New Community Visions InitiativePhiladelphia, Pennsylvania Regional Meeting #4The Arts and….December 9, 2015

We’re finding that our students want to be part of the larger social fabric of our community. They are really open to the opportunity to make a difference. So, we’re excited about the conversation today about bringing arts to bear on other community issues. Cecelia Fitzgibbon, President of Moore College of Art & Design, welcoming everyone to a day of conversation about the role of arts in community building and development for healthy, equitable, and vibrant communities.

The New Community Visions Initiative of Americans for the Arts hosted the second of eight regional meetings on December 9 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. About 80 people from eight states met for a full day of conversation about the future of places, community development, and the arts. About two-thirds of the people in the room were artists or represented arts organizations, the rest were from other sectors of the community. Less than half of the people were from the Philadelphia area and the rest from other parts of the state, as well as from Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Washington DC, Massachusetts, Florida, and South Dakota. About half of the participants were from urban areas. The meeting was curated by Clay Lord, Americans for the Arts, and the event was designed and implemented by Michael Rohd, the Center for Performance and Civic Practice. At the start of the day, Michael reminded everyone that they were encouraged to bring “their whole selves” to the conversation, and not just their work identity.

Building Community Michael Rohd asked Americans for the Arts’ Clay Lord to share the context for the day.

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Clay - The job of our team at Americans for the arts is to advance the work of arts and culture at a local level. There are 4800 communities across the country that have what we call a “local arts agency”. There are three of them in Philadelphia and there are representatives here today from each one of them. Incorporate some slides here?

● What is Americans for the Arts? Americans for the Arts is a national organization that advocates for and supports arts and culture. We work with local arts agencies of all kinds. We work at the national level to create national clout. We work with a lot of government agencies and influencers at the national level. My team works at the local level to create services for artists and arts organizations and others who are creating art in communities.

When Americans for the Arts was created there were very few of these agencies and now there are thousands of them, all over the country. We serve the local arts agencies.

Today, we are having a conversation about what those local arts agencies can do to support more healthy, equitable, and vibrant communities. What does it take to create a healthy, equitable, vibrant community and what role can arts and culture play? ● What is NCVI? NCVI stands for New Community Visions Initiative and it is a two-year initiative at Americans for the Arts. It is designed to help us and local arts agencies as well as foundations, arts organizations, individual artists, understand what is going to happen in communities over the next 10 to 15 years, and how the arts can contribute and be part of the community conversation over that time. New Community Visions Initiative sits at the intersection of arts and community. We want to understand how the arts can be part of creating healthy, equitable, vibrant, places.

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We are having eight of these cross-sector, one-day think tanks across the country. We’re seeking new knowledge about how people interact to create stronger communities. We’ll spend a lot of time today imagining and envisioning the future for ourselves.

Our goal is to surface new knowledge and create new systems and tools that will allow us to better understand the integration of arts and culture into the way that communities work now.

Thirty years ago we published a book, Community Visions, that was a precursor to this work. It was designed to help us understand how local arts agencies needed to be structured in the 1980s. This process is similar because it’s about local arts agencies, but also about other community partners that help facilitate arts and culture in those communities: artists and arts organizations, local business, government, philanthropy, other supporters—people who share a belief that arts and culture is important in their community. For us, that reason is a belief in the importance of communities that are healthy, equitable, and vibrant. These are the words you all be helping us to define for purposes of the conversation today.

We’ve identified thirty contributors to community—things like housing, transportation, workforce, tourism….and arts is one of those things. We have a theory of change: If you integrate the arts into that conversation, you create healthier, more equitable and vibrant communities.

We want to understand how that’s happening, how it could happen, and why it’s not happening in some places.

When fully integrated, the arts do three things:

● transform systems by working at the intersection, ● impact impacts—making a positive thing more positive, or

mitigating a negative thing,● increase participation and opportunity by giving people the

opportunity to be heard.

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We’ve published the first of three books that we’ll release as part of this initiative to understand the role of arts and communities today, as well as what’s going to happen in those places, and how the arts can be part of that change going forward. ● What does AFTA hope to learn? NOTE - this part did not happen in Philadelphia. We want to learn how arts function in communities and how they can work better inside other sectors. We want to surface new knowledge and understand how systems work in communities and the role that arts play in that work. We also want to create a variety of new relationships for Americans for the Arts, and across sectors in your communities, as we work toward more integration of the arts in other sectors for strong communities of the future. Our goal is for AFTA to take lessons from these meetings to develop tools, systems, and services, which can make it easier for arts to be at the table for these community initiatives.

