Consider this a call to arms!!!....errr, I mean to arts, to YOU, the artists!!!
In this compelling keynote address, Arlene Goldbard paints us all on the verge of an impactful paradigm shift. With wit and calm poise, she rabble rouses to move us, the artists, to help resolve our world's most pressing issues with our compassion, creative intelligence and capacity for empathy, intuition, and understanding. So what's next then? You tell us.
This speech is truly a treat. I'd encourage you to put it on your netflix cue, but alas, we're the only ones with the exclusive footage, so you'll have to watch it here. Take it in...consider the message. We know you'll be moved to decisive action through art! Make sure to keep us in the loop.
Showing posts with label ERPA Events. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ERPA Events. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Why America Needs Artists (It's Not What You Think)
Wednesday, October 6, 2010
Missed the Event? Join the Discussion HERE
This is the FULL footage folks. Glean advice and inspiration from our entrepreneurial whiz kids, the ERPA four, and catch Jennifer Wright Cook's "F*ck Sustainability" moment*. It all happened live.
Want more? We've got a couple of options for you! Check out the e-version of We Are No Longer Strangers, the ERPA project up-to-date report here and if you're craving an alternative ERPA perspective, email jennifer@thefield.org to request a pdf link to our Strangers Addendum with straight talk from deft ERPA outsiders like NYC Venture Philanthropy Fund's Heather Rees.
Last but not least, don’t forget to tell us what you think! This is a blog after all…
*Esther Robinson quoting John Killacky.
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
We Are OFFICIALLY No Longer Strangers...
Take a quick Sneak Peek into The Field's swanky ERPA Book Launch event at OpenPlan's Penthouse from earlier this week. Whet your appetite? Check back for the complete footage of Arlene Goldbard's compelling keynote and the ERPA artists' insightful Panel Discussion next week!
Thursday, July 1, 2010
The Power of DIY
Last Tuesday, The Field and Taller Boricua co-hosted THE POWER OF D.I.Y. - Alternative Exhibitions & Performances. I was inspired and titillated by the three artists who discussed their D.I.Y.ness (the ever-glamorous Yanira Castro, the perspicacious Jorge Rojas, and the thoughtful Cassie Thornton) and by the charming and bad-ass facilitator, Charles Rice-Gonzalez of BAAD! (
Cassie Thornton’s debt rocks.
Yanira: Her move into D.I.Y. alternative spaces (public bathrooms!) was a functional choice (not a political or strategic one). She was frustrated by the relationship between the show and the audience. INTIMACY. She wanted to get closer to the audience and to create real surprise. Her latest movement towards more intimacy is Wilderness which will premiere at The Invisible Dog, presented by DTW, Oct 27-Nov 7. As I understand it, Wilderness will have a miked floor and you the audience will provide the real-time sound score for the piece.
Jorge: D.I.Y. is a luxury and a curse. Jorge’s day job of teaching mural painting gradually seeped into his consciousness and shifted his artwork from “self” to community. His My space project brought this vividly to life. He also noticed that the shift in the music business towards mp3s and their efficiency-model put the production in the artist’s hands. Could visual art do the same thing? Check out his TRYST which put audience members in motel rooms with clandestine lovers.
Cassie Thornton: School of the Future! Everything a public school can’t be! Teach and learn this summer! Cassie also creates one-on-one interactions as a “street worker”. She also makes “debt rocks” jewelry out of your old receipts! (see photo above!) The rocks provoke conversations about debt, finance, and our personal issues with money (issues? I don’t have issues with money!)
My biggest takeaway: BE ORGANIC!! Don’t just make up projects to please a funder or a presenter or anyone else. Do what intrigues you. Do it boldly and brashly. Be strategic and don’t put your head in the sand. Look at the big picture. Where are you in it? Where do you want to be in it?
GO MAKE GOOD STUFF AND CROW ABOUT IT!
Xox The Field
Friday, April 16, 2010
The Equus Projects: Lessons Learned About Generosity & Listening
The Equus Projects
April 20, 2010
Lessons Learned About Generosity & Listening
As The Equus Projects dives deeper and deeper into creating hub sites for our work, we are making some very interesting discoveries about interfacing with the people who make our work possible.
The Hub Site
First, a definition of an Equus Projects Hub Site: A region of the country where there is significant interest in the work we are doing and a vested interest in having us return on an on-going basis.
Passionate Producers
In each of our hub site locations we are dealing with passionate people who want our work to have a presence in their region. Sometimes our projects begin with a big producer such as The Myrna Loy Center for the Performing Arts in Helena, Montana. But when we are asked to return, the people who are bringing us are often the small guys. These are not big producers or presenters. These are people who own horse farms. These are ranchers and horse owners, dancers, theatre directors, educators. They do not have a staff with PR people and professional fundraisers.
We are realizing how immensely important it is for us to fully acknowledge the generosity of those local self-appointed producers with no staff receive enormous accolades and appreciation for what they are doing.
Beyond Thank You
However just saying thank you, thank you and thank you again is not enough. There is more to understand. Let me explain by way of example.
In the Pacific Northwest our hub site supporters include a Sammamish, WA equestrian who is producing a clinic for us to teach. Not only is she offering her ranch and horses as the clinic venue but she is also creating the PR, taking registrations, and making sure we are housed and fed. This individual has a vested interest in having come to her farm. It is crucial for us to spend some time figuring out what we are offering her. How does our work feed her? Why?
Another Northwest local supporter on Vashon Island is documenting our work and creating video presentations for local cable stations. His filming of our work provides a visually captivating subject that will gain his work visibility.
We are being housed. We will be fed numerous dinners. And this is not for a just a few days. We are on Vashon Island for 14 days! We have experienced similar generosity in hub sites in Florida and Texas.
Listening to stories
In the creative excitement (and sometimes maelstrom) of making a new work in a short amount of time it is easy to get distracted, to not fully acknowledge those who are bringing you water, offering hospitality, fixing your costumes, washing your laundry. They admire your work. They ask questions about you and the work. And in some important way they are asking you to listen to their stories, learn about them.
Motivation behind generosity
Beyond expressing our gratitude we must listen carefully and take the time to understand the motivation behind generosity. For some it will be a chance to perform. For some it will be about learning. For some it will be the opportunity to teach us something they know - a chance to share their knowledge. This is about the need to be recognized. If we do not take time to give that recognition we are remiss and will have missed an opportunity to sow tons of good will.
When to say YES, even when it costs
At one of our venues, our producer - and the owner of the horses we are performing with - asked us to pay for an equestrian trainer to be present for all our rehearsals. The price tag for this was very high. I knew the request carried with it important information. This was our second project with these horses. The first had gone well but there were some equine issues not fully attended to. The unexpected price tag for a trainer carried with it important information about our commitment to the well being of her equines. I believe she was indirectly asking us to financially commit to her horses. And I knew it was not my place to question this request or attempt to negotiate. Our company manager and I launched a concerted search for funding sources. We kept the producer fully informed of our fundraising. Update: We are still waiting to hear from The Arabian Horse Foundation and several other sources. More importantly our producer recognized our commitment. Update: The owner has offered to help us with this expense.
When to say NO
In another venue the producer asked that we title our press release: Dancing with the Stars. Now this was not acceptable to me. I was willing to go to the mat about this, as Dancing with the Stars was not at all what we would be doing!! Our objections encountered lots of resistance. I questioned how far the gratitude needed to be stretched. I worried that we were offending in sticking to our guns. But I also felt this was a necessary battle to fight.
Sharing Ownership of the Work
We are learning that we MUST give local producers ownership of the project. And with that partial ownership comes the freedom to promote our work in a way that will communicate effectively with the local population.
One step beyond the promotion is the content of the work itself. We must balance our own aesthetic priorities against the need to appeal to a local audience. What do Texans want to see? I am very clear that this question must be answered in a way that does not compromise the work. Then again there is the site-specific-ness of a project: What kind of piece do you make in a bull-running arena in Helena, Montana? It would be wise to acknowledge the cowboy energy that permeates a bull running arena.
Longevity
When a producer brings you in for the first time, the visit is surrounded by that first date kind of excitement. After the first date comes the Let’s see what else you can offer date. With our hub sites we are not on a first date basis any longer. Our current projects are in the 2nd or 3rd date stage. At this stage we must make an investment in a community.
During the making an investment stage the in-kind donations diminish or at least shift. Things that were gratis must now be paid for. We are discovering that the ASK must be different.
I am looking down the road and asking, what will this scenario look like after the 3rd date? That remains to be explored.
For now we are on our 2nd date and making sure we are doing some serious listening.
jms
April 20, 2010
Lessons Learned About Generosity & Listening
As The Equus Projects dives deeper and deeper into creating hub sites for our work, we are making some very interesting discoveries about interfacing with the people who make our work possible.
The Hub Site
First, a definition of an Equus Projects Hub Site: A region of the country where there is significant interest in the work we are doing and a vested interest in having us return on an on-going basis.
Passionate Producers
In each of our hub site locations we are dealing with passionate people who want our work to have a presence in their region. Sometimes our projects begin with a big producer such as The Myrna Loy Center for the Performing Arts in Helena, Montana. But when we are asked to return, the people who are bringing us are often the small guys. These are not big producers or presenters. These are people who own horse farms. These are ranchers and horse owners, dancers, theatre directors, educators. They do not have a staff with PR people and professional fundraisers.
We are realizing how immensely important it is for us to fully acknowledge the generosity of those local self-appointed producers with no staff receive enormous accolades and appreciation for what they are doing.
Beyond Thank You
However just saying thank you, thank you and thank you again is not enough. There is more to understand. Let me explain by way of example.
In the Pacific Northwest our hub site supporters include a Sammamish, WA equestrian who is producing a clinic for us to teach. Not only is she offering her ranch and horses as the clinic venue but she is also creating the PR, taking registrations, and making sure we are housed and fed. This individual has a vested interest in having come to her farm. It is crucial for us to spend some time figuring out what we are offering her. How does our work feed her? Why?
Another Northwest local supporter on Vashon Island is documenting our work and creating video presentations for local cable stations. His filming of our work provides a visually captivating subject that will gain his work visibility.
We are being housed. We will be fed numerous dinners. And this is not for a just a few days. We are on Vashon Island for 14 days! We have experienced similar generosity in hub sites in Florida and Texas.
Listening to stories
In the creative excitement (and sometimes maelstrom) of making a new work in a short amount of time it is easy to get distracted, to not fully acknowledge those who are bringing you water, offering hospitality, fixing your costumes, washing your laundry. They admire your work. They ask questions about you and the work. And in some important way they are asking you to listen to their stories, learn about them.
Motivation behind generosity
Beyond expressing our gratitude we must listen carefully and take the time to understand the motivation behind generosity. For some it will be a chance to perform. For some it will be about learning. For some it will be the opportunity to teach us something they know - a chance to share their knowledge. This is about the need to be recognized. If we do not take time to give that recognition we are remiss and will have missed an opportunity to sow tons of good will.
When to say YES, even when it costs
At one of our venues, our producer - and the owner of the horses we are performing with - asked us to pay for an equestrian trainer to be present for all our rehearsals. The price tag for this was very high. I knew the request carried with it important information. This was our second project with these horses. The first had gone well but there were some equine issues not fully attended to. The unexpected price tag for a trainer carried with it important information about our commitment to the well being of her equines. I believe she was indirectly asking us to financially commit to her horses. And I knew it was not my place to question this request or attempt to negotiate. Our company manager and I launched a concerted search for funding sources. We kept the producer fully informed of our fundraising. Update: We are still waiting to hear from The Arabian Horse Foundation and several other sources. More importantly our producer recognized our commitment. Update: The owner has offered to help us with this expense.
When to say NO
In another venue the producer asked that we title our press release: Dancing with the Stars. Now this was not acceptable to me. I was willing to go to the mat about this, as Dancing with the Stars was not at all what we would be doing!! Our objections encountered lots of resistance. I questioned how far the gratitude needed to be stretched. I worried that we were offending in sticking to our guns. But I also felt this was a necessary battle to fight.
Sharing Ownership of the Work
We are learning that we MUST give local producers ownership of the project. And with that partial ownership comes the freedom to promote our work in a way that will communicate effectively with the local population.
