Roger Vacovsky

Last week, I renewed my membership for my alma mater’s alumni association. I understand now, more than ever, that my participation in the program contributes to not only the future success of my university, but also to my own past experiences.

Since my graduation, I have enjoyed watching the University of Houston (UH) flourish, albeit from afar, receiving periodic email updates regarding the upgrades to the campus. This includes the Cynthia Woods Mitchell Center for the Arts, a tremendous effort by the university to combine five arts-based departments into one collaborative arts force. Although I am just one alumnus contributing to my university’s growth, I feel as though I played a part in making these improvements possible.

I was even eager to experience the progress of the Houston Cougar football team in 2011—which I had absolutely no part in during my time in school—as it set records for a fierce offense and toppled another, much more storied (and recently infamous) football program in a bowl appearance this year in Dallas.

There are many good reasons why we become members of our graduating university’s alumni association. As I had mentioned before, we begin giving back to the institution that helped us prepare for a successful career. We want to enhance the experience of the future generation of students so that they can go on to achieve greatness.

Believe it or not, the continued success of your alma mater retroactively increases the worth of your degree. By becoming a member of your alumni association, your membership dues help your university realize the success it consistently fights to achieve.

What drew me to think of this phenomenon of alumni membership is that everything existing within my relationship with my university is cyclical; I went to UH because of a growing academic reputation, and I continue to support the school to increase its achievements. This is not unlike Local Arts Classroom, a new professional development initiative Americans for the Arts is rolling out next month.

From March–June 2012, a series of five webinars and five post-webinar discussion calls will be available to budding arts leaders touching down all key elements of the arts administration profession. Ranging from community planning and engagement to resource development and advocacy, the webinar is directly in line with Americans for the Arts’ mission to inspire, inform and connect arts administrators. The classroom also features a culminating webinar of staff and board development, an essential component to the success of any great nonprofit arts leader.

This educational opportunity for our emerging arts leaders to engage with current arts leaders resembles the same cyclical giving one would contribute to a school that afforded them the skills to be successful. Through the Local Arts Classroom, Americans for the Arts creates that portal of direct knowledge exchange from master to student, providing case studies and real life scenarios–the most potent information an emerging leader can use to help them shape the decisions within their career.

Up to 40 emerging leaders will have the opportunity to converse with local arts leaders from around the country in real time, further enhancing this interactive experience. What better way to invest in the future accomplishments of the arts field than to pass that knowledge on to the next class of arts leaders?

It is no surprise that University of Houston’s motto is You Are The Pride; I am extremely proud that this guy and I walked the same open-aired halls of the arts building, although decades apart. Also, this guy was probably in that same building, long before this guy, just pursuing other great ventures within the arts realm. Their post-graduation successes helped put the university on the map as an important arts program institution.

And though I might not rise to the levels of fame as these alumni have, my career and membership contributions, regardless of size, will help us all sustain the legacy of our common ground.

The Local Arts Classroom is a great example of how pride for the growth and sustainability of the arts field is cyclical, as the master arts leader teaches and trains the emerging leader.

In 2012, Americans for the Arts resolves to invigorate political discourse and the nation by continuing to spotlight the importance of the arts in America. Artists, teachers, arts managers and professionals, lawmakers, administrators, and advocates are integral to this mission.

This election year, the urgency is growing to have political candidates and office holders understand how arts are vital to our communities. We ask that you make your own resolutions this year by responding to this question:

How can the arts energize the political dialogue in your community this election year?

Here are some insightful responses to get you thinking. Add yours in the comments below!

First I want the political dialogue to be in part about the arts themselves. That only happens if we ask related questions of the candidates whether in person at events or in writing or online. For example does a local, state, or federal candidate know that there are 5.7 million jobs created by nonprofit arts organizations in America? What is that candidate going to do to keep advancing that arts industry? Or does the candidate know that support for the arts is a very conservative model in the United States, where public money, federal, state, and local combined, is less than nine percent of the income of the nonprofit arts in America? That nine percent, however, stimulates an industry with $187 billion of economic impact, so what is the candidate going to do to keep that conservative job-producing model going by maintaining or advancing the small bit of leverage investment that is made with public dollars?
-Robert Lynch, President & CEO, Americans for the Arts

With redistricting, a lot is changing for state and federal representation. There will be many contested races. The arts community should be ready to talk with candidates and get them on the record with positions on the arts. Arts leaders and arts supporters should get involved personally with campaigns and bring their creativity with them to spice up campaign events, communications, and fundraisers. 
-Barbara Schaffer Bacon, Animating Democracy Co-Director, Americans for the Arts

Just ask the question: What is your stand on supporting the arts? This has created quite the conversation among our political and business groups!
-Meri Mass, Executive Director, Polk Arts Alliance

If approached the right way this could send a positive message — not a cap in hand or entitled one. I think refocusing the perspective towards arts nonprofits as small business as opposed to charities is essential. To do this efforts have to be made to give the business community and the politicians tools for the conversation. If investment (as opposed to donations) can be given a foothold using job creation and downtown, economic, community development examples — we can stay in the conversation and make progress. Small business, for-profit creative industry projects, and arts nonprofit collaborative efforts with results will make an impact with a receptive audience. Not everyone is receptive, but those who are when given examples of growth and success will begin to champion at least at a base level.
-Jim Sparrow, Executive Director, Arts United of Greater Fort Wayne