At the end of 2016, we’ll publish a book that will explain our thoughts about how to move forward with action steps based on what we are learning from these meetings and other research. This is a ten-year project and ideally it will lead to results along the way and culminates in results in 2025 when we hope to see an increase in the number of people who consider the arts relevant to positive community change. We’ll be considering the nine different ways we’ve identified that arts organizations do their work, like creating partnerships, building capacity, advocacy, grantmaking and more. We’ll create programs, services, and products that make it possible for local arts agencies to do more of the work that creates healthy, equitable, vibrant communities.

Michael noted that he’s sometimes asked whether these meetings are just cover for Americans for the Arts to be able to do what they’ve already planned to do at the end of the year of gatherings. He said that as someone who has been involved in

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planning these sessions, he knows that this is not the case. Rather, these meetings are designed to help Americans for the Arts figure out what to do. They are trying to figure out how to be locally relevant by being good listeners and eventually, good collaborators and supporters. This listening is really important for a successful initiative.

This is not a conversation about proving that the arts are important. Nor is it about proving the arts need more support. That’s an important conversation and Americans for the Arts does that work all of the time. Today’s conversation is different: how are we thinking about other sectors in our community and how those areas are changing, and how we are hopefully moving toward healthier, more vibrant and equitable communities, and how can the arts help ensure that this happens. How do we get the arts to those tables and in that work?

Audience Q: This construct is very similar to what ArtPlace America is doing and I’m wondering whether or not there is a connection between these two organizations on this work.

Michael: Yes, they are sitting down together, they are in meetings and conversations together, they are talking about what ArtPlace is doing and what Americans for the Arts is doing and where there are values and goals are similar, and where they are different in terms of who they are serving. There are others like National Endowment for the Arts who are pursuing endeavors in this area and all of these groups are in conversation.

Michael explained that the next part of the day would be to take a little time to share with each other some information about ourselves so that others know what you are bringing to the conversation today.

After a series of introductory prompts, the participants responded to Michael’s request for responses: What do we know about our relationship to place and/or change?

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● We have a love hate relationship with both.● It’s emotionally complex.● Change bad, same good.● We don’t have it all figured out yet● Trust the process.● It’s personal but also organizational and situational.● Place is people.● They can be related.● They can be intricately related.● Quoting Stephen King: “The resistance to change is

proportional to how much the future might be altered by any given act.”

● Place and change are also a function of time and moment and you need a moment.

Michael - We are moving to a discussion about the vocabulary that Americans for the Arts is using for this initiative. Nothing will be solved today. But at the center of this initiative are healthy, equitable, vibrant, communities. The meaning of the words change given the moment we are in and the place we are in. We’ll start by discussing the word community, and how you use it or understand it in your own work.

Defining Healthy, Equitable, Vibrant Community

Americans for the Arts provided a starting point for the definition of community: A collection of people sharing place, affinity, or interests.

After a few minutes of one-on-one discussion, Michael added: This is a learning context for Americans for the Arts. They are listening for and want to understand: what are the questions you have to

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ask if you are using that word? Imagine you are having a conversation about this with a local arts agency, funder, a representative of the Department of Justice, someone who works at a support organization that works at a macro level? What questions do you want them to ask if they are using the word community?

Participants responded:

● What are the geographic boundaries?● Does the community we identify, identify themselves as a

community?● Are you sure that what you define as community isn’t more

than one community?● Is there clear structure and accessibility?● Who defines community and is it self-defined or is it an

imposed definition?● How do you communicate with your community and with

what methods?● Is community a thing or a process?● How are you invested in your community and what is your

stake?● How do you recognize the intersection between multiple

communities?● What qualities are used to determine what we call a

community? Usually a community is ethnically or socially defined.

● Are you trying to serve the community or to shape/direct a community?

● Are you allowing people to self identify? If you do there is greater investment and possibility?

● How do you measure your community?● Does use of the word perpetuate a hierarchy or system of

power?

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● How do you make invisible communities more visible?● What are the power dynamics within the community?● Are you being paternalistic with your strategy?● When you identify a community, are you understanding

them from the perspective of what their assets are?

Americans for the Arts provided a starting point for the definition of equitable: Fair, accessible, guaranteed opportunity and advancement for all, lacking in barriers that have prevented full participation.

Michael explained: This word is all over the place in our community. It’s a fashionable term. If someone says they want to describe their work as equitable, or support equitable work, or they are bringing an equity framework to the work they are trying to advance in the field—what are questions you demand that they ask of themselves and their process?

The questions are to help AFTA think about notions of accountability and specificity and what it means to you. What questions are important to you that a local arts agency, a funder, an arts service organization, an organization that is serving different sectors be asking if they want equity to be a core value? What questions must they be exploring and taking action on?

Michael asked the participants to take a few minutes to discuss these questions, and then participants shared:

● Is equitable just a word being used to replace diversity?● Is your quest for equity active or passive?● What frames are you using to define excellence, success,

criteria?● What kind of equity are you seeking to address? Getting

specific is important to guide policy in specific ways, not general ways.

