Gearing up for the Inaugural Aspen Arts Strategy Group
By Erica Sheftman
At the Aspen Institute offices in New York, the Arts Program is gearing up for the inaugural Arts Strategy Group. Generously supported by the Knight foundation, the Strategy group makes good on the Program’s mission to convene policymakers, arts administrators and philanthropists to tackle critical issues facing the arts sector, and to develop strategies on how the arts and artists can contribute to the challenges facing society.
During a panel on the Arts in Education at the Aspen Ideas Festival this past June, Arts Program Director Damian Woetzel – former New York City Ballet star turned director-producer, and a leader in arts education and policy discussions - brought up the need for a broader communication network. In response to leading education theorist and Harvard Professor Howard Gardner, who wished that authority figures in the education system were more plugged into the world of the arts, Woetzel said, “Right now what I see is a coordination issue…It’s about using the resources that exist and drawing on the fact that the arts community is ready and willing to help, and if they’re not it’s because they haven’t been asked.”
The Aspen Arts Strategy Group, which will bring together close to thirty artists and leaders in government and administration, is an opportunity to re-examine the role artists and artistic institutions can play in the broader solutions for critical social issues. “Citizen Artists” is a key term that is being used in this meeting of the minds: these are artists who can take their primary artistic practice beyond its traditional settings, where it can promote progress in education, diplomatic endeavors, urban development, and a host of other areas. The goal of the sessions on October 2nd and 3rd in New York City is to begin building templates for engagement, collaboration and coordination amongst artists, institutions and administrators.
What are the disincentives for artists to be more involved in community organizing, activism and education? What are the institutional frameworks that currently get in the way of artistic organizations engaging more in diplomacy and policy-making? How can increased artist participation in communities, schools, healthcare and other areas be most productive and effective, and what evidence might be most useful in the effort to increase the presence of the arts in these worlds? In what ways do we in the arts help our cause, or hurt it?
A roundtable of leaders with a diverse set of outlooks will help answer these questions: from NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman, to Silk Road Project Artistic Director Yo-Yo Ma, NYC Department of Cultural Affairs Commissioner Kate Levin to Executive Director of the Bronx Council on the Arts Deirdre Scott, Chicago Symphony Orchestra President Deborah Rutter, CEO & Founder of Musician Corps Kiff Gallagher and Aspen Institute Forum for Community Solutions Chair Melody Barnes are just some of the voices that will be present at the table.
We’re hoping that this inaugural Strategy Group will serve as an important impetus for change.
