The NPAC conference received mixed reviews, I didn’t attend and as with any large conference there was bound to be both accolades and criticisms. I was disturbed to read about the last town hall meeting, and in my mind it brought up a question that the arts must face in the future:
Which is more important: That the Arts matters to people or that the Arts cares about people?…….
Artsjournal hosted the NPAC blog and if you scroll down this entry on June 18 it outlines the last Town Hall meeting. Here’s an excerpt:
The Challenge/Opportunity:
Our communities do not sufficiently perceive the value, benefits and relevance of the arts, which makes advocacy and building public support for the arts a challenge at every level.
What should we do about arts advocacy and communicating our value at the NATIONAL level?
Organize a national media campaign with celebrity spokespersons, catchy slogans (e.g. “Got Milk”), unified message, and compelling stories – 27%
- Create a Department of Culture/Cabinet-level position which is responsible for implementing a national arts policy – 23%
- Lobby elected political officials for pro-arts policy and funding; demand arts policy platform from candidates – 14%
- Create a coordinated national performing arts policy campaign involving artists and organizations – 12%
- Collect, analyze and disseminate data demonstrating the value of the arts (e.g. economic, intrinsic, developmental/educational values) – 12%
- Establish a National Arts Day/Festival with free performances, open houses, and art-making opportunities – 8%
- Explore interactive new media initiatives to increase access and relevance (e.g. create a “Google Arts”-type resource, blogs,YouTube) – 5%
I believe we will just dig ourselves into an even deeper hole than we are in now if only these strategies are implemented. It seems that the consensus by percentage is that we need to put 100% of our efforts into proving that the arts matter, that people should care about the arts, that artists matter, that arts organizations are important and need to be recognized as such, that encouraging participation in the arts might build audiences, and my favorite when asking the same challenge/opportunity question posed in the above excerpt but on the individual/organizational level, we need to…
For me it’s basic: The Arts need to care about people more than they care about themselves and only then will the arts begin to truly matter. We need to transform the concept of “selling” tickets into the concept of bringing value, enrichment, humanity, humility, education, quality of life and fulfillment. Why turn the spotlight on us? It’s already on us, and not that many are watching! Making it brighter raises the possibility that we will look even more stark and out of touch. It’s time to turn the arts into a spotlight to shine upon the audience and our communities, to focus on them and to make them matter. We are good at putting the arts on a pedestal, but how about putting people on the pedestal with the arts? We are not good at that…obviously! Instead of going all out to get them to care about us, we need to go all out to show how much we care about them. We do that, and then we just might start to matter. In bold I will change just four words in rephrasing the above challenge/opportunity question into the question that should have been asked:
The Challenge/Opportunity:
The arts do not sufficiently perceive the value, benefits and relevance of their communities, which makes advocacy and building public support for the arts a challenge at every level.
Travel update: My summer concerts are over, I had a wonderful time as always with the Syracuse Symphony. I wont be working as much with them next season as I did this season and will miss them. Here are some pics from the concerts and venues, yes Syracuse and the surrounds are amazing in the summertime!
not my photo but this was my dressing room at the Lorenzo house in Cazenovia!
the dressing room for all of us in Beard Park Fayetteville! The first photo is also in Beard park, you can just make out the fountain in the lake a beautiful setting.
The view from the porch of the pavilion where we performed in Emerson Park Auburn NY on Owasco lake, breathtaking!
I agree with what you have to say about the arts and the community. It seems to me that artists and their communities could benefit from a strong, fine and performing arts curriculum in our education system, which we have never seen in this country. I believe another issue is public-school students, for the last thrity years, in particular, have been so deprived of true art, in education and the community, that current artists and patrons really don’t have a clue. Just a thought!
Ron, for once I actually agree with you! Hahaha. And this is to prove that I actually read your blog. Once. :)