Posted on 09/21/2009 2:59:33 AM PDT by machogirl
******************************************************* Introduction On May 12th, more than 60 artists and creative organizers engaged in civic participation, community development, education, social justice activism, and philanthropy came together for a White House briefing on Art, Community, Social Justice, National Recovery. This meeting combined the interests of several groups addressing intersecting issues. All are interested in the power of the arts to build communities and create change. Arlene Goldbard requested a meeting with community cultural development practitioners and thinkers to talk about how the remarkable mobilizing power of community arts can be used by the Obama administration as a tool and a pathway for national recovery. Claudine Brown of the Nathan Cummings Foundation, arts organizer Billy Wimsatt and Caron Atlas working with the Pratt Center for Community Development and State Voices, requested a meeting with policy makers, artists and organizers. Their intent was to identify existing efforts within the cultural and social justice movements that are in alignment with the national agenda and to discuss our common pursuits and possibilities. This diverse group includes Hip Hop organizers, green designers, creative communicators, social networkers, and other visual, performing, and media artists committed to social justice from both the non-profit and for-profit sectors who are working on such issues as green jobs, health care and economic justice. Each of the sponsors of this meeting had been in contact with Yosi Sergant who was then an Associate with the White House Office of Public Liaison (and is now Communications Director of the National Endowment for the Arts.) Once we understood that a larger meeting would enable us to access more advisors and policymakers, it made sense to combine forces and invitation lists. The Washington DC meeting had three parts: 1) a meeting at the Kaiser Family Foundation to prepare for the briefing, 2) the two-hour White House briefing at the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, and 3) a post-briefing meeting at Bus Boys & Poets to interpret and respond to what we had learned and to engage in small-group strategy sessions including: cultural policy, green jobs, immigration, public/private space, healthcare reform, organizing power on behalf of community artists, and a department of alternative thinking. This report includes notes from the White House briefing and from the post-briefing strategy session. The latter includes a summary of the small group discussions and the full notes submitted by each group, including contact information. Our intention in issuing this report is to ensure transparency for colleagues who were not at the meeting, so that they can weigh in on what was learned from the White House and respond to it. Thanks to Meghan McDermott for her extensive notes and great first draft. As our White House hosts repeated throughout the briefing, this is the beginning of a conversation. We hope that this report extends the conversation throughout the field and that it continues and expands wherever people care about art, community, social justice and national recovery. Caron Atlas, Claudine Brown, Arlene Goldbard & Billy Wimsatt................CONTINUED
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SUMMARY
White House Briefing: Art, Community, Social Justice, National Recovery On May 12th, more than 60 artists and creative organizers engaged in civic participation, community development, education, social justice activism, and philanthropy will come together for a White House briefing. During the campaign, powerful narratives, compelling images, and creative activism moved people from all walks of life to get involved in civic participation and public service. Every day, artists and organizers apply our knowledge and creativity to the actions that make democracy concrete. We perceive this as a favorable moment to catalyze broad public support for a bold and forward-looking national agenda and we look forward to discussing how we might work together toward that end. Our purposes for this White House briefing are: (1) To learn about key Obama Administration initiatives that might be advanced through the long-term engagement of artists working with communities; (2) To connect the creative community with campaigns and other action opportunities involving important national issues; (3) To share the exemplary work of our diverse field; (4) To facilitate the inclusion of dynamic cultural strategies as an integral part of the administration’s agenda for economic recovery, community renewal and civic engagement. Our work encompasses both the for-profit and non-profit sectors. Our group includes individuals working independently and with a range of organizations and networks, in new and old media, including hip hop activists, green designers, creative communicators, arts educators, social networkers, and visual, performing, literary and media artists. While we work in many different ways, we share a common dedication to the power of the word, music, and image to capture moments of triumph, struggle, and transcendence. Within our group we: • Honor unheard, authentic and diverse voices; • Reach the hearts and minds of Americans who often are not included in organizing campaigns or town hall meetings, transcending the polarization that marks so much public discourse; • Cultivate social imagination, helping people to envision positive changes in their communities and the nation, to see past differences to common purpose and see themselves as part of the change; • Engage the earthshaking power of creativity in the service of national recovery. Some of us focus on the arts’ power to call attention to possibility and generate hope. Some of us focus on cultural development as a process that cultivates democracy through art and imagination, through shared stories and an experience of our own creativity. Some of us focus on cultural recovery, putting artists to work for the common good in communities across the country. As artists and organizers we are interested in advancing public policies, generating ideas, raising the visibility of key issues, and working collaboratively with the administration in support of its long-term goals. We have a deep passion for social justice and experience in carrying out successful programs and campaigns. We see this as a special moment of opportunity to be of service and advance the administration’s goals for national recovery. That the briefing is taking place is unprecedented acknowledgement from the White House that our work’s value is being perceived, which we receive with gratitude and hope. We look forward to using our creative muscle in collaboration with the Obama administration, making our mutual vision for change a reality. We will meet after the briefing to immediately begin drawing on what we have learned to inform our strategies for future action. Caron Atlas, Claudine Brown, Arlene Goldbard & Billy Wimsatt