One step beyond the promotion is the content of the work itself. We must balance our own aesthetic priorities against the need to appeal to a local audience. What do Texans want to see? I am very clear that this question must be answered in a way that does not compromise the work. Then again there is the site-specific-ness of a project: What kind of piece do you make in a bull-running arena in Helena, Montana? It would be wise to acknowledge the cowboy energy that permeates a bull running arena.
Longevity
When a producer brings you in for the first time, the visit is surrounded by that first date kind of excitement. After the first date comes the Let’s see what else you can offer date. With our hub sites we are not on a first date basis any longer. Our current projects are in the 2nd or 3rd date stage. At this stage we must make an investment in a community.
During the making an investment stage the in-kind donations diminish or at least shift. Things that were gratis must now be paid for. We are discovering that the ASK must be different.
I am looking down the road and asking, what will this scenario look like after the 3rd date? That remains to be explored.
For now we are on our 2nd date and making sure we are doing some serious listening.
jms
Monday, January 25, 2010
OurGoods is running a storefront!
OurGoods.org is really picking up speed! I'm writing from the storefront we opened last night: Trade School at 139 Norfolk in the Lower East Side. For the next 30 days, we'll have nightly classes, daily co-working for Trade School teachers, and barter agents available to the public from 3-6pm. Sign up for a class here by meeting one of the teacher's barter needs.
Trade School classes are taught by members of the OurGoods alpha network. Sharing skills and hanging out at the storefront will foster better working relationships. I want to know what you do! Let's get to know each other as rigorous artists with a wide range of talents. Come visit in the afternoon or evening and meet other people who want to share skills, spaces, and objects.
We have a month long storefront space because OurGoods co-founder Rich Watts bartered a lot of design work with Grand Opening. From there, we made a chalkboard and built 16 tables and 16 chairs with salvaged materials- we only paid for 1 sheet of plywood and finish paint! Co-founder Louise Ma made an incredibly beautiful flag that we will fly every day. The space will be reconfigured each day. Last night at the opening, Athena Kokoronis brought her mobile kitchen and exchanged gestures for cake. Martyna Szczesna set up a portrait studio and took 100+ photos. This week, we have classes about foraging for mushrooms, business and art, running an LLC, organizing an arts festival, and making kimchee. Classes start today!
Online, OurGoods is being tested by around 100 people! We are still fine-tuning the site, and expect to launch in the Spring. Stop in the storefront and talk to me (Caroline) if you'd like to join this early group of testers online.
Wednesday, January 20, 2010
The Field's Economic Revitalization Implementation Awardees
The Field's Economic Revitalization for Performing Artists (ERPA) program awards $55,000 to entrepreneurial artists working to catalyze and sustain their creative economies! ERPA Implementation Awards provide grants of $10,000 to $20,000 to continue developing and implementing projects under the auspices of The Field. Watch ERPA Artists work their magic at WNYC, featuring coverage from September 2009's Public Display of Invention at The Greene Space...
Thanks for watching, let us know what you think!
The Field's Economic Revitalization for Performing Artists (ERPA) program awards $55,000 to entrepreneurial artists working to catalyze and sustain their creative economies! ERPA Implementation Awards provide grants of $10,000 to $20,000 to continue developing and implementing projects under the auspices of The Field. Watch ERPA Artists work their magic at WNYC, featuring coverage from September 2009's Public Display of Invention at The Greene Space...
Thanks for watching, let us know what you think!
Saturday, January 9, 2010
Kahlil Almustafa: The People's Inauguration: Poetry & Dialogue on the one-year anniversary of Obama's Inauguration
kahlil almustafa, The People’s Poet and author of From Auction Block to Oval Office leads an interactive event combining performance poetry and critical dialogue commemorating the one-year anniversary of President Obama’s inauguration.
When: January 20th, 2010
Where: The Jerome L. Greene Performance Space
Time: Doors 6:30pm, Poetry & Panel 7pmCLICK HERE TO REGISTER.
Panelists include:
- Rosa Clemente - 2008 Green Party Vice-Presidential Candidate
- Cindy Sheehan - author of "Not One More Mother's Child"
- Michael Skolnik - Political Director to Russell Simmons & Editor for GlobalGrind.com
To commemorate the one-year anniversary of Obama's inauguration, kahlil almustafa, The People's Poet, leads an interactive session combining performance poetry and critical dialogue. Reading from his fifth collection of poetry, FROM AUCTION BLOCK TO OVAL OFFICE: 100 POEMS IN 100 DAYS OF OBAMA'S PRESIDENCY (MVMT Publishing, January 2010) kahlil explores the hopes, fears, contradictions and complexity which come with the election of the United States’ first African-American president. Written in the voice of a young, African-American male, a romantic revolutionary, and an intellectual, these poems capture a nation teetering between danger and opportunity, cynicism and hope.
"kahlil almustafa’s poems are extraordinary in their political complexity and aesthetic sensibility. His language in From Auction Block to Oval Office is crystal-clear and the ideas are continually provocative."
- Howard Zinn, author, A People’s History of the United States
This event will be interactive. The panel will respond to the critical questions raised by the poems. Audience members will have the opportunity to create their own poems. Panelists to be announced.
Some of the questions to be addressed:
- How do we create a space for people to express the ways Barack Obama has inspired them and create a space for principled criticism?
- Is this the closing of a chapter in the American narrative beginning with the auction block and concluding with the Obamas in the White House? Or is the narrative of African enslavement being used to promote the idea of America perfecting its democracy?
- It has been said that the Hip-Hop generation greatly impacted the election in 2008. How has the Hip Hop generation been impacted by the campaign, Obama’s presidency, and how will the Hip-Hop generation continue to be engaged?
The event is powered by the Mighty Mighty
Thursday, October 1, 2009
ERPA Audio Download Archive
Since 2008, ERPA dialogues have engaged more than 500 artists and cultural stakeholders in topics ranging from alternative fundraising tactics, to the romanticization of the starving artist paradigm, to a smackdown exposé on the ‘new’ economy.
Download audio from these Inventive Public Dialogues, or visit the the blog post to stream audio online:
Public Display of Invention at WNYC
Public Display of Invention at WNYC, September 21, 2009
View full blog post and stream audio online.
The New Economy Smack Down
Galapagos Art Space, May 13, 2009
View full blog post and stream audio online.
Artist or Cultural Entrepreneur?
Chez Bushwick, Thursday, October 9, 2008
View full blog post and stream audio online.
No more Grants and Grandma: Alternatives to Traditional Fundraising
Joe's Pub, Tuesday, September 30, 2008
View full blog post and stream audio online.
Starving Artist: Fact or Fiction: Non-Profit Doesn’t = No Money
Galapagos Art Space, Tuesday, September 16, 2008
View full blog post and stream audio online.
Download audio from these Inventive Public Dialogues, or visit the the blog post to stream audio online:
Public Display of Invention at WNYC
Public Display of Invention at WNYC, September 21, 2009
View full blog post and stream audio online.
The New Economy Smack Down
Galapagos Art Space, May 13, 2009
View full blog post and stream audio online.
Artist or Cultural Entrepreneur?
Chez Bushwick, Thursday, October 9, 2008
View full blog post and stream audio online.
No more Grants and Grandma: Alternatives to Traditional Fundraising
Joe's Pub, Tuesday, September 30, 2008
View full blog post and stream audio online.
Starving Artist: Fact or Fiction: Non-Profit Doesn’t = No Money
Galapagos Art Space, Tuesday, September 16, 2008
View full blog post and stream audio online.
Monday, September 21, 2009
Public Display of Invention
Stream Full Audio Coverage:
Download Audio File
Public Display of Invention
Monday, September 21, 7:30-9:30pm
WNYC's The Greene Space
seven unique visions to catalyze and sustain the cultural economy
Presented as part of The Field’s Economic Revitalization for Performing Artists program (ERPA -pronounced ur·pah) made possible by the NYC Cultural Innovation Fund of The Rockefeller Foundation.
ERPA asked “How can artists make new money for their work?” And then ERPA challenged artists to propose inventive, sustainable and replicable models to do this.
Presenters: Kahlil Almustafa, Rachel Chavkin / The T.E.A.M., Nick Brooke, Jon Stancato / Stolen Chair, Connie Hall / Conni's Avant Garde Restaurant, JoAnna Mendl Shaw / The Equus Projects, and Caroline Woolard / Our Goods.
In November 2008, 116 artists and companies applied to The Field’s grassroots search for new economic models. Seven artists with the most feasible, sustainable, innovative and replicable models were selected. Since then, the ERPA 7 as we affectionately call them, have been hard at work planning, testing, and tweaking their unique approaches to financial stability. The Field gave them each $5,000 and a variety of professional development resources to support their planning. In late August 2009 the ERPA 7 applied to The Field for up to $25,000 in implementation funds to take their projects to the next level. STAY TUNED!! We will announce the recipients of the implementation grants in late September.
What is ERPA really? In 2008 (before the economy tanked), The Field received a generous award from The Rockefeller Foundation’s inaugural Cultural Innovation Fund to tackle the debilitating financial instability that many performing artists face every day. True to The Field’s grass roots, we took this project directly to our artists and asked them “what would you do?” This query resulted in two streams of attack: dynamic public dialogues (aka Invention Sessions), and an ambitious entrepreneurial lab (the ERPA 7). Since then, our Invention Sessions have engaged more than 500 artists and cultural stakeholders in topics ranging from alternative fundraising tactics, to the romanticization of the starving artist, to a smackdown exposé on the 'new' economy. (For full audio coverage of past Invention Sessions, please visit the ERPA Blog: EconomicRevitalization.blogspot.com). The Invention Session held at Joe’s Pub was also featured on WNYC Public Radio. As the economy continues its rocky road, The Field is committed to short- and long-term solutions and micro and macro efforts. We will continue to host Invention Sessions and skill-building programs that help artists revitalize their own economy. In the spring of 2010 we are also launching Economic Revitalization services in East Harlem and the Bronx with support from State Senator José Serrano.
About the ERPA 7
Kahlil Almustafa will bring performance poetry to his hometown of Jamaica, Queens. Through poetry workshops at high schools, performances at theaters, and Living Room Readings, Almustafa will promote poetry as a tool for community engagement. KahlilAlmustafa.com
Rachel Chavkin/The T.E.A.M. will launch American Geographic, an initiative designed to increase national visibility, annual work-weeks for its company members, and forge a country-wide network of audiences and supporters through direct engagement with communities around the nation. With American Geographic, the T.E.A.M. will re-envision itself as a year-round employer and therefore will seek to provide an essential year-round benefit - health insurance - to its part-time employees through corporate sponsorship. The T.E.A.M. hopes to develop a model of engagement between small arts companies and large corporations that will build a mutually beneficial bond between the business and arts community and enable future arts companies to pursue essential benefits for part-time employees. TheTEAMPlays.org
Nick Brooke composes collages of pop song fragments and sound effects, and then trains live performers to sound like these recordings, while creating intricate theatrical tableaus. He wants to use ERPA to create a ‘micro-commissioning’ program, in which small fragments, songs, or vignettes of a larger work are supported by smaller commissions. These microcommissions will be collaged on the web in an interactive installation, which will let participants converse with the artist, and see their works constantly change. NBrooke.com
Jon Stancato/Stolen Chair proposes a way to adapt the business plan followed by most Community Supported Agricultures (CSA). Like the CSA model, Stolen Chair hopes to build a membership community which would provide 'seed' money for the company's development process and then reap a year's worth of theatrical harvests. StolenChair.org
Connie Hall/Conni's Avant Garde Restaurant not only generates an abundance of comic material and great food, but also offers an alternative producing model for artist-driven theater. Through the ERPA program, the actor-run theater company will develop a sustainable business model using income generated by the sale of food and beverages to support its artistic work. AvantGardeRestaurant.com
JoAnna Mendl Shaw/The Equus Projects will develop their Regional Touring Program to include on-site coordinators in four regional hubs throughout the country, enabling each to advocate on the company's behalf and cultivate performance and workshop participation. This program will build upon The Equus Projects' strong national support base, cultivating effective leadership with a handful of key supporters. DancingWithHorses.org
Caroline Woolard/Our Goods proposes an online peer-to-peer network where creative people can trade objects, services, and space with each other. Check out the prototype at OurGoods.org. There you will find a work dress designed by Caroline waiting to be traded for your skills or artwork!
