Breakfast Roundtables
Tuesday, October 19, 8:00am-9:00am
Preparing for and Responding to Emergencies: How Do We Do It Better?
Organized by Cornelia Carey, executive director, CERF+ (Craft Emergency Relief Fund + Artists Emergency Resources); Gerri Combs, executive director, South Arts; Mollie Lakin-Hayes, deputy director, South Arts.
2010 has presented a seemingly unprecedented number of disasters nationwide. From the Gulf oil spill to floods of historic proportions, artists and arts organizations have been negatively impacted, and foundations and arts councils have been called to respond. Let's discuss these responses and how efforts of the National Coalition for Arts? Preparedness and Emergency Responses are working to strengthen and improve them. Topics include the collaboration between California foundations and arts organizations that resulted in the first statewide, arts-specific preparedness and response network; South Arts? ArtsReady business continuity planning tool and www.ArtsReady,org, a “go-to” forum for help in responding to community disasters; results of a survey on the economic impact of the oil spill; and more.
Arts for Social, Civic, and Community Change: The Current Funding Landscape
Organized by Pam Korza and Barbara Schaffer Bacon, co-directors, Animating Democracy.
This session reports on findings from research conducted by Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts, to chart the landscape of funding for arts that foster civic engagement and social change. Resources from this study and the Arts & Social Change Mapping Initiative are designed to inform funders' internal conversations, program structure, case-making, and collaboration. We will report on the scope and range of arts and social change funders supporting this work, as well as what they're funding. To address a prevalent need for more concrete evidence of the impact of arts and culture on social and civic goals, Animating Democracy will also share frameworks for assessing social and civic change developed through its Arts & Civic Engagement Impact Initiative. New Web-based resources will be previewed.
The National Endowment for the Arts Education Leaders Institute: The Illinois Team Shares Their Experience
Organized by Sydney Sidwell, senior program officer, Lloyd A. Fry Foundation.
For four years, the NEA has conducted a three-day conference designed to increase the commitment of school leaders, state legislators, and policy makers to arts education. The NEA Education Leaders Institute (ELI) gathers teams of school leaders, legislators, policymakers, educators, professional artists, consultants, and scholars from up to five states to discuss a shared arts education challenge and engage in strategic planning to advance arts education in their respective states. Illinois has hosted the event and this year will field a team to participate in the Institute. Members from the Illinois ELI team, along with members of the local organizing committee, will be available to talk about how the ELI experience will support arts education at the state level.
Leveraging Longevity: Arts and Aging in America
Organized by Rohit Burman, manager, Culture & Public Broadcasting, MetLife/MetLife Foundation; Gay Hanna, executive director, National Center for Creative Aging.
A continuation of the Leveraging Longevity Member Session, we will offer a facilitated roundtable discussion on the “graying” of America. A critical gap exists between arts provisions and aging services for this growing demographic. Arts participation is proven to increase the health and well-being of older adults, but few organizations offer quality professional arts programs for this expanding population. This facilitated conversation will explore opportunities for building capacity: leveraging resources across the spectrum of arts, aging, social services, health, and education portfolios to change facility and program development business models; broadening non-art partnerships; and expanding workforce development. Emphasis will be placed on lifelong learning, economic development, and civic engagement.
Legacy Funding for Artists and Artist-led Organizations
Organized by Julie Fry, program officer, Performing Arts, The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation; Shelley Trott, program office for the arts, the Kenneth Rainin Foundation.
As arts funders, we may work with individual artists as well as nonprofit organizations created to implement the artistic vision of one or two people. This roundtable discussion will engage participants in a range of topics, from best practices to formats for the preservation of artists’ legacies to our responsibility as grant makers in supporting the documentation of artistic work. What are some strategies in helping artist-led organizations either develop into sustainable entities that live beyond the founders or gracefully close up shop? We will bring some ideas to the table and will look forward to hearing how other funders are approaching this opportunity.
What's Next for Single-choreographer Companies: An Open Dialogue
Organized by Kerry McCarthy, program officer, New York Community Trust.
Single-choreographer companies appear to be contending with fewer touring dates, shorter performance runs, and an economic climate that makes sustaining a company artistically and administratively difficult. This open dialogue will give participants time to discuss the appearance of more project-based, pick-up companies; the emergence of companies developing their own real estate ventures; and legacy and preservation issues. Funders will have the opportunity to explore how we can ensure that single-choreographer companies remain vibrant and strong.
Educating America for Great Leadership and Economic Strength through the Arts
Organized by Diane Swonk, chief economist and senior managing director, Mesirow Financial; Marete Wester, director of arts policy, Americans for the Arts.