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● Once you’ve defined your community and removed barriers to equity and opportunity, what amount of participation would signify success for you?

● Whatever the community is that you have defined, have you actually spoken to the community and asked what the barriers are, rather than presuming you understand the needs?

● How equipped are you to meet the needs you’ve discovered, and are you prepared to partner with others to be more equipped?

● Are you using hierarchical language, like the word ‘mainstream’, in a pluralistic society?

● How are you also thinking about mitigating unfair advantages and privileges, not just removing barriers and obstacles?

● Are you prepared to challenge yourself on whether objectives or concepts are tokenistic and paternalistic, or more long-term and empowering?

● From the perspective of a community member, that someone might be trying to help, do you know me and are you building my capacity?

● Are you looking at equity within your own staff first? Are you prepared to look inside before you do this work outside?

● What do you really expect to be different?● Have the partners discussed the meaning of equity (and

other important words) before they start planning?

Michael shared the other two definitions, for healthy and vibrant.

Americans for the Arts provided a starting point for the definition of healthy: Vigor of mind, body, and spirit.  A state of complete physical, mental, and social well-being.

Americans for the Arts provided a starting point for the definition of vibrant: Full of life and activity. Responsive, sensitive, bright, strong, powerful.

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Story Sharing

Michael introduced Clay to talk about the New Community Visions Initiative.

Clay - The how of this initiative starts with assessment, looking at current reality, and visualizing going forward. Next, it gets more specific about what change looks like, how it might be achieved, the obstacles and barriers and how we might overcome those. And finally, we are identifying the systems, tools, and services that the arts might be integrated into in order to make that progress happen.

The primary way we are doing the crowd-sourced version of this work is these eight forums and then there will be a ninth, hybrid version that we do at the annual convention in Boston. This is the fourth forum and we will do four more next year before the convention.

We set a goal of about 100 cross-sector participants in each forum. We’re trying to figure out how to ensure that the arts are seen as vital partners in the work that everyone is doing, build a deeper understanding for ourselves, and also for others about the role of arts in healthy, equitable, vibrant communities. And then assemble some amazing examples, about the Arts and...work.

There are a lot of amazing examples, but the challenge is that they are amazing, but are fairly idiosyncratic. So we want to get to the point where these things are easily replicable. It may not be exactly the same, but it has the backbone of a set of services, and programs, and policies, and systems, that make it easier for you to say ‘that thing is awesome and also totally doable for me and my community.’

We have a large number of partners in this work from arts organizations, to EPA, to business, and others.

We have some outcomes and outputs, including the book we distributed today with essays.

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The second book will come out in June and it is a collection of writings reflecting on the local arts movement across the USA, by Robert Gard, who was a founder of the local arts movement. And his work will be a springboard to the third book which will be a blueprint for how Americans for the Arts will facilitate this work and how our local state and national partners will be doing some of this work to integrate the arts more deeply into the community development conversations.

Michael noted: What Clay is saying, is that this work is happening already and AFTAs job is to help make it happen more. Not that it isn’t happening and Americans for the Arts is going to make it happen. That seems like an important distinction to make.

Clay - We will also put out a series of E-publications, called Artists in Communities. This is a series of conversations between established artists and newer artists early in their career, about how they do their social change work. It’s being done in conjunction with Animating Democracy and it will be released as a set of interviews over the course of about six months.

This plan follows visioning, idea dissemination, a plan for action, and finally actual programs and services. For us, that is really our goal— to get to the point where we are doing things that are helping you make this happen. It’s not theory anymore, but over the course of ten years we make it easier to make that happen.

So, the starting point is to think about how the local arts organizations do their work. We’ve defined it by looking at the nine ways they do their work: advocacy, policy, planning, partnership, grantmaking, programs, services, facility management, and marketing.

You take the thirty ways that communities are impacted, and you run them thru the nine ways that local arts organizations are doing their work, create a set of programs and services that we do, and that our state and local and national partners are able to do, that are digital, that are in person, that are anything that we

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think is going to help move that dial. And over time you get the three ways that arts are going to impact communities. You make it happen more frequently, in better ways, that are more easily replicable over time.

Michael noted: So between 2017 - 2025, these are the programs and services. Americans for the Arts is doing things to make it easier to do this work. A core starting points is how local arts agencies do their work.

Clay: The partners are part of the advisory work, as are the people who come to these groups, and our funding partners like NEA and Knight Foundation.

We want to make sure this work is relevant to the whole country, so we have a national advisory committee, that includes Jamie Hand from ArtPlace, Jeremy Liu from PolicyLink, two representatives from Kresge Foundation which does a lot of work in creative placemaking, and more.

