Claudia Jacobs

When I was a college student in the 60s we thought ourselves intellectual, political and even somewhat evolved. A widely acknowledged putdown of college athletes oft heard was that their course load included Basket Weaving 101. That statement was not only insensitive to athletes; it also inadvertently reflected an additional put down of the arts. And that attitude remains and is reflected in how the arts are viewed today. “In the public schools, arts are all too often the first programs to be cut and the last to be reinstated,” says James Grace, executive director of the Arts and Business Council of Greater Boston.

Today we need to update that thinking. If we are to actively enrich our communities, arts should not be a stepchild of science, technology, engineering or math (STEM). In New England alone, over 53,000 people are employed in the “creative economy” and that sector, if it were considered in the North American Industrial Classification System (NAICS), which it is not, would rank just below the data and information sector and just ahead of the truck transportation sector, according to 2009 statistics compiled by the New England Foundation for the Arts. The 18,026 New England arts organizations supply the economy with nearly $3.7 billion–so why does STEM, an acronym that excludes the arts, seem to be on the tip of everyone’s tongue? Yes, there are major reasons why the U.S. needs to be focused on producing adults with skills in these areas, but why not include the arts and go from STEM to STEAM?

Philanthropies are more and more focused on impact, grantee accountability, metrics and getting results. Sound good? Not so fast. While these evaluation measures have importance, danger could be lurking. For the metric-merry this can have the potential of giving stepchild status to the arts as the less easily measured are most vulnerable to being cut from the roster. Some argue that the increased frenzy with metrics may indeed play a role in stifling innovation.

“And arts curricula in schools,” says Grace, “have broad proven benefits that might not appear to be related to academics but are.” He says that “building the muscles of creativity enhances students’ engagement and development in all aspects of their education. The discipline and process of moving from an idea to a creative result is a skill that is translated whether your life’s work is about computers, architecture, nursing or music. What company doesn’t want engaged creative and innovative thinkers and disciplined workers? How many will survive the global environment without them?” Grace also contends that when arts programs were cut out of the curriculum in schools, it contributed to a lost generation of arts patrons and that has economic impact that is still being felt across sectors.

In addition, arts can have a magnetism that engages even the most recalcitrant students, some of whom might fear or be turned off by science, technology and math. Yet if their brains have been exercised in the arts, these same students might avoid getting turned off to education writ large. If we don’t lose these students along the way, they may get through school, mature and return to those other areas later in their educational or professional careers because they haven’t opted out, because they have a means of expression.

Imagine a society where the arts are a core component, not considered peripheral to the educational equation. Art is open to all – the working poor, women, persons with disabilities – so it is a social justice strategy and something where diversity has always been valued. Arts reflect culture and provide important lifelong tools.

And proof that philanthropies and individual donors may be ignoring the grass roots and important educational benefits within community organizations and schools, is that the majority of philanthropic dollars that are directed to the arts are going to the largest arts organizations – symphonies, museums, and theaters – leaving a smaller pool for funding schools and community organizations who employ the arts in neighborhood development strategies. Philanthropy can and should view the arts as a way to accomplish its wider mission. Broadening and expanding the vision about how we categorize the arts and putting them front and center on the necessary and core list, not the optional list, is an important first step.

Philanthropic dollars directed to the arts can leverage economic and neighborhood development. Some in the private sector have already come to this conclusion and reaped great return on that investment. Arts revitalize communities and strengthens the economy, improves safety, and creates vibrant neighborhoods.

And if trends in philanthropy, akin to trends in politics, are influenced by public opinion, a survey conducted by the Boston Foundation revealed that 78% of respondents said they wanted to live in communities in which corporations and local businesses actively support arts and cultural organizations.*

So, let’s think of the little engine that could–and get on the STEAM engine.

(This post, originally published on HuffingtonPost.org, is one in a weekly series highlighting The pARTnership Movement, Americans for the Arts’ campaign to reach business leaders with the message that partnering with the arts can build their competitive advantage. Visit our website to find out how both businesses and local arts agencies can get involved!)

John Eger

Business in America knows well that we have entered the Age of Innovation. This became evident to attendees putting together a California “Blueprint for Creative Schools” meeting in Fresno California recently.

Business knows too, that creativity leads to innovation and that, understandably, we need to find a way to nurture creativity and attract the creative worker–across town, across the nation or using H1B visas for young people in other countries. As Randy Cohen of the Americans for the Arts has argued–and The Conference Board, and studies by IBM have found–”the arts build the 21st Century workforce.”

What is still not yet clear is whether the role of the arts and art integration is perceived by the business sector as the most legitimate method to foster creativity. Yes, business says, the arts are nice but are they really necessary?

Business isn’t stupid or shortsighted…it’s just that they don’t always see the connections. Or maybe they do but don’t have the time to hear all the rhetoric about how important the arts are. Or maybe, because of the quarter-to-quarter pressures, are not yet willing to invest in programs that will deliver a more sophisticated workforce with the new thinking skills in the decade that follows. Maybe it’s all too long range.

More to the point, maybe artists and educators are not yet talking the talk.

They are not saying what business needs to hear to get them fully engaged in the struggle to put arts back into the formula; and to push for STEAM not just STEM education.

It time we acknowledge that it isn’t the arts per se. It’s about creativity that leads to innovation. It’s about teaching creativity, not just performance in a given discipline like acting or painting or making jewelry.

For those in education and the arts, we start at a disadvantage.

Richard Deasy, former director of the Arts Education Partnership, once complained that “the fundamental problem we confront in making the arts an unquestioned part of the learning required of students and teachers is the position of the arts in the broader culture.” Deasy suggested what’s most valued in America is “muscularity” or toughness. The math and science curricula carry with them this sense of muscularity through their inherent formulas, truisms and theories. By comparison, the arts experience seems less tough, softer, more anecdotal.

As one committee, chaired by Anne Bown-Crawford, Director of the Arcata Arts Institute, agreed, there seems a need to change the vocabulary of the educational establishment, change the lenses in the camera, and in the process awaken to the competitive demands of this new age.

