Power of the Arts Wrapup: The Next Arts Council

At the final meeting in the Power of the Arts series, four main components of a healthy, progressive arts community were laid out for discussion and prioritization:

1. Advocacy/Arts Council
2. Public Policy/Public Support
3. Arts Incubator (including Artist Live/Work space & land bank)
4. Audience Development/Arts Education

The room was organized into tables (there were maybe 75 in attendance!) who each discussed the relative merits of each point. It seemed that the actual voting fell between focus on an Arts Council and an Incubator.

Based on my discussions with participants, the common sense breakdown seemed to come to this: an Arts Council would be useful as an organizing force for pushing government towards supportive policies, such as assistance toward the development of an arts incubator which, in turn, would be a powerful tool towards audience development and arts education.

The Lemon Grove has added Monday night discussion events. One recent event in November focused discussion around the need for and structure of an arts council. Here is a summary.

An arts council would be focused on advocacy and marketing, including responsibility for a universal calendar and maintaining outreach tools, such as social networks, an Internet presence and a newsletter. The council would work specifically on coordination among arts groups to track and report economic data and to demonstrate the value of arts in the community in terms of both quality of life and real economic benefit.

There was some stated trepidation about interference by an arts council in terms of supporting projects, but this may suggest an unproductive model for such an organization. My background is in working with member-based associations, and I think this model may be the most promising in terms of a structure for such a council.

Member-based associations are composed of members who are united by a common focus and who pay dues to support the organization’s staff and efforts, such as education (e.g., publications, conferences), advocacy (i.e., lobbying) and networking (e.g., social mixers, online discussion forums). The association and its members employ strategies to acquire additional members, both to increase its power in negotiation and its resources for marketing. On behalf of its members, the association may assist with writing grants. Ideally, however, it does not pick and choose projects to approve or deny funding to, aside from those it initiates in-house.

The establishment of an arts council would go a long way toward moving the arts community forward. What do you see as first action items for such a council?

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