The 2010 Americans for the Arts National Arts Policy Roundtable, “Educating America for Great Leadership and Economic Strength,” focused on the arts as a major factor in responding to growing societal concern about the need to re-imagine as well as re-invest in education to improve workforce readiness, ensure national security, and prepare our students to compete successfully in a global society. Join us in a thought-provoking discussion that uses the recommendations from the Roundtable to challenge the way we think about what it truly means to be an educated person in the 21st century—and why ensuring these educational opportunities are available to everyone is a matter of national security.
Helping Individual Artists and Small Arts Groups Raise Funds for New Work: Lessons Learned from the Fund for Artists Program
Organized by Alan Brown, principal WolfBrown; Diane Sanchez, director of grantmaking and donor services, East Bay Community Foundation.
If you are working to build fundraising capacity among individual artists and small arts groups, come learn about a highly successful effort in the Bay Area jointly run by the East Bay Community Foundation and the San Francisco Foundation. Presenters will outline the structure of the Fund for Artists Matching Commissions program, offer stories about how grantees made their matches, and detail the results of an extensive survey of donor motivations.
(E)merging Ideas: Thoughts Heard “Round the Table”
Organized by Matty Sterenchock, program officer, The Herb Alpert Foundation.
Can we still make progress when we don't know all the answers? Let's start by asking the right questions: Who defines innovation? Can ideas be new anymore? What defines community? If you build it, should they come? The word philanthropy comes from the Greek philanthropia, meaning “love of mankind.” Why else are we doing what we do? This discussion is an opportunity for everyone around the table to share what is new and interesting to them. What's emerging, what's challenging, what's at stake for them as individuals and as leaders in their communities? Together, we may not find solutions, but we might identify the way to take a collective step forward.
Fly Me to the Moon: Some Surprising (and Not So Surprising) Findings about What Artists Really Need
Organized by Ute Zimmermann, program manager, Artadia.
Artadia is in the process of expanding and systematizing the professional services it provides to visual artists. In order to ensure we actually offer the kinds of services artists are looking for—rather than impose our notions of what artists need upon them—this summer, Artadia conducted a survey of its over 200 awardees from around the country, a representative cross section of artists living and working in the U.S. today. By highlighting the major findings of the survey, participants will walk away with an enhanced understanding of artists’ needs and with the tools to determine what these are. We will also investigate the source of the difference between perceived and actual needs.
Making Art Work: Finding Common Ground to Support Collaboration
Organized by Eva Silverman, director of collaborative programs, Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs.
Using the Studio Chicago collaborative initiative as an example, this roundtable explores how arts organizations with common goals can partner to successfully leverage modest funding to produce joint programming and audience development initiatives. Studio Chicago is a year-long collaborative project that focuses on the artist's studio. Through exhibitions, talks, publications, tours, and research, participating organizations celebrate the working artist and reveal their sites of creative production from both historical and contemporary perspectives. This initiative, produced without grants or sponsorships, is supported solely through in-kind resources and modest cash contributions from the core partners. Representatives of the core partner institutions will share the lessons learned through this collaboration, as well as other collaborative experiences, and encourage conversation about how modest funding support from grantmakers can be stretched through partnerships.
New Research: Communicating About the Arts to Build Broad Support
Organized by Margy Waller, vice president, Fine Arts Fund.
Many of us have spent years searching for the strongest possible message and the best case on which to build support for the arts. Yet the messages we have used and successfully integrated in the dialogue across the country have not yielded the broad sense of shared responsibility that we seek. Leaders of the Fine Arts Fund in Cincinnati embarked on a year-long research initiative designed to develop an inclusive community dialogue leading to broadly-shared public responsibility for arts and culture in the region. They concluded that their work with the community through arts and culture must be based on a foundation that incorporates a deeper understanding of the best way to communicate with the public in order to achieve that shared sense of responsibility. A new report, the focus of this roundtable, summarizes a year of work and important findings for widespread use by others.
Health Care Reform and its Impact on the Arts
Organized by Randy Cohen, vice president of local arts advancement, Americans for the Arts.
The passage of the national health care reform legislation is expected to provide greater coverage options for artists and arts organizations. Already nonprofit organizations are eligible for a small business tax credit and eligibility regulations regarding individuals are under consideration. It will be important for artists and arts organizations to stay current on these developments so that all elements of this major legislation can be extended throughout every facets of the arts community. The discussion will focus on how arts groups, service organizations, and funders can work together to ensure that artists and arts administrators are able to take full advantage of the opportunities granted under the health care reform legislation.