And we have our local and state level convening partners, and other collaborators and voices like our Arts Actions Heroes. We hope eventually to have a deeper understanding of the systems that made these Arts Action Hero impacts possible. What partnerships needed to exist? What advocacy needed to happen? What policies needed to be in place?

There are all these different ways that Arts and….is already happening across the country. Whether you are talking about sculptures that explain the water cycle, or theatre that is happening in prisons, or a voter registration drive disguised as a community mural project, and even arts education. For us this all comes down to the role of arts in creating healthy, equitable, vibrant communities and an understanding from each individual how that’s possible.

Story Sharing: K-12 Education, Tourism & Cultural Diplomacy, Transportation and Infrastructure

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Participants sat in three circles—one for each of the sector discussions. In each circle, a facilitator reviewed the abstract from the essay.

Then the groups were invited to discuss the future of this particular sector. Ten years from now, what is the sector conversation going to sound like? How might the arts intervene, complement, challenge, support those changes to ensure those changes lead us to a more healthy, equitable, vibrant community? Now imagine a successful arts based project at the intersection of arts and the sector. What would it be?

ARTS AND...

TOURISM & CULTURAL DIPLOMACY

Read a full essay on this topic at www.AmericansForTheArts.org/CommunityVisions

This essay looks at the changing face of tourism in America, as well as the role that the arts may play in positively impacting those changes over the next 10–15 years. In particular, this essay proposes the following trends and associated arts interventions:

● Increasingly, tourists will seek deeply authentic experiences and will sidestep kitsch or other more manufactured representations. Tourism will emphasize cultural experiences to respond to this increased desire to discover and explore new truths through historical and cultural resources and arts-based interpretation.

● Tourists will seek active experience as much as simply wanting to be in a physical destination as an

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observer. History, sensory experiences, and engaging activities that will leave a lasting memory will be paramount. A community’s arts, crafts, and cultural traditions will be increasingly engaged to provide this deep level of experience, historical access, and memory.

● A general increased awareness of, and interest in, cultural differences will bring about a time when much tourism is centered around both domestic and international tourists being interested in learning about other cultural traditions. This soft diplomacy will be carried forward through the showcasing of local artistic and cultural experiences, interpretive activities, and the participatory arts.

What is an example of a project that would contribute to creating a more healthy, equitable, vibrant community 10 or 15 years from now—A project at the intersection of arts and tourism?

● Thinking about the confederate monuments in Baltimore, we could create an opportunity for someone to explore the art of the monuments themselves rather than what they represent. We could design a way to move through the history of the city, think about how the monuments connect to current experiences of people in the city.

● Would love to see a moveable feast, a neighborhood celebration through food, and the arts, enabling young people to understand sense of place in community. What if we had a community docent charged with sharing stories of community? We could transform visitors from voyeurs, or takers, into contributors.

● We need to find ways to increase efforts to be more accessible, not just to be in community but also those

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outside. The arts should have the opportunity to tell the story, arts and artists, not just organizations.

● How do you turn voyeurism into a positive thing, and cultural and social responsibility? What if we offered a viewing of The Wire and had a discussion about the implications of it, followed by a bus tour to community housing and social organizations. Different things motivate people as tourists—what are the different on-ramps to engage people? Artists can help us discover answers.

EDUCATION

Read a full essay on this topic at www.AmericansForTheArts.org/CommunityVisions

This essay looks at pending changes within the K–12 American formal education system and the role that the arts may play in positively impacting those changes over the next 10–15 years. In particular, this essay proposes the following trends and associated arts interventions:

● What is expected of students will shift from simple fact recitation and rote memorization toward deeper and more nuanced learning via systems and concepts. This shift opens up opportunities for the arts to be engaged to create more well-rounded learning environments, as well as a need for the arts to step in to achieve equity in access to quality education.

● The blurring of boundaries between the digital and physical learning environment and the increased

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acceptance of non-place-based learning environments as legitimate alternatives to in-school learning will increase, possibly increasing access to education, but also posing a very real possibility of niche learning experiences that may narrow the worldview of students. The arts will play a role in providing a commons for place-based engagement and learning, as well as an outlet for combating such insulated views.

What is an example of a project that would contribute to creating a more healthy, equitable, vibrant community 10 or 15 years from now—A project at the intersection of arts and education?

● Integrate art in school classes instead of having an arts class. For example, use math to create a birdhouse, then give the birdhouse away to the community.

● Let students use design to create their own school.● Have school at the museum, bringing kids from different

neighborhoods together. (Crystal Bridges mentioned.)● Work with business people and kids together to put on a

performance in the community.