“You can study music, dance, narrative storytelling, and art making scientifically, and you can conclude that, yes, they’re deeply biologically driven, they’re essential to our species, but there would still be something missing,” David Sloan Wilson of Binghamton University says, “and that thing is an appreciation for the work itself, a true understanding of its meaning in its culture and context.”

As a whole new economy based upon creativity and innovation emerges, the importance of reinventing business strategies, corporations, communities, schools, and more is critical. Nothing can remain the same if we are to survive, let alone succeed, in this new global, knowledge-based economy.

At the annual conference of American for the Arts last year, all the talk was about creativity but it was a halfhearted attempt just to appease the philanthropic community. It also narrowly centered on the so-called creative industries (film, television, graphic design, publishing, etc.), which ignores the fact that most businesses — at least as The Conference Board and IBM (who also did a major study on the subject) — define it more broadly. To them, the creative economy includes all businesses not just those that are directly associated with the arts.

Lets not simply talk about the arts. Let’s talk about creativity.

And lets be specific too. The creative economy has become much larger, even more important than arts-based enterprises, and it is a missed opportunity not to recognize the vital role of the arts and importantly, arts integration and the vital connections between art and culture, creativity and commerce to the future of the country.

(This post, originally published on HuffingtonPost.org, is one in a weekly series highlighting The pARTnership Movement, Americans for the Arts’ campaign to reach business leaders with the message that partnering with the arts can build their competitive advantage. Visit our website to find out how both businesses and local arts agencies can get involved!)

Follow John M. Eger on Twitter: www.twitter.com/jeger62

Patrick O’Herron

You’ve done it. You’ve decided as a business or arts professional that you are fully ready to take the plunge and immerse yourself in The pARTnership Movement. Kudos—we welcome you into our pool of resources! (No splashing, please.)

At the same time, you’re wondering, “But how do I pARTner…?” It’s ok. Don’t get overstressed like this guy:

Take a deep breath and count to 10. The pARTnership Movement is here to help!

The first question to ask yourself is, “Arts and business? Huh? But why? Whyyyyy?!”  It’s true. Arts to business seems as unlikely as jelly to burgers, as knives to soup, as ketchup to ice cream. That’s why our clever pack of pARTnership Movement ninjas have created the 8 Reasons to Partner with the Arts—a veritable credo to live by. Print them off and carry them in your purse or wallet. Hug them. Kiss them. Love them. They are here to enlighten you.

The next question to ask yourself is, “Who am I?” Well, if you are waxing philosophical, we can’t help you there, but we can help you forge lasting arts and business partnerships. Are you a business leader looking to engage your workforce in creative and innovative ways? Are you an artist or arts organization looking to partner with a business professional who can offer his/her insight and skills? We can offer assistance to both! (photo by ALAMY, The Telegraph)

Business professionals—Are you ready to partner but don’t know who to contact? In the “find a partner” section of The pARTnership Movement website, we can connect you with Americans for the Arts member organizations in your area, facilitating a dialogue about the type of partnership that is right for you.

Arts professionals—Are you unsure how to begin the conversation with your local businesses? In the “for arts groups” section of the site, our downloadable tool-kits will teach you how to talk the talk and walk the walk with business professionals on topics such as skills-based volunteering, employee engagement, and bringing the arts into the workplace. We are constantly creating new tool-kits, so check back often!

Both—Do you need inspiration? Check out the “success stories” section, which offers replicable models of arts partnerships happening around the country, and the “news” section, a forum for arts and business partnerships that are happening here and now. We are always looking for new stories, so when you have one to tell, contact us and we will be happy to share!

Now that you’ve established who you are and how you aim to partner, where do you go from here?

·         Use our existing pARTnership campaign in your area—Our ads will help you get the word out about your partnership and encourage other business and arts professionals to join the movement along with you! We’ve put together this “read me first” guide, which not only explains how to use the ads, but also how to leverage the campaign with op-ed ideas and social media extensions.

·         Stay informed—Our monthly newsletter, BCA Noteworthy, includes stories, links, and facts and figures for both businesses and arts professionals.

·         Get rewarded—The BCA 10: Best Businesses Partnering with the Arts in America is an award administered each year to ten businesses—both small and large—making great strides in arts partnerships that enrich the workplace and local communities. Recent winners include Aetna, Bank of America, and Macy’s. Get inspired by the stories of last year’s winners in the 2012 BCA 10 publication!

Congrats—you’ve done it! You are now a full-fledged pARTner! But it doesn’t end there. The pARTnership Movement is just that—a continuous movement to reach business leaders and arts professionals with the message that partnering with the arts can build a competitive advantage. As the arts evolve in our country, so does its stewardship. Keep sharing your pARTnership with others in your community, and look to us as your guiding light. After all, when arts and businesses partner, everyone profits.

(This post is one in a weekly series highlighting The pARTnership Movement, Americans for the Arts’ campaign to reach business leaders with the message that partnering with the arts can build their competitive advantage. Visit our website to find out how both businesses and local arts agencies can get involved!)

Richard Crespin

When Capital One bought ING Direct last year in the first big bank acquisition since Congress passed the Dodd-Frank Act, the deal was subject to a high level of scrutiny. While regulators poured over the facts and figures, what they really wanted to know was could Capital One be trusted?

“We had hearings with the [Federal Reserve] in three different cities. Numerous nonprofits testified on our behalf about our corporate character,” said Carolyn Berkowitz, Managing Vice President for Capital One Bank and President of the Capital One Foundation. “They all said, ‘…this is a company that’s going to add to our community, not detract from it…’ That kind of commitment doesn’t come from just writing a check.”

Milton Friedman famously said, “the business of business is business.” Corporate responsibility skeptics often ape Friedman, asking how these programs impact the bottom line. But for most publicly traded firms, over 80% of their market value – the real test of shareholder value – lies on the balance sheet in good will and brand. Capital One’s good will, built through skills-based volunteering, added to its brand value and its book value because it helped ensure the purchase of ING Direct.