I resolve to use my personal Twitter, Facebook, and other social media channels to ensure that my friends and colleagues understand how critical it is during an election year to advocate for the arts. Whether it’s tweeting at politicians or getting a dialogue started on Facebook, social media is a potent way to share the value of the arts and help politicians and government officials see that the arts create jobs, contribute significantly to the economy, and make our communities better places to live.
-Graham Dunstan, Director of Marketing & Communications, Americans for the Arts

Energize and expand greater commitments from arts advocates to participate in the political dialogue. Effectively engage ourselves and others to pay closer attention to candidates and their views. Listen, reach out, inform, and build more meaningful relationships with candidates and those already in office about the substantial economic and qualitative value of the arts. Assess the best access points for us to participate in the political dialogue; be prepared to share reliable and powerful messages, facts, and our personal stories about the arts; engage, where appropriate, in candidates and campaigns; determine who are the best candidates on issues important to us; and vote. Our voices, our votes matter.
-Sherron Long, Chair, State Arts Action Network/President, Florida Cultural Alliance

Stephanie Evans Hanson

•    Participate in one arts and culture activity or lecture per week (okay, realistically – maybe two per month)
•    Finally read the pile of field related books and articles that I’ve been collecting on my desk
•    Volunteer for another arts organization and/or join a board
•    Take a class or workshop totally unrelated to my job
•    Give more public speeches
•    Write more blogs

Do those sound familiar? Are any of my New Year’s career goals similar to yours? Does writing or reading your own professional or personal list of goals for the year feel as exhausting to you as reading mine does to me?

Yes, all of the above tasks and goals I outlined for myself are important to me, and they are things that I’d like to do. But lately, I’ve found myself wanting to unplug more and do less. I’m finding that when I allow myself to disconnect from daily tasks, to do lists, Twitter, and Facebook feeds, a funny thing happens: I’m actually more productive.

During the holiday break, I really did take a break. From everything. When I came back to the office yesterday, my head felt clear. I moved through projects and tasks with lightning speed, and left feeling energized and excited about what I worked on.

It seems like others in our field and outside of it are experiencing the same thing with finding more success by doing less. Dan Pink centered one of his first blog posts of the year on How to Make a New Year’s Non-Resolution. He interviews Kelly McGonigal, author of The Willpower Instinct, who suggests that when we make resolutions, “we should view every individual choice as a commitment to all future choices.” So, if I want to read more field related books, my continuing habit of just letting them sit there and allowing the pile to grow is only contributing to a commitment I don’t want to have.

Arts administration students at American University are also feeling the call to unplug based on a recent blog post that highlights a beautifully written New York Times Opinion piece titled The Joy of Quiet. We all need to have our escapes – a morning walk, a good yoga sesh, or a quiet Sunday morning with a book and a cup of coffee. A common theme for successful artists recently profiled in the U.K.’s Guardian is also their need for space, reflection, and processing time in order to find creative inspiration.

It takes a certain level of self awareness to discover what truly gives us energy. Does our inspiration come from checking off a to-do list? For some, maybe it does. For others, the excitement, aliveness, and motivation that is felt when we’re doing our work comes from living in alignment with our core commitments, values, and need for balance. The commitments I have for myself and my work connect me back to why I entered the arts administration field in the first place.

So this New Year, I’m throwing away my list of goals and boxes to check off, and instead taking inspiration from Rosetta Thurman’s Three Themes for Meaningful Work in 2012. I hope that by identifying my commitments and themes for how I want to live and be this year, the goals I’m meant to complete will manifest for themselves. Do less. Be more. It’s a mantra I’m willing to try out this year. We’ll see how it goes.

If you find yourself needing to disconnect from your everyday tasks and create your own space for reflection, consider reading one new blog per day. Here is a list of my favorite blogs that I make a habit of checking in on. If more connection and professional development is what you need, Americans for the Arts just launched our new Local Arts Classroom program focusing on foundational concepts and skill building that you can participate in without leaving your office. Be on the lookout for the launch of our 2012 Convention website, and check in on our regular webinar series which is offered free to professional members of Americans for the Arts. Always be open for more opportunities to connect, learn, and reflect while committing to goals and activities that truly give you the inspirational energy you need to do good in this world.

Stephanie Riven

Perhaps you have been following David Brooks’ series of op-eds in The New York Times. He asked people over 70 to send him “Life Reports” — essays about their own lives and what they’d done poorly and well.

No need to wait until we turn 70 to reflect on these “life lessons” and devise our own, especially as we approach the time for New Year’s resolutions.

Formulating lessons are important for all of us who work in the arts, whether as a performer, an administrator, an advocate, or an educator. These lessons are especially important because of the nature of our field — low wages, long hours, competition for jobs, among other obvious challenges.

What can we learn from Brooks and those who submitted “Life Reports?”

Divide your life into chapters: Brooks talks about “the happiest of his correspondents being those that divided time into (somewhat artificial) phases.” He describes these people as those who could see time as “something divisible into chunks” and they could more easily stop and self-appraise. This approach, he says, “gave them more control over their lives.”

How often have we talked to students/teachers/artists who struggle with indecision about their next steps as if it is their final step? If we could only help them to see that through experimenting with one role or another they will build their skills and realize their vision. Chapters, yes. End points, no.

Beware rumination: “The most impressive people were strategic self-deceivers. When something bad was done to them, they forgot it, forgave it, or were grateful for it.”

Can we as artists, arts educators, and administrators become “strategic self-deceivers?” Can we forgive ourselves when the performance, the class, or the board meeting doesn’t go so well? Can we go around the barriers to achieve our ambitious goals?

Lean toward risk: “Many seniors”, Brooks reports, “regret the risks that they didn’t take.”