18 PAGES but a GOOD READ.
PARTICIPANTS
Participants
• Arnold Aprill, Founding and Creative Director, Chicago Arts Partnerships in Education (CAPE)
• Caron Atlas, Cultural Organizer, Pratt Center for Community Development and State Voices
(Meeting Organizer)
• Judith F. Baca, Founder/Artistic Director of SPARC and the UCLA/SPARC Cesar Chavez Digital/Mural
Lab
• Robert “Biko” Baker, Executive Director, League of Young Voters
• Nick Behunin, HOPE Campaign
• Matthew Brady, Creative Director, Global Inheritance
White House briefing on Art, Community, Social Justice, National Recovery—12 May 2009 Page 16
• Claudine K. Brown, Director, Arts and Culture Program, Nathan Cummings Foundation (Meeting
Organizer)
• Denise Brown, Executive Director, Leeway Foundation
• John Cary, Executive Director, Public Architecture
• Alli Chagi-Starr, Community Partnerships & Events Manager, Green For All
• Jeff Chang, Writer
• William Cleveland, Center for the Study of Art & Community
• Dudley Cocke, Artistic Director, Roadside Theater, Appalshop
• Michelle Coffey, Executive Director, Lambent Foundation, Starry Night Fund Donor-Advised Fund
of Tides Foundation
• Duffy Culligan, The Directors Bureau
• Davey D, Hip Hop historian, Journalist, Deejay, Media and Community Activist
• Milly Hawk Daniel, Vice President for Communications, PolicyLink
• Dee Davis, President, Center for Rural Strategies
• Maria Lopez De Leon, Executive Director, The National Association of Latino Arts and Culture
• Amalia Deloney, Activist and Cultural Worker
• Kate Emanuel, Senior Vice President, Non-Profit & Government Affairs, The Advertising Council
• Diane Fraher, Director, American Indian Artists Inc. (AMERINDA)
• Ryan Friedrichs, Executive Director, State Voices
• Rha Goddess, Creative Organizer, 1+1+1=ONE
• Arlene Goldbard, Writer and Speaker (Meeting Organizer)
• James Bau Graves, Executive Director, Old Town School of Folk Music
• Kim Hastreiter, Editor, Publisher and Co-founder of PAPER Publishing Co.
• Liz Havstad, Senior Vice President, Strategic Partnerships and Programs, Hip Hop Caucus
• Ian Inaba, Co-Executive Director, Citizen Engagement Lab
• Gayle Isa, Executive Director, Asian Arts Initiative
• James Kass, Founder & Executive Director, Youth Speaks Inc.