Although Capital One’s skills-based volunteering program is more than ten years old, in 2008 the company expanded and restructured it to make it a cornerstone of their brand. At its founding, Capital One was “a company that was a new idea, knocking down the price of credit. That was a mission unto itself,” said Berkowitz. “For our associates, taking on pro bono is like a new mission. Having the opportunity to use their very honed skills, taking them into the community and back to the company is a reward for our people and has a big impact on our ability to grow.”

Capital One joined 365 of America’s largest companies and well-known brands in taking the A Billion + Changepledge to “donate their best talent to tackle tough problems in their communities and around the world.” The pledge inspired the donation of the equivalent of $1.998 billion of volunteer time and the organization wants to get to 500 participating firms by this summer (Source: Billion + Change). But skills-based volunteering isn’t an easy story to tell.

On April 22, during a Pro Bono Summit panel organized by A Billion + Change, Deloitte, Fairfax Chamber of Commerce, George Mason University, and Fairfax County, Berkowitz asked, “how can the media help tell this story?” By common wisdom, donors and volunteers respond to pictures of volunteers coming to the aid of suffering people, not “capacity building” – strengthening the infrastructure, operations, and management of nonprofits. According to Berkowitz, “we often find nonprofits aren’t ready for us; don’t speak our language,” and don’t have the structures to make use of volunteer resources. Without that infrastructure, nonprofits can be like water in the dessert: pour on all the resources and they’ll just run off without making an impact.

“We’re a visual medium, so a park clean-up is an easy visual,” said NBC4 Washington’s Northern Virginia Bureau Chief Julie Carey. “But we also love numbers,” so the kinds of statistics that underlie programs like Capital One’s can draw media attention. Yet many businesses still don’t know how they can help nonprofits overcome capacity problems. That must change.

Over my next few blogs I’ll explore how Capital One and other companies use programs like the A Billion + Change pledge to drive business value and magnify social impact. Here’s a quick preview of my next post on the business case for using skills-based volunteering to build nonprofit capacity…

“We need to totally rethink and resell pro bono,” said Deloitte’s Evan Hochberg, National Director of Community Involvement. “At last year’s Impact Day,” said Hochberg, describing Deloitte’s annual community service day, “I had one executive come up to me [dressed in a suit], and say, ‘This is not Impact Day. I need to be outside in a t-shirt,’” doing something with her hands, not her skills. While her attitude shifted over the course of the day after seeing Deloitte’s skills-based volunteers transform these organizations, her original thinking is the kind that still predominates in many circles.

“So far, [skills-based volunteering] has been sold as an employee benefit, not as a deliberate way of having social impact,” said Hochberg. “Our country can’t afford for us to be that cavalier with human capital.”

What operational, infrastructure, and management challenges does your nonprofit face? How has your company made a transformative difference for a nonprofit? What undermines these kinds of engagements?

(This post, originally published on BCLC.uschamber.com, is one in a weekly series highlighting The pARTnership Movement, Americans for the Arts’ campaign to reach business leaders with the message that partnering with the arts can build their competitive advantage. Visit our website to find out how both businesses and local arts agencies can get involved!)

Bruce Whitacre

While corporate philanthropy has long ago shifted from community charity to strategic, carefully designed programs, a fundamental question of authenticity can undermine the soundest strategies.

If the association between a company and a cause, or the social impact of the company’s action does not resonate with consumers and other stakeholders, what is the point of the best-laid plans?

This question was examined at a recent panel convened by Barron’s and the Luxury Marketing Council, a collaborative organization of leading brands. Discussion was led by journalist and author Richard C. Morais, editor of Barron’s Penta, a quarterly magazine and website serving wealthy families. In this context, Morais addressed the inherent contradiction facing luxury brands and philanthropy — high end products are often marketed as expressions and rewards for one’s self, and this can create dissonance for philanthropic projects focused on others. Customers of these brands are also often philanthropists themselves and they are attuned to these inconsistencies.

As Page Snow, Chief Philanthropic Officer at Foundation Source, illustrated, “Individuals of wealth are approached constantly for various causes, and their BS detector becomes very finely tuned, especially at higher levels of wealth.”

Alignment sets the stage for genuine and successful partnership. Snow offered advice to those of us on the asking side of this equation: she pointed out that younger family philanthropists are looking out for how their foundations’ assets are being invested just as much as how their grants are being made. They want their portfolios to align with their own values, just as much as their grantees. Even more important, they are not looking for non-profits to fund. They are looking for problems to solve.

Photo from left: Richard C. Morais, Editor of Barron’s Penta; Jasmine Audemar, Audemar Piguet; Danny Meyer, Union Square Hospitality; and Page Snow, Foundation Source. Photo courtesy of Rogers Kisby Photography.

She went on to analyse recent luxury cause marketing campaigns for alignment and authenticity. RuPaul and Viva Glam: great match. While one of the most inauthentic of recent campaigns, she said, was Komen and KFC. Curing cancer through products that contribute to obesity and cancer just doesn’t fly.

Sometimes the alignment simply fits the company’s DNA. Illustrating this was Jasmine Audemars, Chairman of Audemars Piguet, a Swiss watch manufacturer that supports global sustainability projects. “Time evokes the evolution of geology” according to Piguet. As head of their corporate foundation, Audemar and the board direct its resources toward forest preservation around the world as well as in their own backyard in Switzerland’s Jura.

And on the corporate side, they built the first industrial building in Switzerland to receive the Minergie Eco label. Sustainability advocates are embedded within each department to help improve the company’s processes. None of the foundation projects are used to overtly promote watches, the corporate image or otherwise fit a “strategic” marketing or communications objective. So, while the foundation work informs the corporate work, it is not used as a marketing gimmick.

Danny Meyer highlighted a staff-based philanthropy approach. Employees at his Union Square Hospitality Group restaurants are hired primarily based on their “Hospitality Quotient,” their desire and happiness in serving others. Even in his business’s early days when Union Square was being redeveloped, he and his staff engaged with the community by serving free lunches to organizers and farmers market advocates. Each restaurant manager and staff choose their own local philanthropy, and Danny himself has several in which he is involved, such as Share Our Strength and City Harvest.

This focus on employee engagement comes back to a core focus of Union Square Hospitality Group: it all starts with employees, not customers, investors or anyone else. Staff that is continuously engaged and challenged is central to the company’s business growth.