And how relevant that is to so many organizations, boards, administrators, and artists who don’t understand that to grow we must take on the unknown. How many organizations won’t hire that next person who they know will make all the difference, take on a more ambitious script, or commit to innovation because they are risk averse?

Can we learn from these seniors before we turn 70?

In 2012, let’s pledge to reflect actively on where we are and how we will proceed, forgiving ourselves, moving ahead, and writing new chapters.

Letitia F. Ivins

This post is part of a series on emerging trends and notable lessons from the field, as reported by members of the Americans for the Arts Emerging Leaders Council.

In the midst of the recession, the “pop-up” has emerged widespread among visual artists as a vehicle for aesthetic and social engagement.

From the intimate and homemade to the mobile and socially ambitious, we have come to love artwork that “pops–up” in unexpected places. Whether an endearing artist crafted paper box cottage from which bear cub-sized tarts are doled or an urban planning mobile that functions as community organizer, the pop-up’s inherent temporality is creatively freeing.

What else makes the contemporary pop-up, with its entrepreneurial yet modest, if any, commercial interest so enchanting?

I write this post on my return from my first Art Basel Miami Beach. While I relished the fair art experience (a pop-up in all its garish glory) one of the most memorable artworks was the offbeat public art pop-up Transformer: Display of Community Information And Activation led by LA-based artists Olga Kouramoros and Andrea Bowers.

Invited by Christine Kim, curator of Art Basel’s Art Public, the Koumoundouros and Bowers engaged three local social justice nonprofit organizations in dialogue with the Art Basel fair-goers and led political t-shirt printing and sales. Sure, I was thrilled by this single opportunity to take home some art ($5 for a used shirt adorned with a fresh print), but it was because this living artwork was aesthetic, civically minded, functional, and shielded from commoditization that I loved it so.

During these lean art market times, I’ve observed many artists direct their creative prowess toward the democratization of art. Many work in the realm of social practice, play the role of community catalyst and in doing so, “set up shop” and spend time in dialogue with a community so that they might create a work that responds to a need or simply speaks directly to the community’s beat.

I refer to these artists as “catalysts” because by inciting public participation, they form temporary micro-communities that nourish the broader community. A shared experience, if resonant, binds folks together and propagates that spirit.

Artist collective Fallen Fruit (David Burns, Mattias Viegner and Austin Young) organize nocturnal forages in which participants pluck and share public fruit.

Wandering the neighborhood with community members that they likely do not know, foragers map public fruit while discussing food access, agriculture, and recipes, as they test the tension between public and private space in Los Angeles.

This experience might culminate in a “jamming session” in which the fruit is converted to jam and given for free to participants. The artwork returns to its natural gift cycle in Lewis Hyde style. The artwork flourishes as it is passed along and consumed.

Fallen Fruit jams at Machine Project (http://machineproject.com/) Photo: ©Fallen Fruit

What better way to reach a community than when the artwork itself has legs?

The artist-driven Hester Street Project in New York City peddles their artist/architect designed Community Planning Cart throughout New York City.

The cart, converted from an old bicycle trailer, is equipped with a staff planner who guides members of disenfranchised communities in conversation about the future of their neighborhood from new infrastructure to promising temporary art installations.

This pop-up demonstrates a creative and nimble approach to community organizing. It not only adapts to the community by increasing the presence and flexibility of organizers and planners, but also makes the process playful.

Young people design their East River waterfront with Hester Street Collaborative(http://waterfrontonwheels.tumblr.com)

What makes these happenings, these spontaneous social spheres so sexy and so effective in reaching communities?

For one, they are accessible.

The pop-up converts the anonymous to friend through an informal, welcoming and, unpretentious setting.

The best of them open people up and breakdown socio-economic and cultural barriers. We are infinitely networked in cyberspace though often at the expense of a physical community connection. I believe that Americans are starved for opportunities to interact with their neighbor.

The pop-up can be vehicle or even a creative commons that, even if it does not last, nurtures an appreciation for shared space and place.

For two, pop-ups are ephemeral and mobile.

This not only allows for a broad reach, but also generates an aura of spontaneity that draws and excites audiences.

With tools like Twitter and Facebook, pop-ups can launch a viral marketing campaign within minutes.

The pop-up’s short life expectancy frees it for experimentation. While counter to the institutional psychology of sustainability, it sustains artists whose people-driven work will make an audience development director tingle.

For three, this is how many visual and other multi-disciplinary artists today work.

They want to engage in conversations and art-making with people. They want to perform, stumble, and thrive outside the museum and commercial realms and want to adapt their work with and for a community.

If the pop-up is the vehicle, art producers must nurture this mode and participate through sponsorship, commission, or by clearing the red tape.

Start small.

As civic art project manager with the Los Angeles County Arts Commission, I am working with Fallen Fruit on our most engagement-centered public artwork to date. Their work at Del Aire Park is just as much about cooperation as it is about creation.

When experience is given equal weight to the end product, the artist the room to make art that is authentic, responsive, and truly distinctive.

As we continue our quest for vibrant communities, follow the pop-up…and the artist!

Prof(?) Michael Spring

1)    The acronym “ATFAA” stands for:

a)    Do I need to answer this in the form of a question?

b)    I do not need to know what an acronym is to work is this field.

c)    I know what OMG stands for.

d)    Americans the for AArts or Aptitude Test for Arts Administrators.