Download Audio File
Public Display of Invention
Monday, September 21, 7:30-9:30pm
WNYC's The Greene Space
seven unique visions to catalyze and sustain the cultural economy
Presented as part of The Field’s Economic Revitalization for Performing Artists program (ERPA -pronounced ur·pah) made possible by the NYC Cultural Innovation Fund of The Rockefeller Foundation.
ERPA asked “How can artists make new money for their work?” And then ERPA challenged artists to propose inventive, sustainable and replicable models to do this.
Presenters: Kahlil Almustafa, Rachel Chavkin / The T.E.A.M., Nick Brooke, Jon Stancato / Stolen Chair, Connie Hall / Conni's Avant Garde Restaurant, JoAnna Mendl Shaw / The Equus Projects, and Caroline Woolard / Our Goods.
In November 2008, 116 artists and companies applied to The Field’s grassroots search for new economic models. Seven artists with the most feasible, sustainable, innovative and replicable models were selected. Since then, the ERPA 7 as we affectionately call them, have been hard at work planning, testing, and tweaking their unique approaches to financial stability. The Field gave them each $5,000 and a variety of professional development resources to support their planning. In late August 2009 the ERPA 7 applied to The Field for up to $25,000 in implementation funds to take their projects to the next level. STAY TUNED!! We will announce the recipients of the implementation grants in late September.
What is ERPA really? In 2008 (before the economy tanked), The Field received a generous award from The Rockefeller Foundation’s inaugural Cultural Innovation Fund to tackle the debilitating financial instability that many performing artists face every day. True to The Field’s grass roots, we took this project directly to our artists and asked them “what would you do?” This query resulted in two streams of attack: dynamic public dialogues (aka Invention Sessions), and an ambitious entrepreneurial lab (the ERPA 7). Since then, our Invention Sessions have engaged more than 500 artists and cultural stakeholders in topics ranging from alternative fundraising tactics, to the romanticization of the starving artist, to a smackdown exposé on the 'new' economy. (For full audio coverage of past Invention Sessions, please visit the ERPA Blog: EconomicRevitalization.blogspot.com). The Invention Session held at Joe’s Pub was also featured on WNYC Public Radio. As the economy continues its rocky road, The Field is committed to short- and long-term solutions and micro and macro efforts. We will continue to host Invention Sessions and skill-building programs that help artists revitalize their own economy. In the spring of 2010 we are also launching Economic Revitalization services in East Harlem and the Bronx with support from State Senator José Serrano.
About the ERPA 7
Kahlil Almustafa will bring performance poetry to his hometown of Jamaica, Queens. Through poetry workshops at high schools, performances at theaters, and Living Room Readings, Almustafa will promote poetry as a tool for community engagement. KahlilAlmustafa.com
Rachel Chavkin/The T.E.A.M. will launch American Geographic, an initiative designed to increase national visibility, annual work-weeks for its company members, and forge a country-wide network of audiences and supporters through direct engagement with communities around the nation. With American Geographic, the T.E.A.M. will re-envision itself as a year-round employer and therefore will seek to provide an essential year-round benefit - health insurance - to its part-time employees through corporate sponsorship. The T.E.A.M. hopes to develop a model of engagement between small arts companies and large corporations that will build a mutually beneficial bond between the business and arts community and enable future arts companies to pursue essential benefits for part-time employees. TheTEAMPlays.org
Nick Brooke composes collages of pop song fragments and sound effects, and then trains live performers to sound like these recordings, while creating intricate theatrical tableaus. He wants to use ERPA to create a ‘micro-commissioning’ program, in which small fragments, songs, or vignettes of a larger work are supported by smaller commissions. These microcommissions will be collaged on the web in an interactive installation, which will let participants converse with the artist, and see their works constantly change. NBrooke.com
Jon Stancato/Stolen Chair proposes a way to adapt the business plan followed by most Community Supported Agricultures (CSA). Like the CSA model, Stolen Chair hopes to build a membership community which would provide 'seed' money for the company's development process and then reap a year's worth of theatrical harvests. StolenChair.org
Connie Hall/Conni's Avant Garde Restaurant not only generates an abundance of comic material and great food, but also offers an alternative producing model for artist-driven theater. Through the ERPA program, the actor-run theater company will develop a sustainable business model using income generated by the sale of food and beverages to support its artistic work. AvantGardeRestaurant.com
JoAnna Mendl Shaw/The Equus Projects will develop their Regional Touring Program to include on-site coordinators in four regional hubs throughout the country, enabling each to advocate on the company's behalf and cultivate performance and workshop participation. This program will build upon The Equus Projects' strong national support base, cultivating effective leadership with a handful of key supporters. DancingWithHorses.org
Caroline Woolard/Our Goods proposes an online peer-to-peer network where creative people can trade objects, services, and space with each other. Check out the prototype at OurGoods.org. There you will find a work dress designed by Caroline waiting to be traded for your skills or artwork!
Tuesday, August 25, 2009
Invention on the Horizon
Public Display of Invention
September 21, 2009, 7:30-9:30pm
WNYC's The Greene Space
FREE, RSVP at www.thefield.org
Economic Revitalization for Performing Artists tackles tough economic realities on two fronts: inventive public dialogues and an ambitious entrepreneurial lab. Since 2008, ERPA dialogues have engaged more than 500 artists and cultural stakeholders in topics ranging from alternative fundraising tactics, to the romanticization of the starving artist paradigm, to a smackdown exposé on the ‘new’ economy. Full audio coverage of all ERPA events is available HERE on the blog. (See ERPA Guideposts: Podcasts)
These Invention Sessions helped set the stage for a competitive application process in November 2008, from which seven artists (out of 116 applicants!) were selected to receive cash, tools, and resources from The Field. With the aim to revitalize the economic lives of performing artists, ERPA projects were selected by a panel of arts and business leaders based on their potential impact and replicability.
This fall, after nine months of entrepreneurial investigations, seven artists (dubbed the ‘ERPA 7’) present their models for economic and financial sustainability in a Public Display of Invention. Each artist will have 15 minutes to show off their wares and field questions from a discerning public audience. Join us to witness the fruits of their labor and hear how individual artists and arts organizations plan to revitalize their own economy.
ERPA 7: Kahlil Almustafa, Nick Brooke, Rachel Chavkin/The TEAM, Connie Hall/Conni's Avant Garde Restaurant, JoAnna Mendl Shaw/The Equus Projects, Jon Stancato/Stolen Chair, and Caroline Woolard/Our Goods
Learn more about the ERPA 7 HERE.
This program is presented by The Field as part of the ERPA program, made possible by the NYC Cultural Innovation Fund of The Rockefeller Foundation.
September 21, 2009, 7:30-9:30pm
WNYC's The Greene Space
FREE, RSVP at www.thefield.org
Economic Revitalization for Performing Artists tackles tough economic realities on two fronts: inventive public dialogues and an ambitious entrepreneurial lab. Since 2008, ERPA dialogues have engaged more than 500 artists and cultural stakeholders in topics ranging from alternative fundraising tactics, to the romanticization of the starving artist paradigm, to a smackdown exposé on the ‘new’ economy. Full audio coverage of all ERPA events is available HERE on the blog. (See ERPA Guideposts: Podcasts)
These Invention Sessions helped set the stage for a competitive application process in November 2008, from which seven artists (out of 116 applicants!) were selected to receive cash, tools, and resources from The Field. With the aim to revitalize the economic lives of performing artists, ERPA projects were selected by a panel of arts and business leaders based on their potential impact and replicability.
This fall, after nine months of entrepreneurial investigations, seven artists (dubbed the ‘ERPA 7’) present their models for economic and financial sustainability in a Public Display of Invention. Each artist will have 15 minutes to show off their wares and field questions from a discerning public audience. Join us to witness the fruits of their labor and hear how individual artists and arts organizations plan to revitalize their own economy.
ERPA 7: Kahlil Almustafa, Nick Brooke, Rachel Chavkin/The TEAM, Connie Hall/Conni's Avant Garde Restaurant, JoAnna Mendl Shaw/The Equus Projects, Jon Stancato/Stolen Chair, and Caroline Woolard/Our Goods
Learn more about the ERPA 7 HERE.
This program is presented by The Field as part of the ERPA program, made possible by the NYC Cultural Innovation Fund of The Rockefeller Foundation.
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
And the Survey Says...
Performing artists know that their community is underserved. They can feel it, taste it, hear it, see it, smell it!!! But, a thread that keeps coming up in our ERPA panel events is that in order for things to change, policy makers need numbers, facts, data, etc. in order to better serve the arts community. That makes sense. Now, there's this new Cultural Data Project on the horizon, an initiative operated by the Pew Charitable Trust with major NY State and City backing that might help with this. Learn more about the CDP in one of our recent eblasts: blah blah blah.
There have also been a few surveys going around...from arts service orgs like The Field, trying to get a sense of how the economy is actually effecting artists and arts organizations. That's cool! Interested??? View DanceUSA's Survey: A Snapshot of the Field
Well, we also did our own little survey...it was in preparation for the New Economy Smack Down, at Galapagos May 13th. We asked RSVP's to give some info about how the economy was effecting them...all in all, we heard from 35 people - not enough to pull any hefty statistics from, but a lot of great comments were provided. So, it's kind of long, but take a skim at my 'digest' of the survey results with text responses from participants below...
The New Economy Smack Down Survey: Economments
Sent to over 100 RSVP’s in preparation for the Smack Down event
These results are a digested analysis of general trends, based primarily upon pronounced areas of differentiation in the data. Due to the limited volume of respondees (35 total), percentages will be considered statistically irrelevant. i.e. In lieu of using numbers, terms such as ‘very few’, ‘some’, ‘most’, and ‘overall’ are used to summarize the general characteristics of the data. Let’s just get to the point, shall we…
HERE & NOW – Direct impacts of the economy on people’s lives
Overall, ‘the recession’ is having a mild/mixed impact.
Very few people feel safe from ‘the recession’.
Most people believe that things will get worse.
TOUGH CUTS – Where the wallet is tightening
People still seem to be going to see shows and to class and to be making work.
The biggest change is that people are just eating at home more!!!
Some are downgrading or cancelling health insurance/therapy/body work…
DIRECT HITS – Lost grants/gigs/jobs
Overall, many are experiencing direct cuts in funding (actual funds received are less than expected/agreed) but are taking what they can get.
There is a lot of uncertainly over what to anticipate for next year.
“We have had cut backs in the amount of money given to us from our primary foundation, therefore leading to an increase in cost for those artists who participate in our programs. We are also not recieving as many donations from outside vendors to support our educational endeavours.”
“I work for a re-granting organization, and I'm very worried that some of our grants won't be renewed this summer (NEA, private foundations, etc).”
“Though I have not ‘lost’ my day job, my wages have been cut 25%. And one gig has told me they will be curating fewer artists due to the recession.”
FUNDRAISING & BOOKING COMPARISON – Recent success compared to previous years
Many held off on doing fundraising events this year, but some have had increased success with individual contributions.
People still seem to be getting the usual amount of gigs in NYC and on the road, but often with compromise (lower fees)…
Some are experiencing increased success, especially through touring!!!
“Our company/show combines a meal/drink and theater for a low price. We have gotten a lot of press and consistently sell out. We may actually benefit from the recession because we are seen as a ‘value’.”
BIGGER PICTURE – In terms of creative activity and creative resources…
Most people are ‘doing more with less’, some are ‘doing less with less’.
Less than a handful of people are into, or familiar with ‘doing less with more’.
MOVING FORWARD – Do you think the arts economy has the right skills, resources, and knowledge to get through this recession?
Overall many are enthusiastic and optimistic that artists have the skills, knowledge, and resources to get through this recession, but most are uncertain.
Many indicate that the social structures/culture that artists work inside of need to change (and many are for better or worse).
“A lot depends on other actors outside the arts, particularly government, foundations and businesses. I see great hope in the fact that Obama and his administration hold some power, but the real power lies in changing the terms of the culture. This remains both a moral and a political challenge, and those wih something to protect will seek to protect their privelege and position.”
“I am from Europe and have been questioning the non-profit system here for a while. There is less and less youth with wealth who are interested in being patrons of the arts. They are not cultured they are consumers.”