With a focus on fulfilling one’s employees, public recognition for philanthropy becomes secondary. Union Square Hospitality has sponsored the Big Apple Barbecue in Madison Square Park for years. After all, nearby Blue Smoke is one of their restaurants. But only lately have they actually put their name on it.

But one occasion where they are stepping forward as a brand is the DeVine Intervention campaign for Hurricane Sandy relief that recently closed. Wine suppliers have donated lots valued at $250,000 for an online auction benefiting recovery. The timing was felt to be important…offer an infusion of cash for those suffering the longer term effects of the storm.

So the question all of us engaged in philanthropic partnerships should ask is, “What problem am I solving, and how am I being authentic about it?” Only then will a cause find its voice, and its true partners.

(This post, originally published on HuffingtonPost.org, is one in a weekly series highlighting The pARTnership Movement, Americans for the Arts’ campaign to reach business leaders with the message that partnering with the arts can build their competitive advantage. Visit our website to find out how both businesses and local arts agencies can get involved!)

Follow Bruce E. Whitacre on Twitter: www.twitter.com/BEWhitacre

“Demon Eye 1,” by Steinar Jakobsen, 2005, oil on alucore. From the Schwartz Art Collection of the Harvard Business School.

In a recent development in the corporate art world, many of the most important business colleges and schools are now collecting art and using it as a learning tool.

As I was updating the information for the new 2013 edition of the International Directory of Corporate Art Collections, I discovered a surprising and unexpected growth sector—business schools and colleges have begun to form art collections as a necessary component to their business curriculum.

During the past 20 years, it has become more recognized and accepted that art in a corporate environment has numerous benefits—for employees, clients, and the company itself. So it is heartening to see that many of the most important business colleges have developed an art program as an adjunct to their more traditional course offerings.

Primarily a North American phenomenon, some of the business schools with important collections include the Wharton School of Business in Philadelphia, Harvard Business School, the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago, the London School of Economics, and the Stephen Ross School of Business at the University of Michigan.

“Black on Black Spirals,” by Alexander Calder, 1970, gouache. From the Ross Art Collection at the Ross School of Business, University of Michigan

While many corporations have art collections and programs because of their benefits to employees, clients, and shareholders, for the business school it is more about opening the students’ minds to the idea that they can make a statement without being literal or obvious. To them, art is a suitable complement to a challenging curriculum.

Harvard Business School’s collection of more than 200 pieces, assembled over the last two decades, is displayed in public areas frequented by MBA students. Inspired by the growing collection, a small group of MBA students founded the HBS Art Appreciation Society in 2001. It quickly grew into one of the largest student clubs on campus, sponsoring events in Boston area galleries and museums, as well as an annual weekend in Manhattan to meet artists, tour exhibitions, and attend theater.

While the Booth School of Business at the University of Chicago is known for its history of turning out future CEOs, it is also home to over 300 works of art by approximately 75 artists.

The Wharton School of Business in Philadelphia, started in 1991, has over 300 late 20th-century works of art in the Balser Art Collection. Housed throughout the Steinberg Conference Center, it was created to provide the students, faculty, and visiting executives, with a cultural and educational resource. The collection offers a broad range of contemporary styles with works by well-known artists including Albers, Dali, Miro, Pearlstein, and Warhol. Most of the artworks were acquired or commissioned specifically for the Center, and there are plenty of opportunities for viewing them.

The Ross School of Business of the University of Michigan has a collection of more than 250 contemporary works on paper and sculpture. According to the school, the art provides a cultural experience for its students in addition to a business education. The works in the collection—located throughout the school—encourage broad participation in civil society and openness to new ways of seeing and thinking. Some of the artists represented include: Howard Ben Tre, Jonathan Borofsky, Alexander Calder, Dale Chihuly, Jim Dine, Richard Estes, Helen Frankenthaler, Red Grooms, Al Held, Sol Lewitt, and James Rosenquist.

The art collection of the Mason School of Business at the College of William and Mary in Virginia reflects its self-proclaimed identity as a home of “revolutionary” thinking. The school intends the collection at its new Miller Hall to encourage a creative, entrepreneurial spirit and an awareness of history.

As the benefits of art in the workplace become more accepted and  trends continue to make the work environment a more stimulating and creative space, we expect more and more business schools to recognize that art is an important adjunct to a business education, and to convey that idea to upcoming business students and future leaders of companies.

(This post, originally published on CorporateArtWorld.com, is one in a weekly series highlighting The pARTnership Movement, Americans for the Arts’ campaign to reach business leaders with the message that partnering with the arts can build their competitive advantage. Visit our website to find out how both businesses and local arts agencies can get involved!)

Valerie as a fairy in “A Midsummer Night’s Dream” at age 3 1/2.

We recently launched a new series on ARTSblog that spotlights the staff at Americans for the Arts that I call “Ten Questions with…”, in which I will ask everyone the same questions and see where it takes us.

This time I have turned to Valerie Beaman who currently serves as Private Sector Initiatives Coordinator.

1. Describe your role at Americans for the Arts in 10 words or less:

Program planner, council wrangler, seeker of speakers and bloggers, herder

2. What do the arts mean to you?

In my family it was an anomaly if you weren’t involved in the arts in some way. We are all a bunch of introverts and eccentrics who’ve managed to stay sane by participating in the arts. My first stage experience was as a fairy in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at the Redlands Bowl at age 3 ½. I still get goose bumps when I hear Mendelssohn’s music for the entrance of the fairies! Experiences like that never leave you. It’s very important to me to that children everywhere have an opportunity to connect with the arts. They’re a lifesaver.

Valerie returning to Earth.

3. If you could have any career you wanted (talent, education not required), what would it be and why?

A test pilot because I love everything to do with the experience of flight. I took up skydiving because I wanted to know how it felt to step out into nothingness.

4. How many places have you lived? Where?

Five: I was born in Southern California; spent my school years in Pittsburgh, PA; I’ve lived most of my life in New York, NY, taking five years off in Bernalillo, NM to recharge, and Paris, where I always feel instantly at home.