2)    A nonprofit arts organization asks for an extension to a grant submittal deadline…

a)    I tell them that the very asking of this question makes them ineligible to apply forever.

b)    I check the date and time to see if I am on vacation.

c)    I explain that while it is our policy not to do this, case law is on their side.

d)    Probably none of the above.

3)    A dancer, musician and playwright walk into a bar… 

a)    They better not be using fellowship money.

b)    The bartender says, “Okay, I’ll serve you a beer, if you can finish this joke.”

c)    This has something to do with the economic impact of the arts.

d)    Is “bar” misspelled?

4)    Is this sentence grammatically correct!

a)    Do I need to answer this in a complete sentence!

b)    No?

c)    It depends on the spoken intonation.

d)    No one told me that I would have to know this for a local arts agency aptitude test.

5)    Of these authors, I like this one best:

a)    Jasper Fforde

b)    Jasper Johns

c)    Jasper, AL

d)    This is a trick question.

6)    It is increasingly difficult to recruit for arts administrators’ positions because:

a)    The remuneration is so ridiculously generous that it intimidates candidates with low self-esteem.

b)    It is just as difficult as ever explaining what we do for a living.

c)    The job description specifies the work load of five people.

d)    Two of the above.

7)    If you make it to round two, which would be the best topic for a writing exercise?

a)    Why I think that you should hire me and how lovely I think that your outdoor cat Tyler looks.

b)    Can I see a sample of a writing exercise before I select an answer to this question?

c)    An impassioned defense of public art with conclusive arguments that never have been offered before.

d)    A better multiple choice test for job applicants.

8)    If your attention span is waning, you may want to consider taking a short break before reading the remainder of this question. The Heywe’regreat Art Center application for grants support requests $5,000 and matches this $5,000 with $1,000 a month for its three-and-a-half month season. Some of its season already will have occurred by the time the grant funds are allocated, if the application is successful. The balance of the matching funds ($6,543.21) is listed under “Miscellaneous Revenues” with the notation “Heythey’regreat Guild Fundraiser.”  The volunteer grants writer lives in another city but is intimately familiar with the organization’s Facebook page and can be tweeted for any questions about the application.

a)    If this is typical of a “real life” job situation, I would rather work at McDonald’s.

b)    What is the grantswriter’s twitter account?

c)    What was the question?

d)    Are the matching funds restricted?

e)    $3,500.

f)     I need another break.

g)    All of the above.

h)    Some of the above, except for “g.”

9)    The most difficult situation that a local arts agency administrator will have to address is:

a)    Having so many priority tasks that I have no time to participate in Americans for the Arts LAA webinars.

b)    Coming to terms with the fact that ghost writing blogs for my director is indisputably my top priority.

c)    Remembering what it was that I originally intended to accomplish at the end of each work day.

d)    Creating quantifiable, annual employment objectives that enable me to evade being evaluated on “a,” “b,” and “c.”

10)  Write your own multiple choice question here: ________________________.

a)    Wrong answer.

b)    Politically incorrect answer.

c)    The answer that you want to hear.

d)    The right answer.

1-3 correct answers: see 8 a) for directions; 3-5 correct answers: what do you think?; 8-10 correct answers: we reserve the right to change the evaluation process.

Ebony McKinney

This post is part of a series on emerging trends and notable lessons from the field, as reported by members of the Americans for the Arts Emerging Leaders Council.

Increased creative freedom, autonomy, and flexibility have come with a more precarious work style. This is becoming the new normal, even outside of the creative realm.

Does this make artists and creatives “new economy pioneers” prototyping the workstyle of the ‘conceptual age’? If so, what advice can we offer? Can we create a roadmap for resilience?

In this post I’d like to consider how arts incubators play an important role in not only supporting innovation and risk taking, but also by cultivating our most important assets — social and human capital.

BAY AREA VIDEO COALITION (BAVC)

In 2007, Bay Area Video Coalition’s (BAVC) Producers Institute for New Media, began in San Francisco. The institute was developed because BAVC recognized that traditional cinema didn’t inspire people to take action. Also, new media was becoming more prolific and gradually more accessible.

When the Institute started there was no FaceBook or Twitter, but Carol Varney, managing director of BAVC said, “We thought that new media could complement long form film and not just in promotion.”

At the heart of the program it’s about new skills for filmmakers and new ways to think about content creation and delivery.

Each session takes six to nine teams of two to four people who are selected by a jury of BAVC board and staff, filmmakers, and technologists in the field. 42 people have gone through the program since it began.

The session starts with introductions and initial pitches from each of the teams. Then technologists and other leaders in field carry out rapid-fire tech talks letting the producers know things they should consider. Varney said, “It’s about what’s happening now and in the future, not looking at past technology.”

Over the course of 10 days filmmakers develop a prototype with assistance from technology advisers who hail from firms like Zinga, Google, and Pentagram.

Participants share information over meals and talk about how to make projects better. This creative time has been found to be one the most beneficial parts of the program, according to participants. Not only are ideas exchanged and refined, but community is built.

At the end of the session there is a final presentation day with major funders from all over country.

Varney said, “Over the course of four years, we have gone from ‘the film is done now, what can we do on the internet?’ to thinking ‘my film isn’t done yet, what mobile application can I develop?’ It’s more integrated thinking, and thinking around an interactive experience. What was long form documentary could now end up as smaller cuts made into webisodes. We want to create an environment where people can think about projects in more dynamic ways, opening up the possibilities.”

CREATIVE CAPITAL

In New York, Creative Capital grew out of the demise of individual grants from the National Endowments for the Arts. The Andy Warhol Foundation and a few others thought a response to support individual artists and risk taking should be developed. It was the middle of the dot.com boom and venture capitalism was growing in popularity.

