideally, grant-makers should consider the broader ramifications of their procedures.
Grants that offer assistance to a wider range of artists, with a relatively simple application process, tend to spread goodwill and optimism.

Grant organizations that offer feedback to artists, to help them understand why they may not have been selected, do a great service by constructively building on the effort that the artist has made with her or his application. They foster hope by showing that the effort was a step in a process, rather than another ‘waste of time’ and money.
The most sensitive and useful funders are concerned with the needs of working artists, and understand the challenges and the creative process. A little love and support goes a long way, and really does mean a lot to most of us.

Beyond grants, I think most artists need places to exhibit their work and generate a dialogue with peers and a critical audience. Los Angeles with its assortment of smaller galleries and alternative venues is, in my opinion one of the best places to be right now.
Another component of successful creative life is access to affordable space. Artists who can afford a place to work and the time to think and indulge in their practice, can have a positive experience. Inaccessibility to these basic needs can surely squelch creativity.
In general, I think that artists benefit from a sense of optimism and support, and thoughtfully constructed grant programs can surely contribute to this. Of course, ultimately, it’s up to the individual to sustain the effort, to connect with the creative community, to maintain a healthy attitude, and generate a workable means to proceed with the myriad of challenges that we face.


IRENE BORGER:
Over the long haul, here in Los Angeles two things have (and had) seemed central to fostering both optimism and generativity: (1) conversation and (2) support from the California Arts Council. Given the bust-up of the later, which I'll get back to in a minute, the first remains even more critical.

This means one-on-one conversation as much as informal and formal dialogue, this means places where people run into one another, hear and look at work together. In a sense it's a samizdat mentality, so that even as public support waxes and wanes, (mostly wanes) an underground network thrives. And it does. Is this outside of the market economy? Of course.

What about younger artists and writers, people who may and will not have had access to being supported by the CAC (not to mention NEA…) and have not had the years and conversations? Where can the encouragement - and encouragement made manifest - come from? What IS encouragement? I'm remembering a line from a poem by Adrienne Rich  “not as a leap but as…each step making the next one possible…”

So, rather than an answer, here's an exercise: make a list of 10 tiny things which would encourage your optimism re: your creative life, your work.

And then this, a question to you, Claire: what do you think would have to be done to restore funding to the CAC? What are the ways those of us reading this blog, and the dozens of people we communicate with, could have impact?


LIONEL POPKIN:
This is a hell of a question!! Does optimism help me as an artist? Getting support certainly helps me feel more optimistic, and that in turn helps my work more closely resemble my intention. This is a good thing. Before I continue though, I have to be honest and say that optimism is not in my genes. My father used to say that every silver lining has a cloud. I have, for better or for worse, inherited that sensibility.
 
As someone who has been supported by the Durfee ARC program, I can say without a doubt that it has helped my projects, and how I feel about my work. The thing I value about the ARC is that the project is happening anyway. As a grant, it just helps the project be better, which as an artist makes me feel better (more optimistic?) about the project. On the other hand, the ARC helps you when you already have something to be optimistic about. The glass was half full, and the ARC just made it 75% full. The application is focused on the artist who already has a great opportunity and is looking for extra help.
 
I was not in LA five years ago, so I cannot comment on whether or not there has been a shift in the emotional terrain here. I am not even sure if I can say that I am optimistic about the current mood right now or not. I am working, many of the people I know are working. As long as we can keep doing so, I would say that the prognosis is positive.
 
Claire, you ask, “what else besides grants fosters optimism”- I would say opportunities. Long-term commitments and long-term goals help to create a sense of purpose from a group of working artists/funders/presenters. I enjoy it when I have a sense of what is happening over a larger block of time than just the next cycle. You also ask if “funders should be concerned about artists’ attitudes toward their work environment”? I would say that if funders want to have the greatest impact to spur the strongest artistic work, then the concern doesn’t really need to be on the work environment, but more on access to resources that allow the artist to work. If that foundation becomes solid, then I would think that the environment takes care of itself. Since I work in the performing arts, I always say that time and space are the key ingredients. Artists need a place to work, and time to be in that space. Anything that helps that would be positive. Beyond that, I don’t know.
 