5. What is the best compliment you’ve ever received?

Someone once said about me, “Look, she even ties her shoes gracefully.” At the time I laughed, but I still think of it every time I tie my shoes.

6. Name three people in history (dead or alive) with whom you would want to sit down to dinner.

Merce Cunningham, John Cage, and Robert Rauschenberg. I was a huge fan of the Cunningham Company and would love to hear about their collaborations and their crazy road trips. I’d ask John Cage to provide some delicious mushroom dishes and maybe read from Finnegan’s Wake in the wee hours. I’m sure the I Ching would come into play at some point in the evening.

7. Would others say that you can dance? Explain.

Well you’d think I could dance, having been in an opera ballet company and all the rest of my performing career, but somehow none of that training translates onto the regular dance floor. I couldn’t do the popular dances very well, so I created the Pussy-foot Stomp—not exactly the Harlem Shake—more like a demented Irish step-dancer.

8. What is the earliest memory you have of being an audience member for a live arts event?

Does the circus count? I was maybe five or six and I loved the man being shot out of the cannon, of course. I wanted to be shot out of the cannon too and cried when no one took me seriously. An early indication of my pursuit of flight!

9. What would the title of your autobiography be?

No One Here Thinks I’m Funny! I have a picture for the cover:

10. Finally, if you could paint a picture or take more photos of a place you have been in your life what would you paint or photograph?

I’m a novice with water colors and have been trying to capture the “walking rain” of New Mexico when the rain falls only halfway down from the sky. It’s magical at sunset. I suspect that magic only exists in the moment and can’t or shouldn’t be captured.

That’s it for Valerie. Stay tuned for more “Ten Questions with…” soon!

Laura Bruney

In front of a sold-out crowd of almost 150 hospitality executives, arts directors and community leaders at the Intercontinental Miami; the Arts & Business Council’s annual Breakfast with the Arts & Hospitality Industry got off to a rousing start. George Neary from the Greater Miami Convention & Visitors Bureau welcomed participants by exclaiming, “Miami is what the world wants to be!”

Much of the “Miami” brand features the arts and our world class cultural community. Art Basel Miami Beach is well known for attracting cultural tourists. But it is not alone.

Music fans from around the world come for Ultra Music Festival; half a million arts lovers come for the Coconut Grove Arts Festival; architect buffs visit the New World Center on Miami Beach and take art deco walking tours hosted by Miami Design Preservation League; and, film enthusiasts flock to the Miami International Film Festival. Read the rest of this entry…

(This post, originally published on KnightArts.org, is one in a weekly series highlighting The pARTnership Movement, Americans for the Arts’ campaign to reach business leaders with the message that partnering with the arts can build their competitive advantage. Visit our website to find out how both businesses and local arts agencies can get involved!)

Robert L. Lynch

The tragedy in Boston yesterday was horrific and inexplicable and all of us at Americans for the Arts send our deepest sympathy and thoughts to those injured and to their families.

As we saw and heard things unfold from our offices in Washington, DC, and New York City, the Americans for the Arts staff began calling family and friends and members in the Boston area to see if those closest to us were okay. Some of us had loved ones right there at the site watching or running. Thankfully, all were uninjured.

But it made us think how connected, how close, how much a part of a community we all are even if scattered all across our country. In some ways that makes this tragedy all the more hurtful because it was aimed at community and fellowship itself, the very kind of coming together that marathons, and festivals, and arts events try to create. It takes aim at those who live in a community as well as tourists and visitors from across the world, that broader community created by an event like the Boston Marathon.

For me, as someone who grew up in the Boston area and spent my high school years blissfully wandering the city, this happened on sacred ground. Boylston Street was the place of high school proms, or visits to one of our nation’s great libraries, the site of New Year’s Eve First Night Celebrations, and the Lennox Hotel lounge right there was where my parents would go for end of week celebrations and pop up opera performances.

Sadly, terrible events trying to create hard and horrible memories are now all too common. But in some ways our best defense is to keep investing in the community-building arts activities that, individually and together, form the hallmark of our collective work.

Our hope is the hope itself generated by bringing people together through the arts. My hope is that what we all do in our small way in our many arts organizations across America will make the writing of notes like this one someday unnecessary.

Susan Mendenhall

The terms “triple-win” and “triple bottom line” are tossed around in nonprofit publications fairly regularly, especially when it comes to espousing the benefits of corporate philanthropy and corporate social responsibility.

At times, it can seem like forging triple-win partnerships are like cranking the philanthropic slot machine hoping for a three liner of cherries. A win for the nonprofit? Ding! A win for the corporate donor? Ding! A win for the community? Ding!

But authentic corporate-nonprofit partnerships that have real community impact are no simple gamble. They’re built on a foundation of mutual trust and respect, and a shared commitment to serving real people.

A great example of a successful triple-win partnership is the Nonprofit Arts Internship Initiative. With support from the Lincoln Financial Foundation, Arts United has placed more than 70 paid interns at northeast Indiana’s largest nonprofit arts organizations since 2007. Arts organizations gain assistance and expertise from local college students while providing interns with beneficial career experience in arts administration and nonprofit management.

With an annual retention rate of between 40–65 percent, the Initiative has the added bonus of cultivating a creative workforce in northeast Indiana, a region that is striving to retain the talent pool demanded by 21st century businesses. Moreover, interns are placed at leading arts organizations who visibly contribute to elevating the vibrancy of northeast Indiana—a key factor for attracting and retaining talent.

Lindsay Sprunger was an intern at Fort Wayne Youtheatre in 2012 thanks to the Nonprofit Arts Internship Initiative. Before graduating from Indiana University-Purdue University Fort Wayne with a degree in English, Lindsay took on Youtheatre’s publications, social media, and web maintenance with the goal of freshening the way that the 79-year-old organization communicates with the kids enrolled in theatre programs.

In addition, Lindsay gained experience in box office management by managing Youtheatre’s integration in a new shared community box office. After her internship, Lindsay accepted the Assistant Manager position with Arts United’s ArtsTix Community Box Office.

A win for arts organizations like Youtheatre and Arts United? Ding!

A win for area college students like Lindsay? Ding!