• Bakari Kitwana, CEO, Rap Sessions
• Sally Kohn, Senior Campaign Strategist and Director of the Movement Vision Lab, Center for
Community Change
• Joe Lambert, Founder and Executive Director, Center for Digital Storytelling
• Brad Lander, Senior Fellow, Pratt Center for Community Development
• Liz Lerman, Founding Artistic Director, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange
• Rick Lowe, Artist, Founder, Project Row Houses
• John Malpede, Los Angeles Poverty Department (LAPD)
• Liz Manne, Founder, Work in Progress
• Meghan McDermott, Executive Director, Global Action Project
• Michelle Miller, Manager of Popular Media Organizing, SEIU
• Alyce Myatt, Executive Director, Grantmakers in Film + Electronic Media
• Michael D. Nolan, Independent PR Consultant
• Anne Pasternak, President & Artistic Director, Creative Time
• Maria Teresa Petersen, Founding Executive Director, Voto Latino
• Wendell Pierce, Actor/Producer, Founder, Pontchartrain Park CDC
White House briefing on Art, Community, Social Justice, National Recovery—12 May 2009 Page 17
***editorial comment from me.
any conservative groups in that bunch?
The propaganda machine gears up...
Good resource for perspective- thanks for posting!
Did you see any conservatives on the list? or groups?
I skimmed and I didn’t. These people have been at this longer than just August.
one of the attendees, JEFF CHANG, WRITER wrote this about Glenn Beck and the art meeting
Link to the organizer.
(hey, i’m just trying to make my thread longer ;)
just checking out the people on the attendee list, all appear to have lefty agenda
Talkin’ to myself on this post. Can’t sleep, reading the 18 page briefing.
This is exactly what was said in the conference call.
Scary stuff.
“Second, almost every speaker assured us that the administration “gets it” when it comes to the
importance of arts and culture to organizing for positive change.
This is encouraging, and as we understood going in, the opening exchange in a continuing
conversation. After the briefing, we recognized there was ample room for mutual education, for
artists and creative organizers to learn more about public policy and program development
processes and how to work most effectively with the public sector; and for the administration to
learn more about how artists and creative organizers can work with many public initiatives,
including areas like job creation, education and labor, which were not represented at the briefing.
“Overall, we came away feeling that there would be room at the table for artists and creative
organizers to take part in conversations about relevant policies and programs; and that we were
being challenged to come up with promising and attractive ideas about how artists can work for
the administration’s agenda and how artists’ work can be integral to national recovery. “
Would it be possible for you to put this on BREAKING NEWS OR FRONT PAGE NEWS?
The more I am reading of what I posted, the more my jaw is hitting the floor. It’s really relevant to Andrew Breitbart’s/Glenn Beck’s expose on the NEA stuff.
The administration, in this briefing is really up front with their agenda.
Everyone should read this. IMHO
thanks
Another quote, so I should get to 10.
What the hell does this mean?
” Matt Revelli, Juxtapoz Arts and Culture Magazine, brought up the question of international
access for artists, noting that creative minds have had difficulty getting into the United States. He
asked if the administration planned to facilitate access for international groups and artists, who
have been stopped at airports and sent home, causing resentment toward the U.S.
A: Joseph Reinstein said the administration wants to offer cultural exchanges with organizations
and talent to bring artists here and vice versa.”
Great find, machogirl!
Of course, SEIU had to be there!
At least front page- and breaking would be good too!
I think you were missing the ‘d’ in admin for your above request.
Amen :) i’ll repost, thanks
o: amin
Would it be possible for you to put this on BREAKING NEWS OR FRONT PAGE NEWS?
The more I am reading of what I posted, the more my jaw is hitting the floor. It’s really relevant to Andrew Breitbart’s/Glenn Beck’s expose on the NEA stuff.
The administration, in this briefing is really up front with their agenda.
Everyone should read this. IMHO
thanks
Good Lord I need sleep............
Are we going to let “terrorists/artists” in, is that what they want?
From SEIU summary of this event (don’t this beat all?)
....”Create a counter narrative to the Luntz memo/Republican talking points designed to destroy health care
reform. They can offer creative, humorous voices that can think outside of white papers or New York
Times op-eds to communicate effectively about the importance of health care reform and diminish the
increasing attacks on our movement for reform. For example, the satirical webisodes SEIU is producing
with comedy writers with content from Lutz memo.”......
Granted I haven’t slept yet, I have a young one coming down with a virus, but I know the sick feeling I’m getting reading this, is NOT FROM LACK OF SLEEP.
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