“Most artists in the performing arts have been accustomed to doing work with little or no support, so I feel people will find a way to work. In some respects we are better equipped because we had less to lose...? In addition, we are accustomed to combining serious effort with trust and acceptance of uncertainty (doing our best + hoping for best). I could be wrong, but it seems the folks who've had security are having a tougher time dealing with the circumstance. I'm like, dude, I'm used to this.”
“Institutions rely so heavily on contributed income. I think that artists and arts administrators as individuals are resourceful enough to come up with new models & solutions but the institutions/structures are less flexible. The arts economy as a whole will need to change fundamentally in order to survive and become relevant not only in a new economy but in a changing culture.”
LAST CALL – In sum, how do you feel about your financial and/or creative life? Are you optimistic that the economy will get back on track and that you will have a solid footing financially in the future?
Under the Umbrella of Opportunity:
“Optimistic, but I do work in a very specific field, very unique, so it’s difficult for me to feel the recession as we don’t have big competition.”
“I am optimistic about my financial life and that artists will be able to sustain through this economic difficulty. The artistic community in NYC has several advantages: 1) we are used to doing more with less, 2) we are creative and flexible, 3) we are used to relying on our communities, including financially through bartering or in-kind, and 4) we come together in community and dialogue. This economic difficulty will hopefully get us all thinking about our relationship with how we spend all of our life resources. Maybe with the value of the dollar going down, the value of people will be on the rise.”
Since mid-2008, I happen to have landed more support than I've had for many years. However, I recognize that those funds were allotted before the financial crisis happened, and that I may face even harder times than I did before these recent boons. But I feel that I can make wise use of the resources I have now, and remain optimistic that our economy will revive. It may be a different kind of economy (or it may be the same greed-and-gluttony driven monster it was before), but either way, I feel I can keep trying to be an artist.”
I've slowed down on producing and directing shows but found that my focus for the arts has become even more INTENSE and purposeful over the last 6 months BECAUSE of the recession. I'm not making as MUCH money and risk my credit score lowering but I've grown SO much as an individual.
I think this is a time of opportunity rather than a crisis. We all should take it upon ourselves to involve our communities and each other to pull through it with grace and love, not contempt and anger.”
We are trying to find ways to use the ‘downturn’ into breaking more glass ceilings. We have experienced glass ceilings through-out our 24 year history. We have broken some glass ceilings down and are ready, willing and able to break some more. Shrinking into the woodwork is not an option.”
“Having lost my day job was a blessing, I now need to think in a wonderfully creative way to get rent paid and dances made.”
“I am optimistic but nervous as to how to get by in the next few years. I'm curious about innovative ways that artists can help each other rather than compete with each other for audiences/resources/funding, etc.”
“I feel inspired to make more work and do more than ever before. I think the arts will surely survive the recession. Also, I hope/believe that due to the recession people will break certain spending habits and form new relationships with their own innate sense of creativity.”
“I feel great about my creative life and hopeful about my financial life. Since I am involved in an innovative start-up, the economy might actually provide opportunities (vacancies) for us.”
“I believe it will take several years for the economy to re-define itself. This will require creative artists, specifically the less commercial artists, to find or create a financial balance between the art world and the business or education sectors in order to sustain their personal and artistic livelihoods. An increase in collaborative work may have to happen in order to ‘get’ work performed.”
“I am making so much less money now that my entire life is curtailed. Cannot afford rehearsal space so must wait until my space grant kicks in to start my new project. Must call creditors every month to negotiate my student loan, tax payments, etc. The good news is, I make so little now that an arts job doesn’t represent the huge financial setback that it used to, so I’m looking there for a job. Now that I am living on less anyway, it’s worth a try. I am an adherent of the ‘make less with more’ theory. It’s more important that I make fewer better projects and try to pay myself and my performers. We’ll see how that goes.”
Under the Umbrella of Challenges:
“My arts newsletter is supported by contributions. My concern is that many people who say they want it will use the recession as an excuse to not donate, even though they are pergectly capable of donating $20-50. For many people, the recession is an excuse to justify being cheap. Although, for others, it does mean losing a job or confidence”
“I've learned to sidestep across my 20 years in the field and have found myself to be pretty agile in hard times. Nevertheless, i recognize that it continues to be a day to day proposition and my awareness that i have always existed one injury, paycheck, job and depression or love disaster from the edge never leaves me.”
“Because of lack of funding or decreased funds, my company postponed our 2009 New York Season which was planned for May, and are looking towards a potentially horrifying future. And now, I need to start choreographing a new work which will be presented during a fall festival and yet we do not have the funds for our dancers rehearsal/performances fees. So I have to sacrifice and plan to feature fewer dancers for my new piece. In terms of our productions, we are trying to find ways to cut costs while still presenting as highly professional programs as possible.”
“I do not believe the problem is with the economy. It is a larger problem of funding for the arts in this country, intersected with issues relating to health care, education and the public welfare.”
“Not optimistic at all! I feel that I'm crazy to be spending so much time as an artist, nurturing so much financial uncertainty. But I've no real choice. If I waited for sound financial futures in the arts, I'd wait into the grave, never creating, never learning.”
“I'm financially strained, and although I try to stay optimistic that the economy is slowly getting back on track, jobs still seem to dwindling - this is certainly true in the non-profit arts sector.”
“As an artist, I have never had a solid financial footing in New York City. I believe I will have to leave NYC to equate art making with income. I may well have to leave the US altogether. My bigger concern is to make art making possible; to renegotiate the terms by which we are operating. That means affordable space, etc. That means, being able to make the choice to make work again.”
“We dont have a solid footing when the economy is in the pink of health, we bleed. When the economy is bleeding, we are headed towards a haemorrhage. When the economy recovers its health for us to survive and enjoy a single day in the paradise of arts called NY, in the pink of health - there needs to be a paradigm shift. Economy's recovery is not sufficient for us to rebound. Getting back on track implies, we were once on the track.”
“Unfortunately, artists seem to think that working for free, or without healthcare is typical to their lifestyle. I think this already underserved population is going to feel an impact through lack of support since even the non-profit organizations, whose sole purpose is to provide them with adequate care, is trying to survive on less and therefore compromising its offerings. I do hope there is a turn around sooner than later, especially in the healthcare vein, but I think it is going to take a lot longer than we are expecting for this increase in economic activity to trickle down to the already impoverished artistic communities.”
“Personally, the lack of financial support that I can raise for my organization places me in jeopardy of my position as well, since every job has to show a purpose and a revenue. However, I am confident that I will be okay since everyone is beginning to understand the severity is no individual at fault, and rather a larger, natural decline.”
“I'm optimistic, but very nervous that we are unprepared for a big, bad, coming storm.”
“I'm worried about new artists looking to get started...if I knew the things I know now, would I have taken this career on? Ultimately yes, and I will do whatever it takes. I'm in a good position to weather this storm, with enough opportunity and financial security from part-time work...but fear that many of my peers are not.”
There have also been a few surveys going around...from arts service orgs like The Field, trying to get a sense of how the economy is actually effecting artists and arts organizations. That's cool! Interested??? View DanceUSA's Survey: A Snapshot of the Field
Well, we also did our own little survey...it was in preparation for the New Economy Smack Down, at Galapagos May 13th. We asked RSVP's to give some info about how the economy was effecting them...all in all, we heard from 35 people - not enough to pull any hefty statistics from, but a lot of great comments were provided. So, it's kind of long, but take a skim at my 'digest' of the survey results with text responses from participants below...
The New Economy Smack Down Survey: Economments
Sent to over 100 RSVP’s in preparation for the Smack Down event
These results are a digested analysis of general trends, based primarily upon pronounced areas of differentiation in the data. Due to the limited volume of respondees (35 total), percentages will be considered statistically irrelevant. i.e. In lieu of using numbers, terms such as ‘very few’, ‘some’, ‘most’, and ‘overall’ are used to summarize the general characteristics of the data. Let’s just get to the point, shall we…
HERE & NOW – Direct impacts of the economy on people’s lives
Overall, ‘the recession’ is having a mild/mixed impact.
Very few people feel safe from ‘the recession’.
Most people believe that things will get worse.
TOUGH CUTS – Where the wallet is tightening
People still seem to be going to see shows and to class and to be making work.
The biggest change is that people are just eating at home more!!!
Some are downgrading or cancelling health insurance/therapy/body work…
DIRECT HITS – Lost grants/gigs/jobs
Overall, many are experiencing direct cuts in funding (actual funds received are less than expected/agreed) but are taking what they can get.
There is a lot of uncertainly over what to anticipate for next year.
“We have had cut backs in the amount of money given to us from our primary foundation, therefore leading to an increase in cost for those artists who participate in our programs. We are also not recieving as many donations from outside vendors to support our educational endeavours.”
“I work for a re-granting organization, and I'm very worried that some of our grants won't be renewed this summer (NEA, private foundations, etc).”
“Though I have not ‘lost’ my day job, my wages have been cut 25%. And one gig has told me they will be curating fewer artists due to the recession.”
FUNDRAISING & BOOKING COMPARISON – Recent success compared to previous years
Many held off on doing fundraising events this year, but some have had increased success with individual contributions.
People still seem to be getting the usual amount of gigs in NYC and on the road, but often with compromise (lower fees)…
Some are experiencing increased success, especially through touring!!!
“Our company/show combines a meal/drink and theater for a low price. We have gotten a lot of press and consistently sell out. We may actually benefit from the recession because we are seen as a ‘value’.”
BIGGER PICTURE – In terms of creative activity and creative resources…
Most people are ‘doing more with less’, some are ‘doing less with less’.
Less than a handful of people are into, or familiar with ‘doing less with more’.
MOVING FORWARD – Do you think the arts economy has the right skills, resources, and knowledge to get through this recession?
Overall many are enthusiastic and optimistic that artists have the skills, knowledge, and resources to get through this recession, but most are uncertain.
Many indicate that the social structures/culture that artists work inside of need to change (and many are for better or worse).
“A lot depends on other actors outside the arts, particularly government, foundations and businesses. I see great hope in the fact that Obama and his administration hold some power, but the real power lies in changing the terms of the culture. This remains both a moral and a political challenge, and those wih something to protect will seek to protect their privelege and position.”
“I am from Europe and have been questioning the non-profit system here for a while. There is less and less youth with wealth who are interested in being patrons of the arts. They are not cultured they are consumers.”
“Most artists in the performing arts have been accustomed to doing work with little or no support, so I feel people will find a way to work. In some respects we are better equipped because we had less to lose...? In addition, we are accustomed to combining serious effort with trust and acceptance of uncertainty (doing our best + hoping for best). I could be wrong, but it seems the folks who've had security are having a tougher time dealing with the circumstance. I'm like, dude, I'm used to this.”
“Institutions rely so heavily on contributed income. I think that artists and arts administrators as individuals are resourceful enough to come up with new models & solutions but the institutions/structures are less flexible. The arts economy as a whole will need to change fundamentally in order to survive and become relevant not only in a new economy but in a changing culture.”
LAST CALL – In sum, how do you feel about your financial and/or creative life? Are you optimistic that the economy will get back on track and that you will have a solid footing financially in the future?
Under the Umbrella of Opportunity:
“Optimistic, but I do work in a very specific field, very unique, so it’s difficult for me to feel the recession as we don’t have big competition.”
“I am optimistic about my financial life and that artists will be able to sustain through this economic difficulty. The artistic community in NYC has several advantages: 1) we are used to doing more with less, 2) we are creative and flexible, 3) we are used to relying on our communities, including financially through bartering or in-kind, and 4) we come together in community and dialogue. This economic difficulty will hopefully get us all thinking about our relationship with how we spend all of our life resources. Maybe with the value of the dollar going down, the value of people will be on the rise.”
Since mid-2008, I happen to have landed more support than I've had for many years. However, I recognize that those funds were allotted before the financial crisis happened, and that I may face even harder times than I did before these recent boons. But I feel that I can make wise use of the resources I have now, and remain optimistic that our economy will revive. It may be a different kind of economy (or it may be the same greed-and-gluttony driven monster it was before), but either way, I feel I can keep trying to be an artist.”