A win for the regional economy? Ding!

This is a triple-win partnership, indeed.

“Lincoln Financial Foundation contributes to moving the needle by partnering with organizations like Arts United that do the work,” explains Jean Vrabel, program officer for Fort Wayne and Omaha. “We recognize that the arts contribute to the economic stability of northeast Indiana, and the Nonprofit Arts Internship Initiative is a true workforce development tool.”

The Nonprofit Arts Internship Initiative is just one part of a long-standing partnership between Lincoln Financial Foundation and Arts United. The Lincoln Foundation announced in March 2013 that it plans to strengthen ties with Arts United through a multi-year grant of $280,000 over two years.

The grant provides general operating support and continued sponsorship of the Nonprofit Arts Internship Initiative. In addition to the grant, Lincoln employees will contribute more than $30,000 to Arts United this year during their annual workplace campaign.

Arts United will use support from Lincoln as a part of its collaborative model of arts administration that utilizes shared resources—Arts Campus facilities, united fundraising and grant administration, financial expertise and business services, and cultural planning—to serve about 70 arts and cultural nonprofits in 12 counties of northeast Indiana.

Arts United Executive Director Jim Sparrow says, “Lincoln’s long-standing support of Arts United reinforces the important role that arts and cultural organizations play in our region. Our well-resourced cultural core is a catalyst for a more dynamic, vibrant community.”

(This post is one in a weekly series highlighting The pARTnership Movement, Americans for the Arts’ campaign to reach business leaders with the message that partnering with the arts can build their competitive advantage. Visit our website to find out how both businesses and local arts agencies can get involved!)

Randy Cohen

There is an old quote attributed to John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich:

“If any man will draw up his case, and put his name at the foot of the first page, I will give him an immediate reply. Where he compels me to turn over the sheet, he must wait my leisure.”

This was the charge given to me by a business leader who needed to make a compelling case for government and corporate arts funding:

“Keep it to one page, please,” was his request. “I can get anyone to read one page.”

With the 2013 arts advocacy season once again upon us, the following is my updated Top 10 Reasons to Support the Arts:

1. True prosperity…The arts are fundamental to our humanity. They ennoble and inspire us—fostering creativity, goodness, and beauty. The arts help us express our values, build bridges between cultures, and bring us together regardless of ethnicity, religion, or age. When times are tough, art is salve for the ache.

2. Improved academic performance…Students with an education rich in the arts have higher GPAs and standardized test scores, lower drop-out rates, and even better attitudes about community service—benefits reaped by students regardless of socio-economic status. Students with four years of arts or music in high school average 100 points better on their SAT scores than students with one-half year or less.  

3. Arts are an industry…Arts organizations are responsible businesses, employers, and consumers. Nonprofit arts organizations generate $135 billion in economic activity annually, supporting 4.1 million jobs and generating $22.3 billion in government revenue. Investment in the arts supports jobs, generates tax revenues, promotes tourism, and advances our creativity-based economy.

4. Arts are good for local merchants…The typical arts attendee spends $24.60 per person, per event, not including the cost of admission on items such as meals, parking, and babysitters. Attendees who live outside the county in which the arts event takes place spend twice as much as their local counterparts ($39.96 vs. $17.42)—valuable revenue for local businesses and the community.

5. Arts are the cornerstone of tourism…Arts travelers are ideal tourists—they stay longer and spend more. The U.S. Department of Commerce reports that the percentage of international travelers including museum visits on their trip has increased from 17 to 23 percent since 2003, while the share attending concerts and theater performances increased from 13 to 16 percent (only 7 percent include a sports event).

6. Arts are an export industry…U.S. exports of arts goods (e.g., movies, paintings, jewelry) grew to $64 billion in 2010, while imports were just $23 billion—a $41 billion arts trade surplus in 2010.

7. Building the 21st Century workforce…Reports by the Conference Board show creativity is among the top 5 applied skills sought by business leaders—with 72 percent saying creativity is of high importance when hiring. The biggest creativity indicator? A college arts degree. Their Ready to Innovate report concludes, “…the arts—music, creative writing, drawing, dance—provide skills sought by employers of the 3rd millennium.”

8. Healthcare…Nearly one-half of the nation’s healthcare institutions provide arts programming for patients, families, and even staff. 78 percent deliver these programs because of their healing benefits to patients—shorter hospital stays, better pain management, and less medication.

9. Stronger communities…University of Pennsylvania researchers have demonstrated that a high concentration of the arts in a city leads to higher civic engagement, more social cohesion, higher child welfare, and lower poverty rates. A vibrant arts community ensures that young people are not left to be raised solely in a pop culture and tabloid marketplace.

10. Creative Industries…The Creative Industries are arts businesses that range from nonprofit museums, symphonies, and theaters to for-profit film, architecture, and design companies. An analysis of Dun & Bradstreet data counts 905,689 businesses in the U.S. involved in the creation or distribution of the arts that employ 3.35 million people—representing 4.4 percent of all businesses and 2.2 percent of all employees, respectively (get a Creative Industry report for your community on our site). 

11. What is Your Number 11?…Tell us in the comments below!

You can also download this list as an easy, one-page PDF at AmericansForTheArts.org.

Richard Jaffe

April is National Poetry Month, inaugurated by the Academy of American Poets to celebrate poetry and its vital role in American culture. The academy sponsors events such as the star-studded Poetry & the Creative Mind Gala (April 17 at Lincoln Center in New York City) and mass-appeal activities like Poem in Your Pocket Day (April 18), when everyone is encouraged to carry a poem.

I love April, and not just because of my birthday and all those Final Four games!

We would be wise to celebrate America’s poetry because it’s an art form that does as much—sometimes even more—for the writer as the reader. Poems inspire, educate, and cleanse. And now that writing has become more abbreviated with blogs, text messages, tweets and the like, the time is perfect for poetry to make a big comeback.

The process of exploring my thoughts and feelings and expressing them in symbolic word images exercises my creativity in a fun way. I think it makes me sharper and, the more I explore the well of my imagination, the faster it fills again.