TRANSPORTATION

Read a full essay on this topic at www.AmericansForTheArts.org/CommunityVisions 

This essay looks at how America’s transportation and building infrastructure will shift and transform over the next 10–15 years, as well as the role that the arts may play in positively impacting those changes. In particular, this essay proposes the following trends and associated arts interventions:

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● As resources become scarcer, and populations become more aware of their impacts, corresponding rises in technology will encourage infrastructure innovations that improve resource management. The arts will provide creative outlets for such energy management as tools for resource use mitigation, public awareness, and energy generation.

● Shifts in priorities for consumers, and rising costs of doing business, will drive a new interest in sustainable business practices at airports and other large-scale transportation facilities. The arts will provide innovative opportunities to pursue such sustainability; increase the quality of the core experience; and reduce costs, resource usage, and wear.

● As the country continues to transition to a customized economy, where consumers demand deep, personalized user experiences even in circumstances where utility was previously enough, one area that will be deeply impacted is mass transportation. Art interventions in stations and transportation modalities will help raise the quality of the end-user experience, while advances in design and other creative workforce applications will meld deeper engagement with efficient construction and design.

What is an example of a project that would contribute to creating a more healthy, equitable, vibrant community 10 or 15 years from now—A project at the intersection of arts and transportation?

● Use the arts to draw people to new transportation hubs/railstops.

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● Collect stories about bike share users—enable the riders to share their own stories.

● Change the interaction between drivers and people riding bikes with poetry.

● Produce creative intersections and engage the community in creating the space with dancing traffic cops.

● Encourage rail transit poetry conductors.● Create a “social seat” on public transit to encourage people

to interact, building community.

After the group imagining exercise, Julie Garreau shared her project in South Dakota (use video?) of the Redcan Graffiti Jam. This is a specific example of an initiative that illustrates the Arts and.... in action.

Michael: What are the capacities that made this project possible?

Julie: It was important that I had the autonomy in my organization to listen and redirect resources and projects. My connection to a major foundation that introduced me to innovative ideas and artists was critical.

Continued Story Sharing: Capacities, Resources, Challenges, and Strategies to Turn Story into Action

Michael shared a slide about the initiative.

NCVI: A national two-year effort; research, cross-sector think tanks, publications, & creating action-oriented tools and resources; exploring “Arts And” opportunities;

Goals: new relationships, make & surface new knowledge about how healthy, vibrant, equitable communities are achieved, and what role the arts can play in getting there.

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Michael shared a slide on intended audiences for this initiative.

1) Americans for the Arts, what can they learn, what tools can they build?

2) Local arts agencies, funders, government, business—the arts enabling ecology of service and support agencies

3) Artists, arts organizations, non-arts sector partners

What is needed for successful Arts and… initiatives?

Capacities - human capacity, individual, organizational, structural skill, human skillsResources - things that are necessary like funding, time, space

What sort of capacities are needed for Arts and... work to be successful? Participants shared their thoughts:

● Strategic partnerships ● Translation (speaking language of other sector)● Creative thinking● Arts producers/curators trained in arts sector to realize arts-

led initiatives● Ability to work collectively, across institutions as a collective

whole● Committed stakeholders, people who really want to do the

work● Leadership capacity, both inside and outside the institution● Political will to invest in future and common good● Not just expertise, broader more open● Shared mission● Deliberate, thoughtful process● influencers who are able to build public will, speak the

various ‘languages’, and influence decisionmaking● Capacity to be silent to gain energy to do our work

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● Need people who will check us, people outside our (arts) sector

● Advance leadership concept at higher ed-level, training● Cross-disciplinary expertise● Community member expertise is also important (not just

academic expertise)● Humility, understanding our place in a complex community● Capacity for measurement

What resources are needed for successful Arts and...work to be possible? Participants shared their thoughts:

● Data to inform, including ethnographic● Measures for impact ● Inventory of available resources—don’t reinvent the wheel● Partners, especially those who have the bandwidth we lack● Digital expertise and equipment, to build political will● Some funders require larger size and scale of nonprofit,

cutting out grassroots community groups (equity issue)● Knowledge expertise—someone who can explain the basics

of place based, community based arts● Models as a resource, examples of places that have done

other things, also a way to find/identify the models● Time, need long term solutions (not based on political

cycles)● Clear articulation of skills and knowledge, to change the field

via higher-ed● People, especially people in the community ● Translators, strategic communications to shift cultural

understanding of role of arts in community● Communications for the deeper and long term

understanding● Tools to choose the best approach, project, initiative (among

many)

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● Task your own staff - give people opportunity - invest in your own staff, let people offer more (give permission)

● Give young people new employees the room to be leaders● Convene conversations with people who are not in the room

today● Challenge assumptions about resources and how they are

being used, challenge the status quo

Michael: Inherent in this conversation is a response to challenges. So, what are the challenges to successfully doing this work, and one idea of a response to that challenge?

