THE CURB CENTER REPORT ON THE NPAC CONFERENCE
At least since the early 1990s, the cultural field has lamented the fact that it is a disaggregated and distributed policy field. Policy agendas and new practices emerge in specific contexts, pushed along by actors and organizations that have particular interests. Leaders have increasingly become aware of the need for a consistent and powerful collective action agenda –or a common set of ideas recognized by most arts leaders, artists, arts activists and advocates as important issues for debate, dialogue, and action.
The 2008 National Performing Arts Convention was a self-conscious effort to answer this clarion call—to bring together arts leaders across disciplines to learn from each other, identify common goals, and advance a field-wide agenda. Was collective action possible? What were the constraints and opportunities for action?
The Curb Center report, 2008 National Performing Arts Convention: Assessing the Field’s Capacity for Collective Action, presents findings from the “I-DOC” (Interview, Document, Observe and Clarify) research project conducted around the 2008 NPAC convention—which brought together over 3700 professionals for the purpose of identifying a collective action agenda for the performing arts field.