Everyone can benefit from writing poetry, whether they want to share it or not, because it:

1. Improves cognitive function. Learning new words (I’m never without a Thesaurus), working out meter (math!), and finding new ways to articulate our thoughts and feelings (communication) are all good for the brain. Want to get smarter? Write poetry! 

2. Helps heal emotional pain. Grief is one of the most painful emotions we experience, and it’s also the source of some of the world’s most inspirational poetry. When I have experienced a profound loss, the act of putting my feelings into words or memorializing and paying tribute to those who I lost is extremely cathartic.

3. Leads us to greater self-awareness. Most of us don’t have the time or desire to just sit and aimlessly ponder the meaning of our lives or what makes us deeply happy. Writing poetry gives us a constructive way to do that. Not only does it help us explore and gain insight, we have something to show for all that “inner reflection” when we’re done.

4. Provides a gift of inspiration or education to others. One thing we know—we are not alone! Universal questions, fears, and emotions are called ‘universal’ because everyone, no matter what country or culture they’re raised in, experiences them. Once we’ve done the work of exploring and finding our own answers, we can help others by sharing them. I like to share my poem ‘Eternal Happiness’ because it describes what I’ve found to be the source of my own eternal happiness.

5. Helps us celebrate! For some things, balloons and cake just don’t suffice. Proposing to my wife, the births of my children, their Bar and Bat Mitzvahs, falling in love—these were among the most emotionally powerful, joyful times of my life. Thanks to the poems I wrote at the time to capture those feelings, I can experience them again and again.

If you’ve never tried your hand at poetry, I encourage you to give it a go in April.

You can share your poem with me by tweeting a link to @rbjaffe or posting to my Google+ group, “Inspirational Poetry.”

(This post is one in a weekly series highlighting The pARTnership Movement, Americans for the Arts’ campaign to reach business leaders with the message that partnering with the arts can build their competitive advantage. Visit our website to find out how both businesses and local arts agencies can get involved!)

Nora (fifth from the right) was asked to include a favorite Americans for the Arts photo so she chose this shot from the 2010 National Arts Awards as it is proof that it really does take a village! It also shows that we all spruce up pretty nicely!

We recently launched a new series on ARTSblog that spotlights the staff at Americans for the Arts that I call “Ten Questions with…”, in which I will ask everyone the same questions and see where it takes us.

So far, I’ve conducted a self-interview and one with Hannah Jacobson.

This time I have turned to Nora Halpern who currently serves as Vice President of Leadership Alliances for Americans for the Arts.

1. Describe your role at Americans for the Arts in 10 words or less.

Grasstops wrangler: find the person who can move issues forward.

2. What do the arts mean to you?

I find this a very difficult question to answer because the arts are infused in everything I do and everything I am. Therefore, trying to define or identify the arts as something “other,” runs counter to the way I think.

I was lucky to have been raised in a home where the arts were central. Film, music, performance, and the visual arts were vital members of the family and often the glue that got all six of us talking about one topic at a time. Long before the days of remixing and mash-ups, dinner at our house was a cornucopia of art conversations: whether debating likes and dislikes or passions and poisons. 

My mother always put artful care into each meal and in addition to a place where we enjoyed her food and décor, on any given day, the dining table was also a work space for the making of objects, a surface on which one could study refracted light through a glass of water, or simply a communal place to share a favorite poem or story. As we had a no-TV rule in our house, we had to be pretty creative to remain occupied…so the arts were what called to us the most.

I have tried to raise my daughters with the same sense of seamlessness between art and life (but happily for them, TV is not a forbidden fruit in our house!). I’d like to think that they too have found a sense of solidity and strength in that philosophy of life.

Maybe “what the arts means to me” lies in arts’ ability to nurture a solid core of sensitivity, openness, inquisitiveness, and creativity.

3. If you could have any career you wanted (talent, education not required), what would it be and why?

I feel profoundly fortunate to be able to say that I have been consistently able to have a career in exactly the place I wanted to be. The visual art world is where I began my career as a curator and also where I helped to form an arts education foundation that provides access to visual artworks to communities across the country and the world.

It is interesting to me that the mission of Americans for the Arts is very similar to the one I developed for the Frederick R. Weisman Art Foundation in the early 1980s. I’ve never strayed far from where I wanted to be professionally and I continue to work as a curator in my free moments. I feel most energized by interactions with artists and thrive on the opportunity to contextualize work and offer a large and diverse public access to unique art experiences.

Here is a link to one of my past curatorial projects and a video of another (my only disappointment with this video is that the caption lists me as “co-curator,” when in fact I was the sole curator):

4. How many places have you lived? Where?

I have lived in three cities and one small town. First and foremost is New York City, where I was born and raised until high school. This was followed by Los Angeles, where I went to high school, college, and graduate school (Go Bruins!). L.A. is also where I began my career and family, so I lingered there for quite a while. I then moved with my husband and daughters to Oxford, England where I spent a few rainy years entrenched in academia and, finally, we moved to Washington, DC, in the fall of 2000.

5. What is the best compliment you’ve ever received?

I worked for two years as the West Coast Director of Fine Arts for a large international auction house. It remains my only for-profit arts job. Although I did well by the company in terms of the work that I brought in and sold, I was told during my first annual review that I “was not Machiavellian enough!” Although I think they meant this as a criticism and expected my response to be apologetic. I still see this as one of the best compliments I have ever received!

6. Name three people in history (dead or alive) with whom you would want to sit down to dinner.

I would love to spend an evening around a stove and dinner table with 1920s era writer Dorothy Parker, food writer M.F.K. Fisher, and the late, great Nora Ephron.

I envision M.F.K. and Nora Ephron and I cooking a multi-course meal while Dorothy mixes the cocktails. I think in another life I must have lived in the roaring twenties (or at least been a bit player in a black and white screwball comedy!).

The four of us would either get along famously; talking about food, family, and friends while exchanging witticisms and critiques of the world around us; or, we would completely clash and the morning after there would be nothing left of any of us except a pile of dirty pots, assorted scraps of torn cloth and a lot of broken dishes!

7. Would others say that you can dance? Explain.

My husband would say absolutely YES! My children would say absolutely NO!

