Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation

Wendy Liscow, Program Officer

“Nothing creates focus more than the threat of extinction.”

This was just one of hundreds of provocative statements I heard while attending the recent Americans for the Arts’ Half Century Summit titled “Building a Vibrant Future of the Arts in America.” The sometimes inflammatory, sometimes inspiring perspectives had me pondering (and sometimes pontificating about) the state of the Arts, the importance of arts education, and the viability of arts institutions in our country. We even debated the effectiveness of using the word “Art” when trying to talk about the intrinsic value of the arts in our society. But that will be the subject of a future blog.

If you have ever attended a well-designed conference populated by great speakers and thousands of interesting and diverse attendees who all have the shared intention of discussing topics you care about, you know that your head begins to feel like a Fourth of July fireworks display shooting out hundreds of ideas, questions, and leads for research follow-up. I am still processing the four days, but I wanted to share some of the highlights from the keynote speakers.

Arianna Huffington, Co-Founder and Editor-in-Chief of The Huffington Post believes that there are plenty of smart people in the world, but there is a shortage of people with wisdom. While her vocation reveals her obvious respect for technology and new media, she recognizes that one of the unintended consequences of a society constantly linked through their “crackberry” contraptions and 24/7 access to information has yielded a “culture of distraction.” She feels that we have to find ways to carve out time for contemplation, to tap into our creative energies if we are to navigate towards wisdom. Therefore she is a big advocate for the arts, and equally appalled that it has taken her eight years to include an arts section in her online Huffington Post, which she proudly calls “unplugged and recharged.” She implored the audience to recognize the importance of the arts as not only a means for achieving wisdom but also as a pathway to empathy. She spoke eloquently about the value of arts in education as evidenced in this short excerpt from her keynote speech:

The Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts, Rocco Landesman, discussed the future of the arts in America. He outlined his personal two-word manifesto that informs his work at the agency: “Art works.” Chairman Landesman sees multiple meanings:

1. “Art works” as a noun, the actual creations of artists. This represents the books, crafts, dances, designs, drawings, films, installations, music, musicals, paintings, plays, performances, poetry, textiles, and sculptures that are the outcomes of the creative process.

2. “Art works” as a verb. Art works on and within people to change and inspire them; it addresses the need people have to create, to imagine, to aspire to something more.

3. “Art works” as a declarative sentence: arts jobs are real jobs that are part of the real economy. Art workers pay taxes, and art contributes to economic growth, neighborhood revitalization, and the livability of American towns and cities.

Most importantly, Mr. Landesman implored the audience to seek out new partners, to collaborate and meet with leaders working from other sectors. We have to make the arts part of the national agenda and dialogue. The arts, creativity and innovation need to be at the center of the conversation, not on the periphery. He challenged us to do a much better job at broadcasting the wealth of research that highlights the value of the arts, especially that people who engage in the arts are more likely to be civically engaged in their communities.

The Chairman has been practicing what he preaches and has been reaching out to his colleagues in the Departments of Education, Transportation, Agriculture, and Housing and Urban Development, to name a few, to explore the overlaps in mission. They are finding common ground on ways to revitalize our cities and develop a creative workforce that can compete with 21st Century skills.

In collaboration with the Mayors’ Institute on City Design 25th Anniversary Initiative, they are awarding grants ranging from $25,000 to $250,000 to communities that demonstrate how arts and culture contribute to building livable and sustainable communities. He also announced a new program called “Our Town” which will provide $5 million in grants to cities who recognize the role that the arts can play in economic revitalization. New Jersey has a plethora of cities which fit that bill.

This theme of collaboration reverberated throughout the conference. It came up in one way or another in every session I attended and in every conversation I had during breaks. It is clear that arts organizations have to find new ways to work together and with those outside the field. I have watched people overcome the great resistance that comes with contemplating change of this magnitude (“nothing creates focus more than the threat of extinction”) and come up with great new partnerships and ways of configuring their institutions.

In fact, the Collaboration Prize honors the best of these ideas. I suggest you check out their website, which showcases models of collaboration among nonprofits and outlines how one can apply for the $250,000 in prizes that shine a spotlight on collaborations among two or more nonprofit organizations that cooperate to demonstrate innovative and effective responses to challenges or opportunities. Hurry though! The deadline is July 16, 2010.

Today we welcome guest blogger Kacy O’Brien of Passage Theatre with an inspiring look at nonprofit collaboration between arts and environmental groups here in New Jersey.

My interests have always been varied, but fallen mostly into two camps: arts and nature. I could spend equal hours reading plays, watching and producing theatre as I could hiking, watching and caring for wild animals. I count myself extraordinarily lucky, then, to be on the ridge where these two camps overlap; where I can begin to see both the congruencies and unique traits of the arts and environmental fields.