Ruby Lerner, director of Creative Capital, was charged with creating a “21st century arts organization,” drawing inspiration from venture capitalists and mutual aid models, and thinking through the possibility of bringing together grantmaking and artist services, while incorporating an entrepreneurial spirit.

The staff at Creative Capital wanted to move artists out of the “starving artist mindset” and treat them as vital parts of the community by exposing avenues to a sustainable career, which would allow for more meaning and dignity. Over 400 artists have become part of the program since it began in 1999.

“We serve the functions of an incubator. We are pulling people together in virtual and real space, interdisciplinary space, and retreats. Emerging fields, filmmakers, visual artists, novelists, dancers…everyone gets to have a conversation about what they are working on and struggle with [and] what is failing and succeeding. This leads to problem solving and new ideas,” said Director of Grants and Services Kemi Ilesanmi.

The retreat is the foundation of the program. For three to five days, grantees participate in professional development workshops, but the social capital or network development that’s done is equally important.

Programmers, presenters, curators — those representing the “business side of the art world” — and Creative Capital alumni meet and mingle with the current grantees.

Here are a few possible lessons for the field:

A.) Human capital is roughly the set of skills acquired on the job or through training and experience that supports the production of work that has economic value. Arts incubators, with a complementary set of workshops, panel discussions, and the like support the development of strong work and careers. For many, the benefits go beyond finance by increasing the artist’s ability to generate cultural value be it aesthetic, symbolic, social, and even historical. I’d like to see similar efforts focus on creative and cultural entrepreneurs.

B.) Both of the programs that I examined created “contact zones” — dinners with BAVC’s producing teams, Creative Capital’s retreat — which placed a real emphasis on social capital, network building, and knowledge sharing. Many incubators seem to toy with the idea of promoting collaboration among its participants. To me this seems a bit heavy handed. But there does seem to be great potential in creating labs or basins that accumulate this wealth in a more organic way. A smart, heterogeneous gathering around shared values and interests could build a more dynamic, innovative, and complex talent pool. This kind of endeavor with light facilitation could also break the isolation that goes along with increasingly individualized work.

C.) Artists and arts organizations are understandably worried that thinking too much of market forces could lead to pandering, commodification, or flat, hollow work. Cultural value is predominant, but having a balanced view that incorporates a clear economic outlook should also be a part of the puzzle. Clarity on scale and direction are vital, so that business is in service of greater goals. “Not everyone wants to think as a small business”, said Kemi Ilesanmi of Creative Capital, “but we encourage artists to think about what it takes to do what they do. We say ‘If you want a review or to contribute to a conversation, or just want to figure out how to do meaningful work and pay rent’ we can lay it out, frame it, and present it as possible.”

Gabriela Jirasek

This post is part of a series on emerging trends and notable lessons from the field, as reported by members of the Americans for the Arts Emerging Leaders Council.

It’s not just the Angelina Jolies and Brad Pitts of the world who fall victim to the ruthless 24-hour news cycle. The public’s hunger for uncomplicated, easily digestible news can slander celebrities and entire cities alike.

On January 11, 2011, Newsweek magazine published a now infamous article titled “America’s Dying Cities.” It crunched U..S census data to list the top-10 cities with 100,000 residents or more that experienced the steepest population decline in the country.

Number 10 on that list was Grand Rapids, MI. But the residents of Grand Rapids were about to prove that the reports of their city’s death were greatly exaggerated.

In answer to the article, lifelong Grand Rapids residents and filmmakers Rob Bliss and Scott Erickson created perhaps the greatest letter to the editor of all time,  a 10-minute lip dub music video of Don McClean’s “American Pie” featuring a cast of thousands and a full tour of downtown Grand Rapids.

Responding to the city’s premature death knell, director and executive producer explained, “We disagreed strongly, and wanted to create a video that encompasses the passion and energy we all feel is growing exponentially, in this great city. We felt Don McLean’s ‘American Pie,’ a song about death, was in the end, triumphant and filled to the brim with life and hope.

Produced for merely $40,000 and completely sponsored by local Grand Rapids businesses, the video received more than 1.3 million views over the 2011 Memorial Day weekend. It was praised by film critic Roger Ebert as “the greatest music video ever made.”

The video was so successful and garnered so much media attention, that even the editorial staff at Newsweek took notice, publishing a Facebook friendly “mea culpa.”

The Newsweek editors explained that the original article was not actually written by its staff and came to them as part of a recently negotiated content-sharing agreement with another news website mainstreet.com.

But in the end, the faults and apologies fade away because what remains is a community-based project that showcases the creativity and vibrancy of a great American city. Rob Bliss, Scott Erickson, and the more than 5,000 participants of the Grand Rapids lip dub put a human face on an otherwise abstract economic concept.

So what lessons can the arts take from Grand Rapids?

Mobilizing your local community can be one of the best ways to make a project happen. The Grand Rapids Lip Dub was successful because it was a true grassroots effort that engaged residents, local businesses, city politicians, and the creative energy of a whole city.

We all have stories to tell about our work and our art, but it’s up to us to share them. Not all of us can produce high quality music videos with a cast of thousands, but we can find new and inventive ways to communicate the value of our crafts. In our field, we are lucky enough to have creativity to spare. It’s time to put it to work.

Look over to the right side of this page and check out the tag cloud. (You might have to scroll a little. It’s under the “featured video”.)  Are your favorite topics there?

