Today we are presenting the webcast of the Cultural Workforce Forum, a forum about America’s artists, other cultural workers, and how art works as a part of this country’s real economy. Academics, foundation professionals, and service organization representatives are here in Washington to discuss improving the collection and reporting of statistics about arts and cultural workers, and to develop future research agendas and approaches. The Forum will be broadcast from 9:00 a.m. – 4:30 p.m.
The webcast has concluded. An archived version will be available next week.
Earlier today, the NEA announced the Indiana Arts Commission as the recipient of the 2009 National Accessibility Leadership Award for their outstanding accessibility work in creating access to careers in the arts for people with disabilities. With their $30,000 NEA competitive grant, the Indiana Arts Commission will continue to expand their support for artists with disabilities.
The Indiana Arts Commission is helping to ensure even more opportunities for American artists through the three ways that art works: artists of every background should have the opportunity to create new art works; they should participate in all the ways that art can work to expand us as human beings and knit together our communities; and perhaps most importantly, they should have the chance to be working artists who are part of this country’s real economy.
These opportunities should exist for artists with disabilities in the same ways that they should exist for all artists. The mission of the NEA is to support excellence in the arts and arts education, and to bring the arts to all Americans. In order to be successful, we need to continually engage with all of this country’s artists and arts workers.
Starting at 9:00 a.m. on Friday, November 20th, the Arts Endowment will present a live webcast of the Cultural Workforce Forum, a forum about America’s artists, other cultural workers, and how art works as a part of this country’s real economy. Academics, foundation professionals, and service organization representatives will come together to discuss improving the collection and reporting of statistics about arts and cultural workers, and to develop future research agendas and approaches. The Forum will be broadcast from 9:00 a.m. – 4:00 p.m.
We hope you’ll join us for this wide-ranging discussion.
Adam Sitton and Zach Hoesly, cast members from Eastlight Theatre’s production of Rent, worked with a number of fellow cast and crew members, as well as other artistic citizens, to create a video that highlights some of the ways that art works in Peoria, Illinois. [1:35]
Rocco Landesman spent Friday, November 6, with Kathy Chitwood of Eastlight Theatre and Suzette Boulais of ArtsPartners of Central Illinois as well as Peoria artists, arts administrators, civic leaders, and other citizens. It was a full day with a comprehensive schedule of events: a walking tour of the Warehouse District; roundtable discussions with artists, civic leaders, and developers; visits to artists’ studios; Q&As with the Peoria arts community; a taping of “At Issue” on Peoria’s WTVP; and an evening performance of Eastlight Theatre’s production of Rent.
Kathy Chitwood of Eastlight Theatre, NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman, and Suzette Boulais of ArtsPartners of Central Illinois. Photo by Adam Gerik
Over the next few posts we’ll share with you what Rocco Landesman did in Peoria and highlight some of the extraordinary arts that are taking place there.
First off: Rocco spoke with NEA’s Josephine Reed and shared his reflections on Peoria. [11:10] [transcript]
Rocco Landesman backstage at the Eastlight Theatre with the cast of Rent after the performance. Photo by Adam Gerik
And please listen to our podcast about how “art works” in Peoria, with Pat Sullivan, Developer, Suzette Boulais, Executive Director of ArtsPartners, Kathy Chitwood, Executive Director of Eastlight Theater; and City Councilman Ryan Spain, also hosted by Josephine Reed. [31:13] [transcript]
I thought it might help further the conversation to reply to some of these replies to my speech at Grantmakers in the Arts. I’m not going to argue with those who think the NEA shouldn’t exist, but would like – in the spirit of provocative give and take – to engage a couple of the topics.
First, my comments about the President as author and the references to Teddy Roosevelt, Lincoln, et al. I’m vulnerable here and probably just wrong. Barack Obama wrote, on his own, the manuscript for his first book and went looking for a publisher. Other presidential works have very different provenances. One important one, it is generally accepted, was written by a ghostwriter without credit. Others were written with heavy staff input in the way of researchers and editors. That being said, to state that these other presidents did not write their own books is unprovable and in several cases, probably incorrect. And for what it’s worth, yes, Grant wrote a great book, and Lincoln, an excellent writer, never wrote a whole book per se, his writings were rather collected in one. Score one for the prosecution.
NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman and National Council on the Arts member Lee Greenwood. Photo by Kathy Plowitz-Worden
As for Julius Caesar? I made a deliberately outlandish remark, with the delicious (for me, anyway) twist that the last thing people think of with Julius Caesar is that he was a writer. I enjoyed the conceit and never imagined that it would be taken literally. If I have to edit every remark I make because someone somewhere might misunderstand, I’m going to become very dull very fast.
But I don’t want to be a Chairman who just responds to things. We have also been getting some things done. Over the past three days, we had the first meeting of our National Council on the Arts since I became Chairman. And one of the people with whom I spent a nice amount of time was Council member Lee Greenwood. We didn’t just talk about country music…we also talked about my "art works" tour. Lee has lived in Nashville since 1979, and I am hoping to get there the first week in December.
Lee and I also talked about Paducah, Kentucky, another city I am going to visit. People have been telling me about Paducah’s artist program, but Lee told me about some great artists who come out of Paducah – Jerry Crutchfield, Lee’s longtime producer; Jerry’s brother Jan, who is the songwriter responsible for three of Lee’s early hits; Eric Horner, who used to be Lee’s guitarist, but who is now a touring gospel performer; and Doug Carter, Lee’s current keyboardist, bandleader, arranger, and all around good guy. Impressive.
But before Nashville or Paducah, I will be visiting Peoria – on November 6, in fact. And if you are interested, you can log on to our website and see several of the day’s events broadcast live.
I do enjoy this back and forth and look forward to quite a bit of it over the next four years, provided it stays friendly and in the spirit of mutual respect. Keep letting me know how art works where you live.
Hi. It’s good to be back in Brooklyn, where I lived happily for 18 years. If you can linger here for a little while, get to Coney Island, a colorful corner of a vanishing America – which has thankfully been marked for preservation by Amanda Burden and her enlightened colleagues in the New York City government. And you should also get to Peter Lugers for what is without any doubt the best steak known to man.
My wife Debby can’t be here today, she’s at the Salzburg Seminar, but I wish she could be. Her career has been in philanthropy and the very last thing she ever expected of me is that I would become a “grantmaker in the arts.” Needless to say, I never expected it either. However, Debby is, in a way, represented here by another grantmaker, the legendary Joan Shigekawa, whom I found through Debby’s network and whom I selfishly seduced from the Rockefeller Foundation to join me at the NEA. So far, it’s the best move I’ve made.
Our conference title, “Navigating the Art of Change” refers, with some subtlety, to our present circumstances, and since I’m always reading about how blunt I am, I will go along and translate that as “The news is bad.” You don’t need to hear from me the litany about exactly how bad the news is, you live with it every day. Your endowments are devastated; your presidents and boards are steering money away from the arts; corporations, in the interest of better optics, are having to take their names off arts contributions already committed, well, this is starting to sound like a litany. Read the rest of this entry »
Posted by Rocco Landesman at 9:38 pm | Comments (84)
Many of you have been on the ground doing for years what we at the NEA are just starting to talk about now. Tell us how *art works* in your neighborhood, town, or city.