All curated events have some sort of winnowing process, and if one is chosen then optimism is more readily available. I don’t think it is possible for everyone to be completely optimistic (remember the silver lining’s companion), because there are limitations on resources. I’m not even sure that the optimism itself is what is needed, but it might be a beneficial by-product of the more elemental needs being fulfilled. So then my question is how do we fill those elemental needs? I’m not sure yet, but thanks for starting the conversation Claire.

We have decided to keep this discussion open to your comments until 5:00 pm this Friday (November 30th).  Please scroll down and click on 'comments' to enter your comment and to read the comments of others.

Thank you.

CORA MIRIKITANI:    This has been such a rich and interesting conversatioin - my thanks to Barry and Claire for posing the question, and to everyone who posted comments and observations.  If optimism is thinking the glass is half full, rather than half empty, and believing that the work of artists is critical to reflecting a diverse and open society, then you can also count me in among the ranks of those who are "optimistic" about the arts.

I'm looking forward to having the Center for Cultural Innovation sponsor more dialogues like this for artists, about artists and their work, and invite all of you to contact Barry or me at CCI with your suggestions and idea for future topics.

Thanks again to everyone, and have a Happy Holiday season!

BARRY:   I would like to echo Cora's thanks to everyone for participating in this online discussion.  It would seem that the instinct to create trumps pessimism, and while one would hope we can consciously contribute to the environment and eco-system that favors and nurtures creativity and the optimism that comes with it, even still, artists will make art, and that fact makes me optimistic about what might be accomplished. 

CLAIRE PEEPS:  Thanks to all of you who have so generously jumped into this conversation.  I'm glad to see that Barry is right -- optimism generally trumps pessimism! 

While I'm grateful for the thoughtul comments about Durfee (and will take them back to our board for further exploration) I'm most interested in your broad comments about the needs of artists in the field, and what best supports a fertile environment for creativity.

To Irene:  What will it take to restore the CAC? No easy answer.   But let's start with a electing a candidate who is an advocate for the arts.  When we had a Kennedy, we had an NEA.  Thanks to Arts for LA for engaging and tracking local candidates' positions on the arts. 

My list of (not so tiny  but maybe achievable) things to encourage optimism -- and through my lens as a current funder and former nonprofit leader/artist/grantseeker:

1) clearer funding guidelines (to minimize too many applying for too few dollars)

2) simpler funding applications with quicker turnaround times

3) funder feedback available to artists who've been declined

4) artist input into grantmaking/ decision making process

5) regular inclusion of live art at non-arts conferences

6) better tracking of arts giving, so all the players can better see the whole picture (for better and worse, both gains and gaps)

7) better tracking of artists' data (the Urban Institute and Ann Markusen studies were a good start -- we need more ongoing, consistent data about artist's economies.  The Surdna Foundation's research on art school alumni will add substantially to our knowledge.)

8) live and online marketplaces for artists

9) celebrations of elder artists

10) poetry at the start of all board meetings (try it!  -- it really quiet and focuses the attention of a group)  -- and art by local artists in our offices!

.... and of course the not tiny, but still achievable things -- growing the pie (deliberate strategies to bring new donors into the arts), artists' input into cultural policy, (the creation of cultural policy!), artists' integration into campaigns for affordable housing, health care, education, and putting the arts on the agenda for political candidates.

Happy holidays to all!

Claire

Happy Holidays

And Don't Quit!

Barry

With the return of the legislature after their summer recess this week, the focus has been first on passing the state budget - which appears now to be done.  Debate around the issue of health care insurance coverage can now begin in earnest.  There are those in Sacramento who feel the legislature won't get to the health care coverage legislation this year.  Others however, feel the Governor still wants to pass health care reform in California THIS year, and may be willing to work out some kind of compromise bill with the Democratic majority, if it appears the Republican minority poses any kind of stumbling block.  As this session ends September 15th, there isn't a lot of time left, so whatever decisions are to be made, they will likely happen quickly and the deal making will be fast and furious as we near a deadline.  So, where are we in all of this?