We want to match the content of our publications with what you need to be successful artists, arts administrators, advocates, and educators. That means tailoring the articles, blog posts, and news stories in our print and electronic communications based on your feedback. What topics do you want to read about more (or less)?

Take our short, six question survey and let us know how we’re doing: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/ZZWVFBB

Mara Walker

We all know finding a job is no easy task these days. To help, we just completed the second in a series of webinars about how to get a job in the arts today.

It featured four brilliant colleagues and myself:  Tara Aesquivel from Emerging Arts Leaders/Los Angeles; Stephanie Evans Hanson from Americans for the Arts; Marialaura Leslie from the Flushing Council on Culture and the Arts; and Jennifer Cover Payne from the Cultural Alliance of Greater Washington.

Last week’s webinar focused on the interview process from the perspectives of both the interviewer and the interviewee, and included a lot of valuable tips. Our previous webinar talked about getting noticed through a cover letter and resume that clearly explain why you are the right person for the job.

I have the privilege of interviewing all of our finalists for positions at Americans for the Arts and regardless of the level of the position or whether the job is operational or programmatic in nature, here’s what I look for in an interview:

1) Personality: Come into the interview relaxed, interested, and prepared. Be genuinely enthusiastic about the organization and the job and let it show. The interviewer wants to know that you are a good fit and if you seem uncomfortable or disengaged during the meeting, then they will assume that’s the real you.

2) Experience: Be ready to demonstrate and discuss the work you have done that makes you right for this job at this time. Your experience can be as a professional, intern, or volunteer and can be arts and non-arts driven, but it should clearly show why you have what it takes to be the best candidate for the job.

3) Knowledge: Make sure you have done your research and have practiced your role playing so that you are ready to demonstrate your knowledge of the organization and the tasks needed to accomplish the job you are applying for. Be sure to visit the organization’s website and be prepared to ask questions about the work and culture of the company.

Tara and Marialaura did a great job of talking about what an interviewee should look for in an interview.

They both noted that it is important to know and talk about what you are looking for in an organization as well. Consider such as important aspects of the organization as shared values and priorities, corporate culture, technology, physical surroundings, and professional opportunities. I said they were brilliant.

Many arts organizations across the country are actively hiring so do your research and don’t give up. After you have done your homework, participated in the interview to the best of your ability, and written that thank you note feel confident that the right job will come. It takes time, patience, and confidence.

Good luck, we are all cheering for you!

(Note: If you are a professional member of Americans for the Arts, click here to access a free archive of this webinar.)

Michael Wilkerson

I have a genius idea to fund the arts, but my grown-up son doesn’t like the work I’m doing.

As a researcher I like to solve problems, chief of which is how to fund the arts. What makes arts management exhilarating to me is the art itself; what makes it exhausting and even demeaning is the constant obsession with money.

Ideal fundraising is a meeting of minds, especially when a for-profit business, say a bank, comes to understand that its clients really want to see a performance by actors or musicians; while the artists appreciate that their sponsors – those bankers! – want to be part of the same community.

Those kinds of partnerships are as rare as they are beautiful. More typically, the arts organization is wrung out from trying to find a business that’s willing to support their real work. Thus, my dream remains that the next generation of arts managers will have a life that centers around the arts more than it centers around the lack of money.

I have a plan for a new system to create significant increases in public funding for the arts. (Read the details in my earlier post). I told my son about my plan, and how it would enable artists and arts organizations to accomplish so much more than is now possible. He shattered my evangelical fervor, saying, “It’s not going to help anyone I know about.”

He then went on to describe his friends and colleagues – all artists of one kind or another.

There were no 501(c)3’s in this crowd, but there were plenty of bands with CDs, recording studios, tours, and lively lists of followers on Facebook. Artists owned quirky shops in which handmade crafts, clothes, bumper stickers, patches, zines, and CDs were sold along with the art that hung on the walls.

Actors performed in basements and passed the hat; renting the city’s nonprofit performance spaces was out of the question for these groups. Most troubling were the “street artists” whose masterpieces were acknowledged as brilliant even by my ancient friends, yet were painted over as “vandalism” by a city government that said it was supporting the arts.

Other colleagues of my son had lost their rehearsal space in the city’s fervor to construct “artist housing” and “live-work space.” There were others who were locals no more, their gallery/stores having gone broke while rents in the government “arts district” escalated out of reach. “No, Dad,” my son said with a pitch-perfect patronizing sadness that sounded much like the self-righteous young me. “Not a dime of your arts grant money will ever help anyone or anything I care about.”

I remember my own young adulthood: being the writer who was kicked out of the farmers’ market for selling poems about produce rather than the vegetables themselves. I remember seeing even liberal governments and well meaning businesses as “the Establishment,” obstacles at best, an enemy at worst. Of course I grew up to be that “Established figure,” the Professor, the Director of “Arts Organizations,” member of a Chamber of Commerce, habitual procurer of public funds and private sponsorships.

And I wonder: when we talk about the private sector and the arts, what – and who — do we really mean?

When we talk about the next generation of leaders, is our vision limited to those shiny overachievers who are getting master’s degrees in our arts management programs and doing such great work within the 501(c)3 realm? Or are we missing the real artists and innovators of the future, actually doing more harm to them than good, even as we redevelop our cities around arts-business partnerships?

Perhaps what we need is not just a new source of revenue but a new understanding of who is out there beyond our comfort zone, and a plan to help those who already are doing the work that we are trying too hard to get started.

Have these very expensive and prestigious institutions taught our best and brightest the wrong things? Have they placed too much emphasis and focused our appreciation of value in the wrong place? I think they have.