Participants shared their thoughts:

● Staff that isn’t managed well to be most productive and creative

● Media’s tendency to just gloss over what they are fed, response is to offer more information about the artistic process and what it encourages

● Relying on local arts agencies and executive leadership, need to be able to have other community reps in the community, need to invite more than the executive leaders to meetings like this one

● Difficulty of giving voice to non-arts and community based orgs, create dedicated funding streams for them, enabling people who don’t usually get funding to be leaders

● A willingness to pivot and come from an authentic place, as opposed to wanting to see your idea realized

● Developing the capacity to consolidate and re-allocate finite resources like time, people, space

● Non-arts sector folks don’t even see the arts as a solution to a problem at all

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● Systems have economic baggage, so we need to know enough about the systems or sectors to make change without damage

● Too many big, well-funded, western, traditional arts organizations

● Artistic goals run up against the economics of the place (Alaska example)

● Limitations of giving funding to non-501(c)(3) organizations● Empathy is a strategy when addressing issues of

transportation, education, etc.● Challenge is people who don’t hire people who look like the

community, strategy includes mentorship, advising, shaming (equity issue)

● Cultural sector is bigger than just the arts, need awareness to go beyond the boundaries of the arts to leverage resources together

● Boards need to reflect the vision (and community) ● There should community representation on boards even if

they don’t give money● Running an organization well requires different skills from

ability to advocate for changes to a system in another sector, need understanding of what works to change systems

● Value volunteerism and quantify impact of volunteers● Divorcing the art from the bureaucracy

Arts and….Workforce

Read a full essay on this topic at www.AmericansForTheArts.org/CommunityVisions

This essay looks at changes in the American economy and the workforce and the role the arts may play in positively

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impacting those changes over the next 10–15 years and beyond. In particular, this essay proposes the following trends and associated arts interventions:

● Devices will become more prevalent and more active, creating ubiquitous connectivity and a new paradigm for engaging with each other. Artists and creatives will be a driving force for dictating the design, structure, and nature of that new paradigm.

● The rise of 3-D printing and similar technology will usher in an era of mass customization of products and services. The creative worker will drive that customization, and the unleashing of creative and personalized impulses among the larger population will drive a general artistic renaissance and the return of the artisan.

● An explosion in the mobility of the workforce and a shift in the nature of work will catapult artists and creative workers to the forefront in terms of redefining where, when, and what people do to be productive economic drivers. The result will be a new era defined by creativity and anchored in the creative impulse.

Michael moderated a panel of people he chose from the participants.

Brittnie Knight, Greater Philadelphia Cultural AllianceLori ?[not on list] Pennsylvania Humanities CouncilAnastasia Vishnyakova, Philadelphia WorksRichard Tharp, Kaiser Permanente, Mid-Atlantic States Region

Michael: What does the future of workforce look like in the next five to ten years?

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Richard: I’m in the healthcare industry and what I do in workforce development is provide funds for public institutions to train students for health care. The nurses who were expected to retire didn’t because of the recession and now they are about to over the next five to ten years, and there aren’t enough people in the pipeline to replace them. And this is happening even as health care needs are expanding. This is also true for physicians. There are huge shortages predicted.

Michael: I didn’t know that.

Lori: The arts and humanities have an integral role in training in this area for businesses that need this kind of skill. In Pennsylvania, as a rust belt state, there are industries that need different skill levels. We can fill high-level jobs, but we need to train people for other positions.

Brittnie: From a personal perspective, as someone who just finished a masters program, our sector has seen an influx of people getting masters degrees, so the education level is going to level out across the board. This means that there will be more reliance on personal experience outside the workplace and classroom.

There’s only so much you can learn in the classroom and most things you can learn outside of work and there’s more opportunity to experiment outside of work.

Richard: We no longer have apprenticeship programs like we used to. We went away from a vocational program to a college prep, and even though employers want masters and bachelor’s degrees to get entry-level jobs, there are students who really need to just learn a trade. People I work with tell me that community colleges

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are becoming the place for vocational training that we used to have in high schools where people can learn things like auto repair.

Anastasia: Philadelphia Works works with adults and youth populations and with high schools that have a network of career and technical education programs and preparation for vocational training programs. To put this in a framework, we do react to landscape changes, and we have several programs that focus on middle skill programs and that require some training, but they do not require a secondary degree. A framework that we use to think about changes in the workplace is the Twenty-First Century Skills framework. It’s a way to think about the skills that are critical to the knowledge and information based economy and those skills include project-based learning. The arts have something to offer in the project-based learning.