There has been a feeling this Spring, for the first time, that there is a real chance that "some" form of a health care coverage bill would pass this year.  Numerous coaltions of organizations lobbying to pass such legislation have been working hard, and, of course, the health care industry including insurance companies have been lobbying actively to protect their interests as they perceive them.  That lobbying sector has considerably more funds than those coalitions representing the interests of working artists, so it is critically important that working artists register with their elected state assemblyman and / or woman, and their state senator that first they want passage of health care coverage reform THIS year, and second, tell their legislator(s) what provisions they would like to see included in a final bill. 

Please click here to communicate with your state legislators (Assembly & Senate) about this issue - http://salsa.democracyinaction.org/o/2447/t/1486/campaign.jsp?campaign_KEY=11956

The best thing you can do is to call their local offices and try to set up an appointment with them when they are back in their local offices (usually every Friday), and go in with a couple of other people and talk to them about what a comprehensive health care coverage bill should (from your perspective) include.  If you can't do that, write them a letter.  Next best is a fax, then an email (which you can do by clicking the above link), then signing a petition.  But communicate your position somehow and do it soon.  Tell everyone you know to do the same thing.  Please, it will make a difference.

Here’s what AB 8 currently includes that’s of value for self-employed artists and small nonprofit performance based arts companies.

• Enables all employers and employees to get coverage through a new state insurance pool. Small employers would be able to cover all their workers for just 7.5% of payroll, about half what it currently costs, with much less hassle, and employees would be able to get coverage for a contribution of just 5% of their income.  This provision alone will arguably cover 2/3 of California’s uninsured.

• Ensures that self-employed people could no longer be denied coverage for a pre-existing condition.

• Caps insurance company profits and overhead at 15 cents out of every premium dollar, to ensure that at least 85% of premium dollars are spent on delivering health services. 

• Provides coverage to all children and most parents in families up to 300% of the poverty level (under $62,000 for a family of 4) by expanding public programs.

 

Here's what a number of health care coalitions believe still needs work about AB 8:

• Not enough protection for self-employed individuals against high costs. AB 8 provides affordability protections for people up to 300% of FPL  (under $31,000 a year for a single person) whose employers provide them coverage through the statewide pool, but not for anyone else.  In the Bay Area, where incomes and housing costs are higher than the state average, many self-  employed artists could make more than $31,000 a year and find themselves unable to afford good coverage.  

 • Not enough oversight over insurance companies.  Currently, insurance companies can raise rates as much as they want and the state can do nothing. Some health coalitions want to require insurance companies to petition the state if they want to raise rates above a certain level (say five or 10 percent), and justify why they need the increase.

• No control over prescription drug prices. Neither plan uses our combined purchasing power to get a better deal on prescription drug prices.  If the state had the power to purchase drugs in bulk, it could take advantage of California’s enormous market weight as a way to help leverage costs lower, thus making prescription drugs more affordable.

• Not enough information for consumers. Neither plan requires doctors & hospitals to be up front about their prices and their success rates, so consumers can choose the best value. Please share any comments, thoughts or ideas you have by scrolling down and clicking on the comment line, then entering your comment.  Thank you.

Have a great week.

Don't Quit. (this line has become a personal signature and comes from a Winston Churchill story. Glad to share it if you email me).

Barry

"And the beat goes on......................................." 

This is a new blog aimed at artists which will focus on artist 's needs and issues.  We hope you will join this community of artists and become a subscriber to this blog.  Please scroll down and enter your email address in the subscribe box.  Thank you.First issue will be consideration of health care and health insurance coverage for artists.

My name is Barry Hessenius.  Welcome to Barry’s Blog at CCI.   You have been included on this listserv because you are an artist or work directly with artists.