But it’s not just me. Harvard Business School scholars Srikat Datar, David Garvin, and Patrick Cullen have written a book, Rethinking the M.B.A.: Business Education At A Crossroads. And the conclusions are grim.

Here’s how Paul Barrett, an an assistant managing editor at Bloomberg BusinessWeek interpreted their findings:

“After studying the nation’s most prestigious business schools, the authors conclude that an excessive emphasis on quantitative and theoretical analysis has contributed to the making of too many wonky wizards.”

M.B.A. recipients, according to this book, haven’t learned the importance of social responsibility, common-sense skepticism and respect for the dangers of taking risks with other people’s money.

“Put even more bluntly: Business schools played a contributing role in creating the geniuses who brought us the economic meltdown of 2008.

‘Postcrisis, executives and deans identified a number of gaps in M.B.A. teaching, largely in applied areas,’ the authors note. These include risk management, internal governance, behavior of complex systems, regulation and business/government relations and socially responsible leadership.

The authors lend credence to critics who ‘question whether business schools do a good job of alerting students to the imperfections and incompleteness of the models and frameworks they teach.’”

Ouch.

Michael Jacobs, a professor at the University of North Carolina’s Kenan-Flager Business School, was director of corporate finance policy at the U.S. Treasury from 1989 to 1991. He published the following in The Wall Street Journal on April 24, 2009, under the headline of “How Business Schools Have Failed Business”:

“As we try to understand why our economy is so troubled, fingers are increasingly being pointed at the academic institutions that educated those who got us into this mess. What have business schools failed to teach our business leaders and policy makers?”

He speculates on ethics and governance education and regulation and concludes, “America’s business schools need to rethink what we are teaching — and not teaching — the next generation of leaders.”

To me, it’s a very fundamental problem around the question of “what is valuable.” What do we, as a society, value?

What systems have we set up to propagate and reinforce this definition?

What do we teach around this, what do we preach around this, and what do we reward around this?

I’d have to say that our business schools are servicing and perpetuating a system that has created a mirage of value and rewarded people obscenely for laboring in that system.

We have trained and rewarded naked greed and bleached all human compassion out of our economic calculations. The result is that business leaders literally burned their own houses down, committed crimes that defrauded millions, and evaporated hundreds of billions of dollars — money that the America taxpayer (that would be people like you and me) had to bail these companies out.

This system and the architecture which supports and perpetuates it is no longer viable.

I believe that the domains of art and creativity have something to offer American business schools and the larger economy which they serve.

We can teach you about another way to assign value — looking at intrinsic worth past ascribed extrinsic worth.

We can teach you about the gift and about generosity and about the unreasonableness of cooperation without monetary reward.

We can teach you about empathy and the joy of seeing through another’s eyes and appreciating variety, diversity, and unorthodoxy.

We can teach you about the illogical act of defying precedent and accepted doctrine in order to create something new, shocking, and world-changing.

We can teach you how to see differently and be differently.

For these reasons, I call on America’s business (and law) schools to reach out to America’s artists to create new classes that challenge the old paradigms of what is valuable and to reimagine the skills we need to succeed to create that value and share it.

Anamika Goyal

Stunned.

It’s really the only word to describe my reaction to all of the previous posts. As a newly-minted, 21-year-old college graduate, I become quickly overwhelmed by the plethora of next steps available to me.

And, after reading the posts from all of this week’s bloggers–socially responsible, creative, like-minded people doing good and interesting work–I felt exactly that.

It’s odd to me that being presented with so many interesting and feasible options elicits such angst. I would imagine that many people in the same situation would be excited, elated even. I can’t help but feel immediately burdened by the inevitable ‘choice.’ I immediately start thinking that I need to pick one and begin to fear that I might pick wrong.

So yesterday, after Googling all of the organizations and projects mentioned in the posts and finding a number of groups doing things that intrigued me, I jotted down keywords of particular interest on Post-Its and stuck them on a wall in my apartment.

‘Community’, ‘arts’, ‘engagement’, ‘interactive’, ‘installation’, ‘industrial’, ‘design’, ‘redesign’, ‘urban’, and ‘group’ were all words that kept popping up.

It felt good to write them down, but then I found myself a little stuck again. I feel like this process tends to leave me with more questions than answers, which I will now pose to you all:

1. How did you pick?
2. How did you go about navigating the possibilities and finding something that combined vast and vague areas of interest?
3. Do you ever feel like you picked wrong, and what did you do about it?

I think it’s important to live in the questions a bit, but am now starting to wonder when some answers will start to show themselves.

In the spirit of wonder, curiosity, and passion, I put together an interactive blocks installation in Duke’s Library last year. Basically, I put a pile of building blocks on a rug in the middle of the library and documented what happened.

It really was incredible to see what students came up with and to see how deeply engaged they were with the blocks, and with each other. I was also constantly impressed by the conversations I found myself having around the exhibit–they often seemed to become confessions of what students ‘really liked doing,’ as if admitting this was somehow a sin and avoiding it was acceptable.

Even though the goals of my project were vague and not too predetermined, it seems that it did what I wanted it to–it helped people in my community at Duke rediscover a sense of wonder, even if only temporarily.

I now find myself, however, unable to get away from that place of wonder. I have certainly explored what my passions are but can’t seem to define them for myself.

I ask now, what comes after wonder? How does one move on? Perhaps my next installation can be a way to explore that.

Jeff Scott

With the recent release of Walter Isaacson’s biography of Steve Jobs, and several other bios scheduled to come out in the near future, there’s a lot of discussion on what kind of a manager Jobs was.