Passage Theatre, where I am the producer, is now in its third year of an unprecedented partnership with New Jersey environmental organizations including D&R Greenway, Green Faith, Isles, NJ Conservation Foundation, Stony Brook-Millstone Watershed Association, Sustainable Lawrence, and Sustainable Princeton. Together, we have created a series of events designed to educate, inspire and promote conservation of our natural treasures, placing live theatre at the center of this four-month series ranging from Pine Barrens tracking, to poetry readings, to watershed reclamation. There are myriad ways in which Greening: Common Connections, Growing Community (as our partnership is named) has proved fruitful and engaging to all of us and our respective audiences on both sides of the “ridge,” including: workshops and talk backs that connect audience members with our artists; joint efforts on new initiatives; and changes to “green” basic operations. What started as a seed of an idea from my Artistic Director has blossomed, with the collaboration of our partners, into a sizeable brain trust spanning the state of New Jersey.

The importance of what our initiative is doing was reinforced at a session on sustainability and theatre at the 2009 Theatre Communications Group national conference in Baltimore last June. Of the five audience members (mostly LEED-certified designers and architects) at this session, I was – alarmingly – the only representative of an artistic viewpoint. The crossover between sustainable practices and environmentally-themed art wasn’t on the table for discussion, but I (admittedly) hijacked the conversation and was able to pull ideas from the presenters to bring back to our initiative, while sharing information on artists with whom we had worked. It was an invigorating conversation! The wonderful presenters included Ian Garrett of the Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts, Marda Kirn of EcoArts, Lisa Phillips of The Earth Institute at Columbia University, and Gideon Banner of Green Theater Initiative.

It became apparent at that conference that Greening: Common Connections, Growing Community is one of the first of its kind, and though I could continue to detail the day-to-day operations of our initiative, I really just want to talk about why I find it so cool.

Kaiulani Lee.  Photo courtesy Haskell Wexler.

First, I have met three incredible teams of artists working on this project: Kaiulani Lee brought A Sense of Wonder, a brilliantly performed bio-play about Rachael Carson, to Passage in our inaugural year. Peter Donaldson followed in year two with Salmonpeople, a play enlightening viewers on the importance of watershed stewardship. On March 25th and 26th of this year, we are thrilled to present Brooklyn-based Climbing PoeTree’s Hurricane Season, a tapestry of poetry, theatre, dance, and multi-media, woven with a breathtaking musical score performed with live instrumentation. Rhythmic and uplifting, raw and moving, Hurricane Season takes the view that environmental justice and social justice are one and the same.

Peter Donaldson, Salmonpeople

Climbing PoeTree, Hurricane Season. Photo courtesy Layla Love.

Second, these artists live and breathe their work, foregoing more lucrative jobs in order to carry their messages to audiences: that it is up to us to save our ridges and valleys, no matter what camp we fall into. In the process we will be saving a core part of our humanity – our connection to each other and the world we live in. This will become the mission of my generation over the next 50 years. I have watched these artists bring tears of shame and joy and hope to the eyes of audience members, elicit laughter and stoke imaginations. There is an emotional and interactive aspect to live performance that can make information a reality in ways paper cannot.

Third, I have been privileged to work with leaders and practitioners in the fields of urban reclamation, land conservation, sustainability and watershed restoration (to name but a few) who are as passionate about their life’s work as the artists on our stage. It has been incredibly gratifying and humbling to watch these women and men in action in the state of New Jersey, fighting the hard fight of science, numbers, money and politics to move us toward a sustainable future. It has been equally gratifying to participate in and witness events our partners host as part of this initiative, which entertain and educate in physical, visceral ways.

What I have learned, from both artists and environmental practitioners, is that the common connections exist all around us. Where there is just enough overlap in mission and passion we can find ways to pool resources, get the word out, and support each other. It is always better to ask, “Where can we collaborate? Where can we help each other? Who do I know that you should know and vice versa?” than to ask, “Can we collaborate at all?”

I don’t know if I’m giddy because the air is thin up on this ridge, or the heights are dizzying, or if it is simple elation at seeing the cross-pollination of our industries and strategies working to change people’s minds and behaviors. I do know that I’m having a blast up here, where the air is clear enough for me to see a future that I am not afraid of, because our partnership is only one of the first to find common connections between us and our audiences, which have strengthened our community and our solidarity as citizens of this world. My hope – my belief – is that there are many more partnerships to come.

The Dodge Foundation has been instrumental in making Greening: Common Connections, Growing Community possible with its generous support. We give our deepest, heartfelt thanks to the staff for their continued encouragement and enthusiasm for our initiative.

To read more about Greening: Common Connections, Growing Community, visit Passage Theatre’s website or click here. You can also see a sneak peek of Hurricane Season by watching the video below:

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