Arts and Community Development

On May 15 and 16, 2002, more than 100 funders, artists, academicians, arts administrators, and community arts practitioners gathered in New Haven, Connecticut. We were there to participate in a convening organized by New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) entitled, "RE/New England: Investigating Community Building through Culture." The Open Society Institute and the Pitney Bowes Foundation provided funding for the conference. Participants came from thirteen states and the District of Columbia.

Bush says U.S. will rejoin UNESCO

In a speech September 12 to the United Nations General Assembly urging action on Iraq, President Bush announced that the United States would return to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). In making the announcement the President said, "This organization has been reformed, and America will participate fully in its mission to advance human rights, tolerance and learning."

2002, 64 pages. Museum Loan Network, MIT, 265 Massachusetts Avenue, N52-401, Cambridge, MA 02139-4307, 617-252-1888, fax: 617-252-1899, loanet@mit-edu.

April 28-30, 2002, Asheville, North Carolina

April 17-21, 2002, Lexington, Kentucky

• A bilingual play brings together migrant workers and immigrant rights activists in a pointed comedy portraying communications and miscommunications among Anglos and Spanish-speaking peoples living in and working in one community today.

• An African American theater company performs a rollicking — but serious — romp through the cultural changes from Motown to hip-hop, from soul food to vegan, from post-60s to post-modern America.

"The arts enrich society in so many ways.
They are a civilizing force — as essential
over time as adequate housing or a cleaner
environment or other compelling causes.
Art is surely the grandest expression of our
creativity and is our most lasting legacy.
People are transient. But art is forever.”
- John H. Bryan

If “the past is prologue” then the history of Sara Lee Corporation bears telling. It is a testament to corporate leadership over the years and the impact of Sara Lee's CEOs, past and present, not only on a company, but on the city of Chicago.

I want to salute a very select group of people in our community — self-selected actually. Those who provide continuity.

There is a standard interview question: “Where do you see yourself in five years, ten years, fifteen years, twenty years.” Now I don't know what the right answer is. But I know what the wrong answer is. The wrong answer is: “If you hire me I promise you I'll be right here — doing this job you're offering me, until the sun falls from the sky and rivers all run dry and the poets run out of rhymes and I join the choir invisible.”

We just returned from yet another community gathering where arts leaders sought the support of their business and civic counterparts by documenting the "economic impact" of arts spending and employment in their region.

On November 12, 2000, a headline on the front page of the Atlanta Journal/Constitution read, "Study finds Atlanta arts community trailing peers." A full-page story in Section A followed. This one headline challenged the city's cherished self-assessment as "cultural jewel of the South" and quietly affirmed the suspicions of many of its artists and cultural workers.

This is the story about the headline, the study, and the volunteer efforts of an incorporated ad hoc group that calls itself the Atlanta Arts Think Tank and that commissioned the landmark study.