I've slowed down on producing and directing shows but found that my focus for the arts has become even more INTENSE and purposeful over the last 6 months BECAUSE of the recession. I'm not making as MUCH money and risk my credit score lowering but I've grown SO much as an individual.
I think this is a time of opportunity rather than a crisis. We all should take it upon ourselves to involve our communities and each other to pull through it with grace and love, not contempt and anger.”
We are trying to find ways to use the ‘downturn’ into breaking more glass ceilings. We have experienced glass ceilings through-out our 24 year history. We have broken some glass ceilings down and are ready, willing and able to break some more. Shrinking into the woodwork is not an option.”
“Having lost my day job was a blessing, I now need to think in a wonderfully creative way to get rent paid and dances made.”
“I am optimistic but nervous as to how to get by in the next few years. I'm curious about innovative ways that artists can help each other rather than compete with each other for audiences/resources/funding, etc.”
“I feel inspired to make more work and do more than ever before. I think the arts will surely survive the recession. Also, I hope/believe that due to the recession people will break certain spending habits and form new relationships with their own innate sense of creativity.”
“I feel great about my creative life and hopeful about my financial life. Since I am involved in an innovative start-up, the economy might actually provide opportunities (vacancies) for us.”
“I believe it will take several years for the economy to re-define itself. This will require creative artists, specifically the less commercial artists, to find or create a financial balance between the art world and the business or education sectors in order to sustain their personal and artistic livelihoods. An increase in collaborative work may have to happen in order to ‘get’ work performed.”
“I am making so much less money now that my entire life is curtailed. Cannot afford rehearsal space so must wait until my space grant kicks in to start my new project. Must call creditors every month to negotiate my student loan, tax payments, etc. The good news is, I make so little now that an arts job doesn’t represent the huge financial setback that it used to, so I’m looking there for a job. Now that I am living on less anyway, it’s worth a try. I am an adherent of the ‘make less with more’ theory. It’s more important that I make fewer better projects and try to pay myself and my performers. We’ll see how that goes.”
Under the Umbrella of Challenges:
“My arts newsletter is supported by contributions. My concern is that many people who say they want it will use the recession as an excuse to not donate, even though they are pergectly capable of donating $20-50. For many people, the recession is an excuse to justify being cheap. Although, for others, it does mean losing a job or confidence”
“I've learned to sidestep across my 20 years in the field and have found myself to be pretty agile in hard times. Nevertheless, i recognize that it continues to be a day to day proposition and my awareness that i have always existed one injury, paycheck, job and depression or love disaster from the edge never leaves me.”
“Because of lack of funding or decreased funds, my company postponed our 2009 New York Season which was planned for May, and are looking towards a potentially horrifying future. And now, I need to start choreographing a new work which will be presented during a fall festival and yet we do not have the funds for our dancers rehearsal/performances fees. So I have to sacrifice and plan to feature fewer dancers for my new piece. In terms of our productions, we are trying to find ways to cut costs while still presenting as highly professional programs as possible.”
“I do not believe the problem is with the economy. It is a larger problem of funding for the arts in this country, intersected with issues relating to health care, education and the public welfare.”
“Not optimistic at all! I feel that I'm crazy to be spending so much time as an artist, nurturing so much financial uncertainty. But I've no real choice. If I waited for sound financial futures in the arts, I'd wait into the grave, never creating, never learning.”
“I'm financially strained, and although I try to stay optimistic that the economy is slowly getting back on track, jobs still seem to dwindling - this is certainly true in the non-profit arts sector.”
“As an artist, I have never had a solid financial footing in New York City. I believe I will have to leave NYC to equate art making with income. I may well have to leave the US altogether. My bigger concern is to make art making possible; to renegotiate the terms by which we are operating. That means affordable space, etc. That means, being able to make the choice to make work again.”
“We dont have a solid footing when the economy is in the pink of health, we bleed. When the economy is bleeding, we are headed towards a haemorrhage. When the economy recovers its health for us to survive and enjoy a single day in the paradise of arts called NY, in the pink of health - there needs to be a paradigm shift. Economy's recovery is not sufficient for us to rebound. Getting back on track implies, we were once on the track.”
“Unfortunately, artists seem to think that working for free, or without healthcare is typical to their lifestyle. I think this already underserved population is going to feel an impact through lack of support since even the non-profit organizations, whose sole purpose is to provide them with adequate care, is trying to survive on less and therefore compromising its offerings. I do hope there is a turn around sooner than later, especially in the healthcare vein, but I think it is going to take a lot longer than we are expecting for this increase in economic activity to trickle down to the already impoverished artistic communities.”
“Personally, the lack of financial support that I can raise for my organization places me in jeopardy of my position as well, since every job has to show a purpose and a revenue. However, I am confident that I will be okay since everyone is beginning to understand the severity is no individual at fault, and rather a larger, natural decline.”
“I'm optimistic, but very nervous that we are unprepared for a big, bad, coming storm.”
“I'm worried about new artists looking to get started...if I knew the things I know now, would I have taken this career on? Ultimately yes, and I will do whatever it takes. I'm in a good position to weather this storm, with enough opportunity and financial security from part-time work...but fear that many of my peers are not.”
Friday, May 15, 2009
Smack down and down and.....
I love a good fight. Not really but...
Claudia La ROCK-oh over at WNYC's Art Cult blog, blogged about our New Economy Smack Down and she didn't mince words. I will add my two cents to her smack down shortly. As soon as I gather my thoughts, write a few grants, answer some calls from artists with 411 questions, and deal with cash flow.
And to those of you who missed the Smack Down, Morgan von Prelle Pecelli's soap box from the event is here on her sassy blog.
We will post the other panelists' soap box manifestos and audio from the event soon too.
Claudia La ROCK-oh over at WNYC's Art Cult blog, blogged about our New Economy Smack Down and she didn't mince words. I will add my two cents to her smack down shortly. As soon as I gather my thoughts, write a few grants, answer some calls from artists with 411 questions, and deal with cash flow.
And to those of you who missed the Smack Down, Morgan von Prelle Pecelli's soap box from the event is here on her sassy blog.
We will post the other panelists' soap box manifestos and audio from the event soon too.
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
New Economy Smack Down
Stream Full Audio Coverage:
Download Audio File
The New Economy Smack Down
Wednesday, May 13, 2009, 7pm-9:30pm
Galapagos Art Space
Hosted by Robert Elmes, Galapagos Art Space, and Jennifer Wright Cook, The Field
Don’t be brought down by the economy, instead usher it in with an evening of lively debate, truth-telling, and prophesizing. Join us to wrestle with the urgent issues and uncertainty that confront the performing arts community. A two-part panel of arts and business leaders will help set the stage for this impromptu evening of possibility.
Download Audio File
The New Economy Smack Down
Wednesday, May 13, 2009, 7pm-9:30pm
Galapagos Art Space
Hosted by Robert Elmes, Galapagos Art Space, and Jennifer Wright Cook, The Field
Don’t be brought down by the economy, instead usher it in with an evening of lively debate, truth-telling, and prophesizing. Join us to wrestle with the urgent issues and uncertainty that confront the performing arts community. A two-part panel of arts and business leaders will help set the stage for this impromptu evening of possibility.
Fire Side Chat
• Heather Hitchens, New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA)
PANEL 1: Cultural Stakeholders and Gatekeepers
• Moira Brennan, Multi-Arts Production (MAP) Fund
• Aaron Landsman, Thinaar / Elevator Repair Service (ERS)
• Morgan von Prelle Pecelli, The Lost Notebook
• Brian Rogers, The Chocolate Factory Theater
PANEL 2: Cultural Entrepreneurs
• Rachel Chavkin, Theatre of the Emerging American Moment (TEAM)
• Miguel Gutierrez, Miguel Gutierrez and the Powerful People
• Jeff Hnilicka, Funding Emerging Arts with Sustainable Tactics (FEAST)
• RoseAnne Spradlin, RoseAnne Spradlin Dance
• Jon Stancato, Stolen Chair
Special Performance by Aerialist Lisa Natoli
This event is co-presented by The Field and Galapagos Art Space as part of The Field’s Economic Revitalization for Performing Artists (ERPA) program, supported by the Rockefeller Foundation’s 2008 New York City Cultural Innovation Fund. Learn more about ERPA!
LOCATION: Galapagos Art Space, 16 Main StreetCorner of Water Street in Dumbo, Brooklyn, F to York, C/E to High Street, 2/3 to Clark Street
AUDIO GUIDEPOSTS: Heather Hitchens @ 7:05, Aaron Landsman @ 31:35, Morgan van Prelle Pecelli @ 41:10, Brian Rogers @ 51:00, Moira Brennan @ 57:10, RoseAnne Spradlin @ 1:17:55, Jeff Hnilicka @ 1:30:00, Jon Stancato @ 1:44:00, Rachel Chavkin @ 1:58:10, Miguel Gutierrez @ 2:05:00 (TRT 2hrs 37min!)
Monday, May 11, 2009
Smackdown is upon us!!!
Preparing for the New Economy Smack Down... tick, tick, tick... it's happening at Galapagos this Wednesday evening, 7pm!!! LEARN MORE & RSVPSeveral of our panelists were involved in an awesome conversation on Clauda La Rocco's WNYC blog...it's quite a bit of content, but certainly a worthwhile read to get your wheels turning for the Smackdown: CHECK IT OUT HERE
Planning to attend Wednesday's event? TAKE THIS SURVEY!!! It's quick and easy, and will help us know more about where you are coming from, to get the most out of the Smackdown.
While talking about the economy can seem like a seriously heavy topic, I'm looking forward to seeing people and picking their brains...I mean, everyone is so worried about the economy right now. But how can we learn from each other to weather this storm? How can we turn fear and anxiety into constructive tension and creative resolution??
Plus this could even end up being FUN, we are going to be at GALAPAGOS after all!!! There is a 1,600 square feet lake inside with red leather island seating. And there is going to be a performance by aerialist dance artist Lisa Natoli.
Looking forward to another good healthy dose of Economic Revitalization for Performing Artists!!!
(Photo of Lisa Natoli by Galapagos)
Planning to attend Wednesday's event? TAKE THIS SURVEY!!! It's quick and easy, and will help us know more about where you are coming from, to get the most out of the Smackdown.
While talking about the economy can seem like a seriously heavy topic, I'm looking forward to seeing people and picking their brains...I mean, everyone is so worried about the economy right now. But how can we learn from each other to weather this storm? How can we turn fear and anxiety into constructive tension and creative resolution??
Plus this could even end up being FUN, we are going to be at GALAPAGOS after all!!! There is a 1,600 square feet lake inside with red leather island seating. And there is going to be a performance by aerialist dance artist Lisa Natoli.
Looking forward to another good healthy dose of Economic Revitalization for Performing Artists!!!
(Photo of Lisa Natoli by Galapagos)
Friday, October 17, 2008
Thursday, October 9, 2008
Artist or Cultural Entrepreneur?
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Artist or Cultural Entrepreneur?
ERPA Invention Session #3
Thursday, October 9, 2008, 8:30-10pm
Chez Bushwick
Moderated by Morgan von Prelle Pecelli, Artistic Director, Emerging Artists, 3LD Art & Technology Center and Founder, The Lost Notebook
Panelists:
• Ryan Fix, Founder, The Pure Project
• Lara Galinsky, Vice President of Strategy, Echoing Green
• Jmy Leary, Dance Artist
In any economy, being a professional artist really means that you are on a path to one of three possibilities: (1) get hired by an established artist or company, (2) be a pickup artist (i.e. self-employed freelancer), or (3) start your own company. In all of these cases, you are an entrepreneur with an emerging micro-enterprise – your art. And as the term entrepreneur implies, you have to be willing to take full risk and reward for your new enterprise. However, it seems that we often shy away from taking our work as seriously as we could to optimize our success. Instead of thinking of it as “selling out”, is there a way to buy in? Can we learn to get organized, plan our businesses, and think about our growth, audiences, finances and work as the entrepreneurial enterprises that they are? Are there tools we can learn to use that might guarantee a higher probability of success, sustainability and aesthetic risk taking? Is there a way to be both pragmatic and artistic?
Download Audio File
Artist or Cultural Entrepreneur?
ERPA Invention Session #3
Thursday, October 9, 2008, 8:30-10pm
Chez Bushwick
Moderated by Morgan von Prelle Pecelli, Artistic Director, Emerging Artists, 3LD Art & Technology Center and Founder, The Lost Notebook
Panelists:
• Ryan Fix, Founder, The Pure Project
• Lara Galinsky, Vice President of Strategy, Echoing Green
• Jmy Leary, Dance Artist
In any economy, being a professional artist really means that you are on a path to one of three possibilities: (1) get hired by an established artist or company, (2) be a pickup artist (i.e. self-employed freelancer), or (3) start your own company. In all of these cases, you are an entrepreneur with an emerging micro-enterprise – your art. And as the term entrepreneur implies, you have to be willing to take full risk and reward for your new enterprise. However, it seems that we often shy away from taking our work as seriously as we could to optimize our success. Instead of thinking of it as “selling out”, is there a way to buy in? Can we learn to get organized, plan our businesses, and think about our growth, audiences, finances and work as the entrepreneurial enterprises that they are? Are there tools we can learn to use that might guarantee a higher probability of success, sustainability and aesthetic risk taking? Is there a way to be both pragmatic and artistic?
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
No more Grants and Grandma?
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No more Grants and Grandma?
ERPA Invention Session #2
Tuesday, September 30, 2008, 11:30am-1pm
Joe’s Pub
Moderated by Jonah Bokaer
Panelists:
• Catherine Barnett, Vice President, Project Enterprise
• Chris Elam, Artistic Director, Misnomer Dance Theater
• Heather Rees, NYC Venture Philanthropy Fund
• Esther Robinson, Filmmaker and Founder, ArtHome; former Director of Film/Video & Performing Arts for the Creative Capital Foundation
If the majority of New York's ambitious performing artists will never attain financial stability from grants and individual donations, what are some other ways we can build financial stability? What are microfinance, venture capitalism, entrepreneurship, patient capital and investment funds? What do these things mean and how can we successfully modify them to meet our singular needs? Hear from experts in these fields and learn how you can appropriate their solutions for your art-making.
Artists are entrepreneurs by our very nature. We are nimble and rigorous risk-takers. We are running businesses, asking for "investors", delivering amazing ROIs (returns on investments!), raising capital, and leveraging resources. Traditional philanthropy is often demoralizing and puts us 8 rungs down on the ladder looking up and begging. And the demand for grants and "grandma" (i.e. individual patrons) way way way outpaces the supply. So what then? Alternative models can perhaps let us be in the driver's seat or on an even playing field. Partner, engage, collaborate, demand, up the ante, know your "product", know your constituents, clarify your goals and your vision, ask for help and then offer to help another. Get to know your neighbors (to paraphrase Esther Robinson!) Make your work and make it noisy.
Download Audio File
No more Grants and Grandma?
ERPA Invention Session #2
Tuesday, September 30, 2008, 11:30am-1pm
Joe’s Pub
Moderated by Jonah Bokaer
Panelists:
• Catherine Barnett, Vice President, Project Enterprise
• Chris Elam, Artistic Director, Misnomer Dance Theater
• Heather Rees, NYC Venture Philanthropy Fund
• Esther Robinson, Filmmaker and Founder, ArtHome; former Director of Film/Video & Performing Arts for the Creative Capital Foundation
If the majority of New York's ambitious performing artists will never attain financial stability from grants and individual donations, what are some other ways we can build financial stability? What are microfinance, venture capitalism, entrepreneurship, patient capital and investment funds? What do these things mean and how can we successfully modify them to meet our singular needs? Hear from experts in these fields and learn how you can appropriate their solutions for your art-making.
Artists are entrepreneurs by our very nature. We are nimble and rigorous risk-takers. We are running businesses, asking for "investors", delivering amazing ROIs (returns on investments!), raising capital, and leveraging resources. Traditional philanthropy is often demoralizing and puts us 8 rungs down on the ladder looking up and begging. And the demand for grants and "grandma" (i.e. individual patrons) way way way outpaces the supply. So what then? Alternative models can perhaps let us be in the driver's seat or on an even playing field. Partner, engage, collaborate, demand, up the ante, know your "product", know your constituents, clarify your goals and your vision, ask for help and then offer to help another. Get to know your neighbors (to paraphrase Esther Robinson!) Make your work and make it noisy.
Tuesday, September 16, 2008
Starving Artist: Fact or Fiction: Non-Profit Doesn’t = No Money
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Starving Artist: Fact or Fiction: Non-Profit Doesn’t = No Money
ERPA Invention Session #1
Tuesday, September 16, 2008, 7:30-9:30pm
Galapagos Art Space
Moderated by Sara Juli, Performance Artist, Director of Development at Dance Theater Workshop
Panelists:
• Robert Elmes, Director, Galapagos Art Space
• Amanda Clayman, Financial Wellness Program, The Actors Fund
• Chris Ajemian, Artist, Entrepreneur
• Brian Newman, CEO, Tribeca Film Institute
What makes us think that we're a 'sell out' if we make money from our art? Why do we seem to believe that we must suffer to make great art, yet we pine away for the seemingly Utopian government sponsored art cultures of Berlin and Brussels? Is there something inherently hierarchical and damaging in the 'gift economy' that the arts and philanthropy work in? The non-profit model that most artists use may not be the best model for our work, yet we gravitate to it like lemmings. What about being for-profit or for-benefit? What do those things even mean? What about LLCs and L3Cs and what about a blend model?
This program is presented by The Field as part of the ERPA program. View panelist bios and learn more.
Download Audio File
Starving Artist: Fact or Fiction: Non-Profit Doesn’t = No Money
ERPA Invention Session #1
Tuesday, September 16, 2008, 7:30-9:30pm
Galapagos Art Space
Moderated by Sara Juli, Performance Artist, Director of Development at Dance Theater Workshop
Panelists:
• Robert Elmes, Director, Galapagos Art Space
• Amanda Clayman, Financial Wellness Program, The Actors Fund
• Chris Ajemian, Artist, Entrepreneur
• Brian Newman, CEO, Tribeca Film Institute
What makes us think that we're a 'sell out' if we make money from our art? Why do we seem to believe that we must suffer to make great art, yet we pine away for the seemingly Utopian government sponsored art cultures of Berlin and Brussels? Is there something inherently hierarchical and damaging in the 'gift economy' that the arts and philanthropy work in? The non-profit model that most artists use may not be the best model for our work, yet we gravitate to it like lemmings. What about being for-profit or for-benefit? What do those things even mean? What about LLCs and L3Cs and what about a blend model?
This program is presented by The Field as part of the ERPA program. View panelist bios and learn more.
Monday, June 23, 2008
Survive vs. Thrive
Town Hall: Economic Revitalization for Performing Artists
Monday, June 23, 2008, 7pm-9pm
The FAR Space
How can artists make their best work and afford to live in New York City without collapsing from exhaustion? How can companies grow when funding is dwindling? Join us for a community discussion with veteran arts leaders. Learn about ERPA: The Field’s two-year entrepreneurial lab and re-grant opportunity that addresses the systemic challenges that stand in the way of the financial health and stability of New York performing artists. Spread the word and let your voice be heard!
Moderated by Jennifer Wright Cook, Executive Director, The Field
Panelists Include:
• Alyssa Alpine, Festival Coordinator, Celebrate Mexico Now
• June W. Choi, Philanthropy/Nonprofit Management Professional (most recently with Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors)
• Penelope Dannenberg, Director of Programs, New York Foundation for the Arts
• Jaki Levy, Director of New Media, Misnomer Dance Theater
• Tamara Greenfield, Executive Director, Fourth Arts Block
• Gregory Kandel, Founder and Partner, Management Consultants for the Arts, Inc
• Aaron Landsman, Playwright/Actor/Administrator
• Virginia P. Louloudes, Executive Director, A.R.T./NY
• Edward A. Martenson, Professor (Adjunct) & Chair of Theater Management, Yale University School of Drama
Learn more about ERPA today, including the Guidelines & Application to participate in this paid entrepreneurial lab and a full calendar of inventive public dialogues and information sessions.
ERPA is funded by the Rockefeller Foundation’s 2008 New York City Cultural Innovation Fund.
Monday, June 23, 2008, 7pm-9pm
The FAR Space
How can artists make their best work and afford to live in New York City without collapsing from exhaustion? How can companies grow when funding is dwindling? Join us for a community discussion with veteran arts leaders. Learn about ERPA: The Field’s two-year entrepreneurial lab and re-grant opportunity that addresses the systemic challenges that stand in the way of the financial health and stability of New York performing artists. Spread the word and let your voice be heard!
Moderated by Jennifer Wright Cook, Executive Director, The Field
Panelists Include:
• Alyssa Alpine, Festival Coordinator, Celebrate Mexico Now
• June W. Choi, Philanthropy/Nonprofit Management Professional (most recently with Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors)
• Penelope Dannenberg, Director of Programs, New York Foundation for the Arts
• Jaki Levy, Director of New Media, Misnomer Dance Theater
• Tamara Greenfield, Executive Director, Fourth Arts Block
• Gregory Kandel, Founder and Partner, Management Consultants for the Arts, Inc
• Aaron Landsman, Playwright/Actor/Administrator
• Virginia P. Louloudes, Executive Director, A.R.T./NY
• Edward A. Martenson, Professor (Adjunct) & Chair of Theater Management, Yale University School of Drama
Learn more about ERPA today, including the Guidelines & Application to participate in this paid entrepreneurial lab and a full calendar of inventive public dialogues and information sessions.
ERPA is funded by the Rockefeller Foundation’s 2008 New York City Cultural Innovation Fund.
SURVIVE VS. THRIVE TRANSCRIPTION
The following transcription of this public dialogue has been edited for flow, and to make up for poor audio capture. While all attempts have been made to accurately document each person’s comments, please refrain from using this as a bible.
Jennifer Wright Cook: Welcome to each of you tonight, to our fabulous mega-panel, and to each of you, thank you for being here for Survive vs. Thrive – the first public dialogue as part of a new program I am really happy to be part of at The Field, ERPA: Economic Revitalization for Performing Artists…we have a lot of Fieldworkers in the crowd tonight who will be taking notes, so we can come back from tonight and continue to shape ERPA so that we can serve artists in the best way possible. It is very important that this challenge gets tossed back to you, to each and every one of us. Beyond being here to ask what The Field can do for you, I hope that you can take away from this evening some ideas about what you can do differently in your art making and your path to economic stability, and that this evening helps to empower yourself and the artists around you.
ERPA has been made possible by in incredible grant from the Rockefeller Foundation, part of the first year of Cultural Innovation Awards, which are aimed at revitalizing New York’s cultural landscape. Our goal is to host a two year entrepreneurial lab for artists to brainstorm, develop, and implement innovative, sustainable, and hopefully replicable income strategies through their creative work. What this looks like could unfold in a lot of different ways, depending on you…so I’d like to open the floor tonight by discussing the notion of success. What does it mean to be successful as an artist? What ways do you guide yourself to be successful?
Attendee 1: To get to do it. To have the opportunity to perform and to create work.
JWC: To perform. To make the work. Simply that. To have the time and resources to make work, to be able to do that.
Attendee 2: And to have creative possibilities to develop as an artist. For example, I know of this company where this dancer became excited about a project and was able to become an in-house researcher for the same company (paraphrased). Success is helping to bring about development and possibilities for the artist to change…
JWC: Change. Could you say a little bit more about that?
Attendee 2: She danced with them and she got curious about adaptation and preservation of the dance, became interested in the adaptation of the dance work of that company. And instead of leaving the company was given a place within the company to do that development and research. She proposed a project for the company to develop an institute for research and choreography. She didn’t go the traditional route of being a dancer, to choreographer, to teaching, but was instead able to specialize in how choreography is notated, transmitted.
JWC: So in other words, I’m hearing that this is long term, the ability to have a “home” in a company instead of just being a dancing body that dances then leaves, and that’s it…
Penelope Dannenberg: And looking at the members of the company as people and not just bodies who have ideas and thoughts.
Jaki Levy: On the dance and theater side it’s possible to make and show work, but it’s rarely possible to have the development time to make the work that’s in your head. You almost never find a financial fit for the size of the audience and a chance to develop the work long term.
JWC: Right, there’s not enough money around for creative development.
JL: Particularly from a traditional capitalistic model, even if people love the work, it’s not set up that way. So there needs to be a greater societal commitment to supporting creative development to make that happen.
JWC: That’s a humongous topic in and of itself…the capitalistic model…in terms of how artists feel valued and how America values art.
Sara Juli: I think part of being successful is that we work really hard as a community to redefine what success is, which is the point of the question at hand. There’s this idea where - I’m just going to say it - which is that BAM is where we all want to go. It’s about finding new ways of figuring out what success is…if it’s showing work in your living room, or BAM, or simply making new work…from the small stuff to the big stuff. It’s figuring out how to talk about what success means in our community. Success is not just one thing, i.e. being presented by a presenter.
JWC: We automatically think that there is a hierarchy of success, and that everyone is on the same path. And it’s not true. We align ourselves toward the art path, and the non-profit structure and everything that is implied by that. We assume that ‘I’m an artist and so it means I’m going to start a non-profit,’ in the same way we assume that ‘I want to be an artist, so this means I won’t make any money.’ Success doesn’t have to mean grants, etc…
SJ: I created a solo piece called ‘The Money Conversation’ in order to reassess my relationship with money. I cashed out my entire savings account of $5,000 and gave it away to an audience every night. And I would leave at the end of the hour and each audience member has to decide whether to keep or to give it back. So it’s a commentary on whether people keep or give this money back, responding to people’s relationship to money and just letting go of this obsessing with money. If you can take that big of a risk, that kind of reward gives back. Hello, I don’t have that much money. I’ve gotten a lot of press and presenting and by taking a big risk I continue to get so much out of it in return. I’ve been touring it for 2 years. Of the original $5,000, I now have about $3,500 in my savings account. In Australia someone took $1,000 in one night, in New Zealand I lost a little too, but here in New York I actually make money every time!
Attendee 3: I’m at this point struggling with basic survival things because of the pay scale in the non-profit world, and the lack thereof in the art world. I think we have to start thinking of ways that we can house ourselves, not just our work. What’s going on the city is that anyone who is below the $100,000 a year mark is really at risk at this point. We can no longer rely on individuals, or finagle a parent, etc.
JWC: How do we frame our conversation, to get to the right people involved and not just come on as the victim…like, ‘we need your money, how are you going to help up?’ It’s not a one way street and it shouldn’t be one. How do we as artists and art organizations contribute back? How are we adding to the dialogue and giving back to our communities?
JL: I forgot where I read this but, but a study said: As property values go up, crime goes down, and civic contributions increase wherever there is arts education or art organizations presenting work. So it’s just a matter of lobbying to take advantage of that. However, usually lobbying power is fueled by financial contributions to campaigns…so I don’t know if, as a non-rich community, we have the power to lobby to support this argument?
Virginia Louloudes: I’m a registered lobbyist. I was actually going to say that this is an argument that is often used and is very effective with legislators and business people alike. But my argument was going to be one that was more spiritual… I had the privilege of listening to a playwright speak who had written about the Rwandan genocide. He’s doing research for another play and he was back in Rwanda and this woman told him her story about being victimized and tortured. At the very end of her account to him, she said, ‘I’m going to tell you something that I’ve never told anyone: I’m dying of AIDS.’ And he said, ‘Why are you telling me this?’ And she said, ‘Because you’re a playwright and you work in the theater and the theater is about telling the truth.’ So to me our job as artists is to remain relevant. Sometimes we’re ahead of the curve and our work isn’t going to be appreciated until after we’re dead. Sometimes we’re saying things people don’t want to hear, but this is our job, to tell the truths that people don’t want to hear. This is the reason that art has survived since the beginning of time.
JWC: That’s a great question, how are we relevant? We have a great deal of statistics about what art contributes towards the community and there’s the lobbying side of that. And Ginny also spoke truth to power about the spiritual side of things. Of course, it seems that this spiritual case is essentially harder for us to make and support with numbers. It’s hard for us to have a number attached to that for a funder or an investor to understand how important art really is.
VL: And yet when we said it, the room was quiet. When we talked numbers, the room wasn't quiet. When we talk about human life, it’s quite and I so I think we’re afraid, we’ve become told that we need to turn on investment all the time. What about all the children who were going to drop out of school, but then they got an art class and stayed because they discovered they could do something well?
Attendee 4: About the question of relevance… I think one of the main symptoms of our problems about proving how relevant art is, is our own doubts about the relevance of art. And then talking about the emotional part, it’s how we can use our intuition to find solutions to our bitterness and frustrations, and turn these into action…through collaborations, barters, etc. But our main problem is doubt.
JWC: We’ve had many conversations about the psychological barriers that keep us from succeeding and stepping out there and doing something. There’s this romanticized notion of the starving artist. We rely on the touchy feely side of art, but often don’t have the confidence to validate our work and speak directly about the benefits it provides for people.
Attendee 5: I was struck by what Ginny said that reminds me of a quote I once heard that ‘art is less about what we like in life and more about what we lack in life.’ And so art points out what society is missing. For example, societies that are very wealthy often get attracted to pastorals. Relating this back to the money issue…the wealthier a society gets, the more people look to the arts for sacrifice, ironically. Like the starving artist. The more spiritually attuned to the work the artist is, the more they suffer to make it. And the more rich and wealthy, the more perverse this relationship becomes. Those things are oddly related. It’s an inherent tension that the arts community creates this tremendous value, but at the same time the world is looking us not to invest in that value, and to be somehow above it in a spiritual sense…that our art remains pure in that we’re not sullied in the market place of money, but that we trade in the inspiration of the market place of ideas.
June Choi: Part of that comes from the western history of art and how art happens in the west. Back to the earlier conversation…numbers work for some people, but also stories are powerful. We have a lot of powerful, important stories to tell, but the flip side of that is that in order for us to tell these stories, there has to be some kind of interaction. And I think that’s what’s missing. Without this interaction there’s a disconnect, and art becomes this thing where people feel that it should be something that’s passive. If you’re looking for increased revenue from your audiences you’re going to have to find some way to increase the numbers in the audiences, to get them to buy in more, to invest more. And the way to do that is to engage them more. There are a lot of different ways to do that. But we need to re-frame how we’re thinking about this, and we need to make a point of not just putting work out there, but to let the audiences know, ‘don’t just sit there, engage!’
Panelist: Were you saying that this is what artists expect of themselves, or is this what society expects of them? Or a little of both?
Attendee 6: I think it has to be both because our ideas of ourselves are formed to some extent in relation to society and to some extent they’re unique. So to the extent that we’re burdened by the communal due, we suffer for that. And there are some people that break that mold and form a different model. But I think there’s a tremendous tension for the arts. That it faces this view from the outside. I think a lot of this comes from the anagrams from the 80’s.
Attendee 7: This touches on a really basic dichotomy that has been of interest to me for a long time. The general point of view among most artists is that everything is getting harder: it’s harder to get space, to get money, to get rehearsal time. It’s harder to keep creative with the day job, etc. And on the other hand, the arts have become such a big business. It’s just not true that our revenues are declining, that audiences aren’t investing, that funding is going south. In 2005 the total revenues from the non-profit art organizations that reported, not that exist, that reported… $27 billion! So big business on the one hand, but on the other hand this big struggle. One of the questions to address is trying to make sense of the massive contradictions in that.
June Choi: There’s also all these art schools graduating all these artists who expect to come out of school making a living, doing their art. Someone mentioned supply and demand earlier. We have to face the reality that we’re looking at a situation that we may have more artists than we have demand for work. How many orchestras are doing subscriptions series and can’t fill all their subscriptions and that’s not because audiences are dying off, it’s also that there a lot more orchestras.
Attendee 8: Then you’re also talking about education, because people are not getting the arts education to appreciate things like orchestras. Kids are not getting the kind of education they need to then grow up and be art consumers, patrons…or to make their own music. So there’s this problem where the country has this inflated commitment to science funding and not to art. Part of it is that we don’t have the appreciation in the culture which comes from not having the funding for arts education, for like, the past 30 years.
JWC: So, what we appreciate influences where our government puts its support. And that’s about values, and how we value ourselves, and it’s a cycle that’s really complex. But what are we going to do about it? The reality is that despite a $27 billion arts economy there are a lot of people walking into The Field every day saying that they are ready to form a company, and how do they get grants and money. And we try to offer help, and realistic, optimistic avenues, etc.
Greg Kandel: It would be great to hear proposals for ERPA for how to engage organizations in ways that would be more meaningful, and especially more sustainable in the long-term. It’s not as if art organizations aren’t supporting artists. But this support is not usually sustained afterwards. It’s much easier to convince arts organizations of the importance of supporting the audiences than it is the general public. I think a lot of organizations are interested in what they can do, but not in how.
Attendee 9: What organizations are you talking about?
GK: Theaters, the more financially stable dance companies, orchestras, and chamber orchestras. I wasn’t thinking about service organizations, but the ones that are responsible for presenting, producing, and showing the work.
Jonah Bokaer: I want to zero in on the word ‘service.’ There is a relationship to be drawn between what Ginny said…but also talking about artistic services being relevant and remaining relevant, or changing so that they can become more relevant. We should also think about how audiences can feel more relevant and not disposable. So how can these things link up? How can artists and services and audiences all be relevant and maintain relevance? Also we need to zero in on the idea of what we mean by the word ‘sustainability’ because there’s ecological sustainability, financial sustainability, and individual sustainability. Can success be sustained?
GK: My reference to sustainability refers to sustained effort. There are plenty of one-offs. They rehearse, get the show up, and then that’s it. But there needs to be developmental time, and it’s in the presenting organization’s best interest to do that too, over time. So I was thinking of sustained mutual commitment between artists and presenting organizations.
Attendee 10: Going back to the point of lobbying… It’s not so much money that artists need as being loud, and focused, and in the face of elected officials all the time, so that when they’re running for office, we’re really pursuing them, saying, ‘What are you doing to do for us?’ and being a focused, vocal, interest group. One suggestion was starting a political action committee, and getting people together and rousing them up.
VL: The man who said we, artists, aren’t putting ourselves in their face enough, that’s bullshit. We’re out there. The problem is that there are just as many other groups out there that are just as needy. And if the choice is between a starving family from Bangladesh or a dance company, they’ll probably fund the service organization helping the staving family from Bangladesh. It’s very complicated. My suggestion would be, yes keep in their face, but don’t think it’s not about money. He gets a paycheck. And he has to remember that you have to live in an area, paying for that area with paychecks, and that it’s all about votes. I think it’s interesting that we’re in a time where people who have always had security before don’t have security anymore. People are getting pink slips from some of the major investment banks. I have one member on my board whose theater company has 6 out of 15 board members unemployed.
The dance programs and TV shows, we can make fun of them, but people are taking dance classes now because they want to look as good as ‘Dancing with the Stars.’ I want to see a reality show called ’The Real Artists of New York City’ because people just don’t know how it really works. I knew an architect who told me that he went to a dance concert and thought that dancers just came on stage and did what they felt like. He did not know that they rehearsed and he’s a college educated person. If organizations taught their audience members how you do what you do, and make the magic a little less invisible, then I think we might be able to get more buy-in.
Attendee 11: I’m from the New York Innovative Theater Awards and we’re currently running two different typographic studies. When we talk about sustainability we talk about large established performing arts organizations serving smaller ones in need of development. We’re talking about ourselves as our own audience and trying to connect larger, more established theater companies sponsoring smaller opportunities for up and comers. So the idea that there‘s this billion dollar industry…how we can get some more buy-in from the established companies to sponsor smaller companies? In terms of relevance, we as a community are the target audience for a lot of corporations. They have tons of money to spend on marketing, and getting them to see us as a new set of eyes for their marketing, if that’s what gets your art funded, then that’s what gets your art funded. And then using a demographic study like ours can show that the people who are making the art, and the people who are attending the art, these are the people who they want to spend their marketing budget on because of the philanthropic trickle down effect.
JWC: There’s clearly passion around social, psychological myths and ideas about who we are and how we work. In The Field we get a lot of hands on, one-on-one interaction with different artists and there’s a lot of damaged souls out there who’ve really worked hard on how to step up to the plate and do it…dealing directly with this idea of money and new ways to make it. Part of the conversation is about how we can learn from the bigger organizations out there, whether they’re for-profit or non-profit, how do we distill some elements of their successes and failures and implement these lessons into our own artistic paths?
Part of what I was thinking about earlier is the notion that the best way overall for how to survive as an artist is to find the best second job. Maybe that’s not the nice answer, but maybe that’s the true answer, or maybe that means marry the Hedge Fund guy. So what about second jobs? And if having a day job is the most viable model for many, how does one find a second job that’s going to fit your financial needs, your life needs, your flexibility needs, your travel needs, etc. And that is not an easy question at all. Everyone on staff at The Field is a working artist and we are dealing with that all of the time. How do we make is possible for Michael to go on tour to Vienna and Toulouse and still do his work here? How do we make the organization flexible enough for him to do what he needs to do? Or should artists be condemned to waiting tables? Or is it writing grants for someone else? Is it being a personal trainer? How do we do it? This is a very important conversation, but we want to take it a step further… If philanthropy isn’t working for most and other things aren’t working, what are we going to do? Are there other things about corporate money that we aren’t tapping into?
JL: One of the models or themes that I’ve been really looking at is how…well, recently I’ve been doing a lot of web development and putting together sites for artists and creating new initiatives online to build audiences online. And I thought: what is this model of scarcity? The idea that there is never enough time, space or money…and I thought: what if there was a model of abundance? What do we have a bunch of? And that’s self-expression, creativity, innovation. Well, how can we share that? The other question: how do we connect with audiences outside of the single performance that we have? You go in, you do your show, the audience leaves, etc. And that was the question that Chris Elam had before we even came into contact with each other. Chris is the artistic director of Misnomer Dance Theater and we worked together on this issue: how do we continue to engage audiences, artists, communities throughout the year? The other question I pose is: how can we really partner with and connect with technology and these kinds of corporations? People are already putting together a lot of initiatives for businesses to do this, so how can we create these partnerships with small business and developers? How can we bring in money through partnerships within the technology community to sustain the arts?
Attendee 12: I’m just struck by how much we’re concentrating on money being purely the dollar bill thing. And really what money does is create a bartering system for exchanging goods and services. So why aren’t we, as a community, exchanging our goods and services and the things we can provide for ourselves with our own abilities that we already have or with each other and supporting each other through that way?
JWC: How would you practically apply that to someone in this room?
Attendee 12: We all have different jobs, our second jobs, from anywhere from cooks, or administrators, etc. I can’t speak for everyone, but when I talk to someone in the arts I’m always amazed at the other talents they have. Like they’ll have a computer science degree and all of the sudden they want to dance. There’s a vast knowledge out there that we just choose to focus on and we forget that we’re very intelligent people overall. I don’t have a direct application for this but hope that this might start a conversation.
Attendee 13: I have a direct response to this through my experience as a composer and being involved in different phases of production in the theater. Beginning theater companies in particular waste an incredible amount of time, resources, and money just going out to the conventional structures. We have to rent a rehearsal room and then purchase the services of musicians and buy insurance. All of this stuff. Your theater budget becomes this massive thing and you just give up the whole show. The way around that is simply to get a group of people in the room, such as we have here - although that’s not the exact purpose of this evening - to decide: let’s produce something, one thing, whatever we have in common, using practically all the resources that we have in this room. I came to this evening with a specific proposal to do that, it’s written down. And now I have 24 sheets on how to do that for a collective performance company. So, pick them up as you go out or talk to me. It’s a proposal for a collective music, theater, and multi-media company where the resources are exchanged fundamentally.
Attendee 14: The two of us have just started our own dance company recently and we did just that. We went through the Arts and Theater Ensemble and I started a project with them. We collaborated with four other choreographers on a dance that we’re showcasing. We didn’t spend a dime on the space, because we sold out two nights in a row. We even had a waiting list from the amount of community that came together. We allowed ourselves to each present 20 minute pieces. We did it in the Merce Cunningham dance studio, a great space to dance in. That is exactly how, if you really want to start something, it’s great to get a bunch of people who you know together and I will guarantee you will not pay for the space, you’ll not pay for time, and you’ll have all your friends. You’ll have the time because everybody else is doing it with you. You have a deadline, everybody has a deadline, and this is what you do and everyone does it. It was a great way to have our New York experience.
JWC: Let me just pick that apart for a one second and ask very politely: How can that be sustainable and how can that - my impression is that this is great, but a lot of artists have a very clear and individualized artistic vision. So, there have been a lot of cooperatives and collectives and…
JC: The buzz word everywhere is diversity. I think diversity is also a buzz word for how do we approach how we think about how we do our work. I think that’s one aspect of it.
Attendee 14: Yes, it’s new to us. So it’s good to start off…
JC: Right. And it may work for a while or for some people. But I think another thing to look at, one thing that I thought was interesting that you talked about was talking to all the people you know. One thing we need to do in our community more and better is to think about all the people you know. Really extend to the full six degrees of separation. Because that’s the only way we’re going to expand our resources. We all know somebody who actually has money, right? And if we completely extend that out, get them to come to the shows, get them to be on the boards, get all your friends who come regularly to your shows to bring someone who maybe isn’t coming that they know. They may have some classmates who still have jobs.
Tamara Greenfield: I think another big issue is that we talk to ourselves a lot and we don’t talk to other people very much. And it amazes me because I’ve worked outside of the arts field for six years now, how little the arts field knows about all the other things that are happening in a lot of different industries. There are things that are going on in industrial retention that could be relevant for small scale artists…the idea of artists as manufacturers. There are parks and community centers all over the city that could be right for collaboration and partnership. They could provide space. There could be better connections done with committees in these areas, which could also be an audience building endeavor. The buzz word for me is ‘networks.’ We need to be using networks a lot more. And not just networks the way we’re talking about them now, MySpace, etc., which are great, but also networks in communities. We need to be relevant in a lot of these, not just through our voice, which is incredible. People want to hear about what we want to say. It has to be about listening too. Sometimes we think that, ‘I have great things to tell people and they need to listen me.’ That doesn’t usually work for the guy on the street on the box and it doesn’t necessarily work for the artist either. There needs to be some kind of dialogue. Some of it is education, but some of it is something else.
Aaron Landsman: Yeah, just to tag team on that, for me the buzz word is ‘citizenship.’ It’s really important that as artists we become citizens. I used to really enjoy some of the creative, class lingo that - and I think it’s valid. It’s a really useful tool to know how much economic activity we stimulate, but some of that economic activity drives people out of their homes. So I’ve been exploring with a friend of mine, Esther Robinson, who’s a real visionary. She’s starting a thing call Art Homes, which is a first time home buying program for artists. One of the things she found out, she was trying to partner with community development corporations in order to see how artists and low income communities could work together to deal with gentrification, to allow artists more stability, and what she found is that CDC’s didn’t want artists moving in. When artists moved in, then the people who lived there before moved out. So I just want to put it out that there’s this real popular idea, a real popular myth among artists is that we’re exceptional. That what we’re going through is something that other people of low incomes aren’t going through. So, arts education is a huge issue, but so is math education. So is teacher salary, so is wetlands preservation. So there’s a lot of solidarity that I think we’re missing out on that we buy into almost as much as the institutions that we are of service to. Some of those institutions do a great job. I don’t want to target any or make any blanket generalizations, but I do think that the onus is also on us to just participate in society. It’s too desperate in the world right now. We owe it to ourselves and owe it to the people that we are pushing out of their homes to try to make some alliances to that we can stave some of that off. So that we can have a better city for all of us.
JWC: That’s great. I love Aaron. That feels that there’s a lot of conflicting things that we’re all talking about and mentioning. And some of them saying, ‘we’re exceptional,’ and also, ‘no, we’re not exceptional.’ ‘We need more money, who has the money.’ There are just a lot of push and pull things inherent in the world. I think part of our battle is how we clarify all of this. And what Jaki was saying about scarcity and abundance makes me wonder about how the structure of the non-profit itself sets up this hierarchy of, ‘you have something and I need it,’ and it could actually be the reverse. It could be ‘I have something. I have the art or the wetlands and you need me.’ But it’s so twisted that it creates such a strong psychological baggage that holds us down. I agree, it’s an issue of solidarity. So how do we level the playing field or just step into the playing field?
JB: I also hear the words partnership and technology a lot. I want to speak to those. I read about the $27 billion report also, and I would like to see that expand. And if the non-profit sector were to partner with other industries which make up a different portion of the public sector, that could be lucrative. If we take the field of dance and take a look at the way that the body - if we looked at the industry of motion capture, or biomechanics, for example…two potentially different kinds of financial resources, and consider dancers and theater artists as trained professionals in the field of the moving body. This would lead to other streams of income. That would concretize our language about technology. So looking at other channels of income may involve for-profit models; taking the expertise that exists in the non-profit sector to do that.
Doug Fox: I have a blog called GreatDance.com. One of the things I’ve been doing is looking into the possibilities of reaching new audiences, getting new corporate sponsors in an interdisciplinary way with people in different fields, especially in science and technology, and medicine. I put a collection of videos on my blog of about 10 different instances of where movement and gesture and the body are used to control all these interactive interfaces. I watched these different people control the different medical devices and large screened displays for the new computer games and everyone’s dancing. It looks like there’s tremendous opportunities to cultivate new corporate sponsors and new ways for dancers to contribute to the development of these different tools. So I want to talk about how can we bring some of these dances to the internet and get corporate sponsorship for them and hope to reach new audiences.
June Choi: One of the most critical keys is what’s been said before about dialogue about listening. A lot of corporations aren’t deep or philosophical. If you just ask them they’re going to tell you what they’re interested in. If we want to figure out how to make these partnerships, we must figure out how to contextualize what it is you do for people who don’t do that. When I was young I used to go to parties and people would ask, ‘What do you do?’ And I’d say, ‘I’m a poet,’ and it would stop conversations dead cold, everybody would walk away and I’d be all by myself. I decided I was going to do something different. So if we can figure out different ways of talking about what it is we do, in a way that has resonance for people in their lives. So, what do corporations need to do? They need to increase their bottom line and they need to serve their employees. So if you can talk to the people who have the three children, who may be dying intellectually to have some connection but they have very limited time and very limited energy to do that, and think about how to fit it into there lives, there will be some real interest there.
Alyssa Alpine: I work on a festival and we have sort of an interesting model. But we get a fair amount of money from corporate sponsorship. I also do some work as an independent development consultant. Everyone sees corporate money and we know there’s a lot out there and we want to get at it. I have to say it…it’s really about the bottom line. We have a beer company and they want to know how many people are going to have their product in their hand. We can talk about the art and how great it’s going to be, etc. But really, how many people are going to drink their beer and how many beers are they going to drink that night!?! I read a book a book called Modern Dance in a Postmodern World. It was written at the beginning of the 1990’s, so a lot of things have changed. But I was shocked by how many things haven’t actually changed. She talked a lot about how we’re going into this marketplace mentality and what does that mean for the arts in terms of qualifying things, in terms of numbers. It has had a lot of benefits, but it’s had some drawbacks. The way to get this money is to have these numbers, but it forces you to think in a way that is more antithetical to art than we may want it to be.
Greenfield: Maybe another thing is thinking about the fact that you wear multiple hats as a pro instead of a con, though it’s not always easy to do that. A lot of stuff, in terms of our economy and the things that are happening around the country is that they are starting to recap the way that artists fit into the workforce. And thinking about artists as a really valuable part of what contributes to the employment pictures. A lot of that has to do with the creative industries and fashion and computer design, cooking etc. So that when the State of Louisiana counted that, they found that, they found that artists, the creative industries, were the second biggest industry in their state. And suddenly the discussion was really different and they’re getting all different kinds of money about work development because of these intersections between what artists are doing in all parts of their lives. It’s contributing in a lot of different ways to the economy. That’s part of the picture that we have and sometimes that seems like a negative picture. But in a lot of ways it’s a really exciting picture too.
JWC: We have this program, and part of it is about fostering innovative, sustainable, and replicable projects for long term financial stability. If we take philanthropy off the table, and take audience participation in it’s most pejorative sense off the table, what are other ways we can do it?
There's even more that was said. I doubt you are still reading at this point anyway, but if you are, and want to read more...please contact us and volunteer to edit the rest of the transcript!!! (LOL)
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