While the management of a publicly-traded tech company and that of a nonprofit arts organization may seem worlds apart, there are some basic kernels that arts leaders can take from Steve Jobs’ career.

We’ve heard a lot about Jobs’ so-called “reality distortion field.” He pushed his employees to the max, believing that work that normally would take a month could be done in a few days. While the pressure was too much for many employees, others said it caused them to do some of the best work of their careers.

For arts managers working with limited resources in terms of people, time, and money, the notion of a reality distortion field is probably a familiar one. So many times we find ourselves making something out of almost nothing and hopefully that something is a brilliant work of art. But what is perhaps more significant is how Jobs handled his employees. Not only did he believe that a particular task could get done a certain way in a certain time frame, he believed that his people would be able to accomplish it.

While his particular style of berating employees may not necessarily be what we want to replicate, for an arts manager working with constrained resources it is important to have that belief and confidence in your staff that they can accomplish the goals laid out for them.

Jobs was a man known for his vision. He may not have been a great engineer or programmer himself, but he had a vision of what he wanted his products and company to be. That vision guided Apple, with Jobs being deeply involved in every stage of a product’s development.

Arts leaders must also be people of vision. We must have a vision what we want to accomplish with our organizations, and work to ensure that vision is carried out. If not, then the danger is that we will produce work that is substandard, uninspired, or worse, simply not important.

The business world long respected Jobs for his marketing skill. Apple’s product launches are legendary, combining excitement and drama with the idea that this product (whatever it happened to be) was the most important piece of technology in the world.

Jobs was always at the center of those events, taking the stage to personally introduce the world to the new product and demonstrating why it was so great. He was able to connect with his audience, which grew them as customers and fans. We in the arts should also take the stage to promote our product, and find ways to connect to our audience to turn them into loyal fans. Ultimately, it is our fans that will keep us going.

Finally, there is the oft-quoted commencement address at Stanford that Jobs gave, in which he spoke of the necessity to do what you love in life, since your work will occupy a great deal of your time. Certainly all of us in the arts got into this work out of love for the arts, not because we thought we’d get rich. Yet while this point, like perhaps all the points above are somewhat commonsense for us, it’s still worth reminding ourselves of them from time to time.

Sara Bateman

On October 21, the Emerging Leaders in the Arts Network (ELAN) hosted our third annual Creative Conversation. Over the past three years, this event has enabled our Emerging Leaders chapter to make connections within our local Oregon community and address topics that provoke conversation around the state of the arts in this region.

As the only current university-based chapter of the Emerging Leaders Network, the Creative Conversations program has created a vital link between university students and the community at large.

Based out of the University of Oregon in Eugene, finding ways to break down the student/community divide is a high priority for our chapter. We strive to find ways to bridge the gap between students and professionals, and to take the opportunity while we are in graduate school to connect with artists, administrators, and educators so that we can inform our role as the current generation of emerging leaders.

For this year’s event, titled “Make a Scene: Activating Local Arts & Culture Media,” ELAN sought to address how our community can work together to elevate local arts and culture media coverage, providing both print- and web-based opportunities and platforms for participation, dialogue, and critical engagement.

The event started with a panel comprised of local writers, critics, and media managers, including Rebecca Black and Karen Rainsong from Eugene A Go-Go; Jonathan Boys-Hkd, founder and editor-in-chief of Emerging Artist Magazine; Suzi Steffen, independent arts critic and blogger; Dante Zuniga-West, music/visual arts editor at the Eugene Weekly; and Joshua Finch of the zine Exiled in Eugene.

For the first thirty minutes, the panelists addressed the impetus for starting their careers in media, what approaches to arts coverage and promotion they viewed as working well in Oregon, and how our local community can build a stronger platform for participation.

Participants discuss DIY media at one of the five breakout tables (Photo by Katrina Ketchum)

In our panelist selection process, we looked to cover a wide array of media choices, from the online platform to the independent DIY publisher. The diversity allowed for dialogue to cover a wide range of participant populations and to bring ideas of how even vastly different media types can work in unison to create a stronger art scene.

As the panel wrapped up, the event diverged into a breakout session where attendees had the opportunity to move throughout five tables to discuss topics surrounding the evening’s theme.

Prompts laid on each table – including Noteworthy, Newsworthy, & the Subjectivity In-Between; Personal Media Environment; DIY Media; Your Grandma and Twitter; and Making a Eugene Scene – carved a vague path to promote creative and unrestrictive dialogue as it pertained to the phrase at hand. With each rotation of participants through the tables, a question was developed for the next group to build on, enabling the dialogue to move forth with upward momentum.

From these discussions, many great questions arose, both inside and outside the topic of media.

• In what ways can publications, art organizations, and artists collaborate to support one another?

• How do we bridge connections with people outside of the art world and tap into new resources?

• How do organizations turn audiences into advocates?

• How does one decide what is culturally relevant in our town?

• How do people find a sense of belonging in the arts and culture community and create their own scene?

• And most importantly, how do we continue this dialogue once the event has come to a close?

In the end, a simple topic ignited a flow of ideas that branched out in many different, yet relevant, directions. It is evident that Creative Conversations create an ideal platform for initiating these discussions through a forum that is simple in nature, engaging, and connecting. With each year, new community members and students come out to participate, generate ideas, and aid in carrying forth the arts in Eugene. And for ELAN, the event continues to play a key role in allowing us to carry forth our mission of cultivating leadership, dialogue, and engagement within the arts and culture community.