Michael: I feel like we have a thread here about people self-identifying, people defining for themselves, needs, as well as talking about assets, and realizing that investment in actually serving those needs is intrinsically connected to where the definition of that need comes from. I feel like that is coming up a lot. I am really interested in this topic of workforce, workforce development, business, because of the growing inequities that statistics bear out, in so many ways and so many places, so it feels very connected to more equitable communities in terms of what Americans for the Arts is asking about. So I am curious how you all see the arts already a part of, or as we move into the future, more helpful on helping business make more equitable communities. And I wonder if Chester Made is a place to start that conversation because it is an Arts and… kind of project.

Lori: Chester Made is in Chester, Pennsylvania, a place that is mostly known for the headlines about violence there. We were

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invited into the community by federal agencies that come together to map out a theory of change for the future for a place. We were asked to come because of our experience with civic engagement. We do a process which puts people first and they were interested in having us help with a conversation about an arts and culture district. They had that as a vision.

Michael: Maybe we should parenthetically say that the development of arts and culture districts is very fraught and there are concerns across the country about what that does to communities.

Lori: For a community that has been studied for so long, and is considered strong and resilient, where there are people who have been working hand-in-hand for change in the community, the question was how can the community drive that process. We use arts and humanities for change, in particular, storytelling and story circles. We create ensembles of people in the community who facilitate conversation and collection of data and identification of assets, to celebrate those stories and assets. So we created a cultural asset map as well as a brand that was identified and branded for the community that would build a momentum for change in the community.

Michael: Can you tell us about one specific arts-based tactic that was used in service to this larger community development and planning project?

Lori: Collected stories to celebrate and promote arts and culture within a community.

Michael: How does arts and culture contribute to the future of workforce, particularly in healthy, equitable, vibrant ways? Brittnie, because you said you wanted to be a younger voice up

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here, and thinking about your current job and folks that you know, I wonder what examples you see as you are thinking about how people coming out of school like you recently did and taking their creative skills out into a non-arts context. How is that affecting people’s opportunities to work and be a part of building their community?

Brittnie: I think it’s interesting to first look at the people going to school. In my program a lot of the people are practicing artists and administrators. We need to learn the skills to sell our work, be part of collectives, and sell our work as individuals. There are some people who go on to work outside of arts and culture. Some of the entrepreneurial classes we take move people to go to work outside of arts and culture. People are detaching from organizations as a whole and trying to figure it out themselves as consultants, as contractors—they want to get experience from different people and places. They don’t want to settle down. They have a vagabond spirit. What’s troubling is that millennials and Generation X are forgotten in these conversations, but they are the ones I am learning from every day. I am not ready to be a leader just yet so these are the people I am going to report to very soon. These people are learning from Boomers, and they are translating to me. So we all need to be able to work together. There is a shift in the workforce to working as self as opposed to working within organizations. That’s something we should look at within organizations. Also the 9 - 5 work schedule doesn’t work for people anymore. I can get more done in the four hours I choose, instead of filling time in the 8 hours other people are working.

Michael: You really took us to the individual which is important. But I also want us thinking about systems. Cause a lot of our conversation is organizational, and like ecology. So I’m going to ask that we all think in our small groups about the systems that we believe really impact the workforce and business.

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Richard: I will let you in on a project that I’ve been tasked with on working on in Baltimore. There’s a West Baltimore that’s been in the news lately for civil unrest, that’s a very depressed area. And what we’ve been tasked with is to go into West Baltimore and try to do some transformation using arts integrated approaches. My team of actor educators and teaching artists are going into high schools in West Baltimore using our talents to get some of those high schoolers job ready. We’re already going into those schools to deal with sexual health and HIV/Aids with theatrical performances and workshops, in which they learn how to talk to each other about very important subjects that they think they can’t talk about. This project is going to go on for another three to five years and hopefully when we come out of that, there will be a tangible way we can use arts-integrated approaches to work with a disenfranchised population of students, and we’re going to go into grade schools next.

Michael: I want to note in what you just said that feels to me like it relates to a lot of what we’ve talked about today. But I also want to note some of the language about “going out into and transforming.” The language gets complicated and we start to see some of the issues we’ve seen throughout the day around language and around self-defining it. I know that it’s probably more complex than the way you’ve described it in a short amount of time today.

Richard: We always go into the school leaders and do a complete needs assessment of what they need us to do. And the work is aimed at those areas they think is most important.

Michael: I appreciate your adding that context because thinking about the language and some of the ideas we’ve been talking about today—there’s a lot in that example. Even thinking about

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systems, Kaiser is a giant company which has a lot of self-interest in being seen as doing meaningful work in community—which doesn’t mean they aren’t doing that, but there’s complexity in how that’s perceived outside and in community.

Michael: So now I want to move to thinking about how the values that Americans for the Arts is asking us to think about relate to a system framework or way of thinking about the different forces that act on individuals and organizations. What do systems have to weigh when they do this work?

Lori: Younger and new workers won’t move to a place unless they feel good about the quality of place - including arts and culture. Businesses are looking to us for help with this.