When I am not traveling, we have a tradition in our house where we crank up the Hot Jazz Saturday Night radio show on WAMU and turn our kitchen into an impromptu dance floor. When the girls were little they would joyfully join in…now they rush to close the kitchen blinds…so as not to be humiliated in front of the neighbors. Then, they run for the hills! Parents can be so E-M-B-A-R-A-S-S-I-N-G!!

8. What is the earliest memory you have of being an audience member for a live arts event?

Interpretation of Picasso’s “Guernica” by Nora Halpern age five (ish)

Growing up in Manhattan with proactively artistic parents and a much older sister who was a working modern dancer and filmmaker provided a constant, overlapping mass of artistic opportunities for me so it’s hard to narrow it down to just one art moment…or pinpoint where it all began. Here are early highlights…

I remember going to see early 20th Century experimental films with my dad at the Museum of Modern Art beginning at age 3 or 4 and discovering Picasso’s painting “Guernica” there at the same age. I became strangely obsessed by this painting which was on permanent display at the Museum of Modern Art, alongside dozens of Picasso’s preparatory sketches. I’ve inserted photo my own rendition of the painting, made when I was about five.

As a kid, I had a huge crush on conductor/composer Leonard Bernstein and loved going to his concerts for children at Lincoln Center. Saint-Saens’ “Carnival of the Animals” and Benjamin Britten’s “Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra” were my absolute favorites.

I was also lucky to grow up at a time when the NYC Public School system had a strong commitment to the arts and I have a distinct early memory of going with my class to hear the actress Julie Harris read the poetry of Emily Dickinson in the courtyard of Lincoln Center. My second grade teacher, Miss Kinselberg, took our class to see “Lucia di Lammermoor” at the Metropolitan Opera House. We had to climb to the very last row of the theatre to get to our seats and to me it was like climbing a huge carpeted mountain, and it was just as exciting as the opera itself!

9. What would the title of your autobiography be?

“No Stone Unturned”

10. Finally, if you could paint a picture or take more photos of a place you have been in your life what would you paint or photograph?

I would try to capture the watery wonderfulness of Venice, Italy and the miraculous play of light on the Venice Lagoon. This is a photo I love taken by my friend Analia Saban:

Venice captured by Analia Saban

That’s it for Nora. Stay tuned for more “Ten Questions with…” soon!

Emily Peck

Last week, I left snowy New York City to spend some time in sunny Ft. Lauderdale at the invitation of the Broward Cultural Division to talk with arts organizations about the many ways they can partner with local businesses.

We discussed how to build a successful and meaningful partnership by thinking of the needs of business first, and how to look beyond the usual suspects when thinking about potential business partners.

We were joined by local business leaders from Florida Power and Light and Merrimac Ventures who spoke about how partnering with the arts helped their business engage new customers, reach new audiences, and enhance the quality of life for their communities. For more tips on creating partnerships check out our Building pARTnerships on Your Own toolkit.

This type of training session is just one way you can use the resources of The pARTnership Movement in your community. Here are some other ideas:

• Tell your story: Promote great arts and business partnerships on twitter (#artsandbiz), Facebook, and YouTube. Don’t forget to let us know, too!

• Give a presentation at your local chamber of commerce about how the arts can help local businesses. See how it worked in Montgomery County, MD! 

• Bring the 8 reasons to partner with the arts with you when you talk with business people and organizations. Use examples of partnerships in your community to make your point.

• Place pARTnership Movement ads in your local business journal, chamber of commerce newsletter, and event programs.

• Check out our toolkits and webinars so you have all the information you need to partner with the arts in your community. Need more advice? Let us know.

• Bring arts and business leaders together for a conversation about how they can work together and advance community goals like in Richmond.

• Ask a local business leader to co-sign an op-ed about the value of the arts. Check out these examples from Des Moines and Houston.

(This post is one in a weekly series highlighting The pARTnership Movement, Americans for the Arts’ campaign to reach business leaders with the message that partnering with the arts can build their competitive advantage. Visit our website to find out how both businesses and local arts agencies can get involved!)

Gladstone Payton

The House and Senate finally passed the FY 2013 Continuing Resolution which incorporated most of the sequester cuts ordered on March 1.

Only a few programs were amended to restore some of their original funding with a large majority of the across-the-board reductions being maintained. As detailed in my previous post, funding decreases to the National Endowment for the Arts remain at $7 million shaved off the $146 million annual budget.

The funding measure officially closes the books on the last fiscal year as Congress advanced separate budget resolutions for FY 2014. These resolutions are non-binding and do not require the signature of the president to pass, but they do provide instructions that will guide the appropriations process and inform the upcoming tax debates. They are to be taken seriously as the bills represent each party’s “vision” for fiscal policy.

The House version proposes deep cuts to discretionary spending, major changes to entitlements and tax reform that would dramatically lower marginal and corporate tax rates while balancing the budget in 10 years. Also, the House budget contains language for the third year in a row that takes aim at federal cultural funding: 

“Federal subsidies for the National Endowment for the Arts, the National Endowment for the Humanities, and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting can no longer be justified. The activities and content funded by these agencies go beyond the core mission of the federal government, and they are generally enjoyed by people of higher-income levels, making them a wealth transfer from poorer to wealthier citizens. These agencies can raise funds from private-sector patrons, which will also free them from any risk of political interference.”

So, there’s that.

The Senate version proposes to reduce the deficit with an even split of tax increases and spending reductions. Most notably, the Senate resolution suggests changes to itemized deductions, which might include the charitable deduction to raise revenues.

The mood on Capitol Hill suggests that a compromise on the starkly different budget proposals is doubtful. Will President Obama’s FY 2014 budget broach the divide between the two? We’ll find out the week of April 8 during Arts Advocacy Day.

Which leads to my second point. Today is the last day for advance registration for the national convening of state and local arts advocates here in Washington, DC (you can still attend via on-site registration on April 8 after today). As indicated previously, it could certainly be an interesting time for the federal budget.

If you require more convincing here are my two of my federal affairs colleagues, Natalie Shoop and Narric Rome, speaking about importance of NEA funding and why we need to add your voice to the discussion in a few weeks: