Last month Arts Alliance brought in Christen Boone to start a community conversation about the arts in South Hampton Roads. Boone is the former CEO of Louisville’s Fund for the Arts, a 70-year-old united arts fund type organization that was the first one of its kind in the country. The Fund works very similarly to Arts Alliance in that they pool donations and grant general operating support to non-profit arts organizations. In 2015, they began to realize the need for change due to changing public interests, losses in funding, and the lack of collaboration in the arts sector. The journey they embarked on since then has enabled the arts to be a more unified sector for growth and change in the community.
In 2015, the Board of the Fund for the Arts knew that things needed to be different but they didn’t know what they looked like. They began to ask bigger questions that became a paradigm shift from “How can the community support the arts? to “How can the arts best serve the community?
In order to answer this question and put together an action plan, they hired a consultant to conduct and formulate surveys, interviews, and public sessions. At this point, the Board had to realize that this was the community’s plan for the cultural arts and they could not control or write the outcomes.
They began forming a multisector steering committee led by corporate leaders and arts/cultural leaders, including people from arts organizations (large and small), economic development, tourism, school boards, superintendents, universities, the community foundation, philanthropy, the Chamber of Commerce, corporate leadership, neighborhood, and grassroots organizations, performing arts venues, urban leagues, and the government. This also included young professionals and individual artists.
It took 18 months, 3 dozen interviews, dozens of public sessions, and nearly 5,000 participants.
The cultural plan was developed in 2018 and implemented in 2019.
5 Key Priorities:
· Access—Arts, culture, and creativity are fully integrated and accessible in daily life, work, and play across our diverse neighborhoods. More ART for MORE People in More Places.
Accessibility increases participation. Participation enriches lives and creates stronger social bonds. Stronger social bonds and community engagement foster a sense of community ownership leading to safer, healthier communities and greater neighborhood investment.
· Cultivation—Cultivating artists, creative professionals, and arts and cultural organizations, at every stage, is critical to a thriving local economy. Contributing to this economic activity and growth, employing thousands of highly skilled professionals produces a financial ripple effect.
· Education—Every child in our community has the opportunity to experience and participate in arts and culture through experiences in their schools, out-of-school programs, and with their families. An education rich in arts and culture prepares students for college and careers. Students engaged in the arts are more likely to graduate high school and college. Arts and culture participation facilitate the development of 21st-century skills like creativity and critical thinking—the skills most in demand for today's and tomorrow’s workforce.
· Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion--Cultural equity will lead the way to a more equitable, diverse, and inclusive community improving the social connectivity and cultural vitality of the region. Arts and culture provide opportunities for shared experiences and exploration of differing perspectives. Arts and culture build understanding and break down cultural barriers, leading to more inclusive and equitable communities, and safer and healthier neighborhoods.
· Promotion--Communities with a wide range of arts and culture opportunities have a competitive advantage in attracting tourism and talent, retaining business and professionals, and fueling economic growth and innovation.
The Arts and Cultural Plan helped address the region’s most pressing challenges and positioned the region for growth and opportunity while also positioning the arts as a key to a more successful future and attracting increased investments. The hope for the Imagine Greater Louisville study was by connecting the dots between the arts and culture sector and the community’s priorities, it will spark greater collaboration and engagement of arts and culture as a meaningful partner in community solutions. They would encourage artists, creatives, and organizations to ask themselves how they can best support the shared vision for a stronger community and they hoped to inspire greater investment in the creativity and diversity of the arts and culture sector to realize our common aspirational vision.
All of this changed the Fund for the Arts to expand beyond its role as a fundraiser and a funder to a driver of community impact and collective action. They adopted the Imagine Greater Louisville studies priorities, expanded support to more arts groups, changed the funding criteria to reflect the priorities, and added community leadership, arts advocacy, and capacity building.
The key outcomes for this project were new money, new donors, and more public sector support. They had a deeper reach into the community, expanded access, deeper cross-sector partnerships, and broadened support for longtime partners.
When Covid 19 happened, the area arts had trust and collaboration already in place which helped their ability to respond quickly across the sector. They were able to advocate as a collective for local, state, and federal relief for the arts organizations.
When Breonna Taylor was killed in the Summer of 2020 in Louisville, it nearly tore their community apart. There were protests all summer long. The arts played a key role in helping the community to share the hurt, express their frustration and open the dialogue and move towards healing. In 2018, the Fund for the Arts established a Racial Equity Taskforce and DEI Grants. If they had not already been active in this work, they would not have been seen as a key convener, a trusted partner, or a safe place.
The full report of Imagine Greater Louisville can be found here and Christen’s presentation slides are here.
Arts Alliance, with our name change and a new mission, is looking to other regions to gain ideas and information about what might best fit our region. We were fortunate to hear Christen’s story of the Fund for the Arts and hope to create a plan of our own that fits our area’s needs. For more information about how you can get involved, please contact Lisa Wigginton at ldwigginton@artsalliance.org.