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Michael invited the participants to discuss what they’d heard from the panel about workforce and the economy. What should Americans for the Arts be thinking about as they are thinking about capacity, resources, challenges, and strategies?

Participants responded with some ideas:

● When you are working in a small organization, you can have tunnel vision and not quite connect the dots on these big systemic changes that are happening around you. Can Americans for the Arts help us connect to these larger things and how it can have a real impact on our bottom lines? (Using Affordable HealthCare Act changes as an example.)

● We need people with higher education and degrees, but the reality is the debt for people working in the arts sector is clobbering them and they are forced to leave the sector to support families and have a sustainable life. So we’re going

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to lose a lot of great talent. Last year we had a local conversation about an artist who had a great year and still had to leave the sector. If we continue to lose the individual artists, it’s over. When artists and small groups can’t make it, we lose the feeder to the larger organizations. Student loan debt is a system issue.

● The 501(c)(3) model is an issue. It doesn’t work for smaller arts organizations. So HR screws up because we don’t act right since we aren’t held accountable. That’s a huge issue for organizations. They talk about their organizations as families. But they are not families. They are a collection of individuals working in exchange for something and it could be money and passion. But gone are the days when you can eat passion. We need mid-level positions. Most jobs board listings are entry-level positions and executive director positions, so that when people get their master’s degree, they are expected to go into an entry-level position at $20,000 a year. It’s not economically viable for the field. It’s a testament to our community that people can leave the field and go work in hospitals and other larger institutions. But brain drain is real and we’re doing it to ourselves. So I would like to see Americans for the Arts do human resources capacity development.

● Internships and transitions between college and working need to be paid. Co-ops and internships are good because they send new blood into organizations and provide real work experience. But they’re usually funded through business paying the student. It would be great if nonprofits could pay for the co-op.

● Maybe there is a way to develop a mentor program for leaders to provide information to people in smaller organizations.

● Maybe arts organizations and business can share employees with swapping in-kind training. An actor can teach business

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speaking skills or a bank can send its loan officer to an arts organization to work with the finance committee of the board.

Clay: Independent of how arts can solve their workforce issues, how can the arts solve workforce issues? How can the arts play a role in larger workforce, business issues, independent of our own sector?

Participant Answer: Embed artists in city government - like they are doing in Los Angeles.

Clay: Can you explain why you think that’s important independent of artists getting employed?

Participant Answer: In a room where we are talking about transportation, there’s a component of creative thinking and community development where the artist is contributing to the conversation.

Additional participant responses:

● Thinking about the new workforce that is empowered by ideas, it’s a good group to work across sectors for Arts and….

● There are lots of campaigns around the country to improve labor markets for people who are being left behind in this economy by raising minimum wage, or –as in Philadelphia—requiring paid leave. These campaigns could really use the help of artists. No one really wants to listen to economists (like me) talk, but they would certainly enjoy arts and artists creating the advocacy case and raising visibility.

● As entities that use teaching artists, we have to involve schools where we are sending teaching artists and include

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money for teaching artists and the content teachers so that they are incentivized to work together.

● Are there soft skills that are present in artists that other sectors really need like creativity and willingness to take risk and work with others, storytelling? These can then be skills that artists help build in other sectors.

● The changing nature of the workforce means there is more opportunity for creative people to have many more options outside of the arts sector. That may have an impact on all of the structures.

Systems, Policies, and Partnerships

Michael led a discussion about these questions to provide guidance to Americans for the Arts.

What information do you need to do your work or support the work of others?What capacities?What partnerships or alliances that Americans for the arts can help to build?What policies would support expanded roles for the arts in these other sectors?

Information:

● Technology - keep up to speed on latest technologies and help us get the word out.

● Facilitate collective database of Arts and… strategies that work and those that haven’t worked.

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● Leadership intervention to get leaders out of the cycles they are in and let middle level staff teach them. We need reverse mentorship getting out of the hierarchy.

● Better awareness of what work in the arts field is really like, how much people earn and how long it takes to get to a decent wage.

● Marketing strategies and audience data.

Conclusions

Michael: What you have been sharing today is being captured and will help Americans for the Arts. It is the raw material from which Americans for the Arts will develop digital tools, technology, research, partnerships, and will work on visibility. There is a direct connection between what you’ve been saying here and what Americans for the Arts will do. This is more than a one-day conversation.

Clay: We’re capturing all of this and we’re also interested in things that you think of after the event, or didn’t get a chance to say in public. We’re also interested in your thoughts about the day and how it went. And finally, we’re also interested in other people who we should talk with. So please send us contact information. We’re also encouraging you all to write about this experience through our blog. If you are interested, that’s one of the best ways and places to make this a national conversation.

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