• We're unaware of the resources around us
  I heard often during convention conversations that ''there ought to be an organization or resource that...'', describing an entity or resource that had actually been around for decades (arts education on-line repository: ArtsEdge, national advocate for the arts in the public sphere: Americans for the Arts, detailed information on community demographics and trends: American FactFinder from the U.S. Census). It's clear performing arts professionals don't currently have the time or incentive to explore these larger resources, or to understand and inform their value or potential.

The Challenge/Opportunity
The increasing diversity of our communities creates an opportunity to engage a variety of ages, races, identities, and cultures in our audiences and organizations.

The Challenge/Opportunity
The potential of arts education and lifelong learning in the arts is under realized.

• Enlist artists as full partners in all aspects of arts education through training and creating an AmeriCorps/WPA-type program - 22%
• Lobby for education reform, including rescinding No Child Left Behind - 20%
• Form partnerships with national education infrastructure (e.g. National Education Association, PTA, teachers unions) - 13%
• Invite new constituencies to experience the performing arts and create opportunities for lifelong learning by providing more points of entry - 5%
• Research successful models / best practices and disseminate via the web - 2%
• Establish diverse cross-sector committee to create an enriched arts curriculum - 2%

• Strengthen relationship with school boards and policy makers through lobbying, electing "arts friendly officials", involvement in local politics - 17%
• Innovate financial models to fund the arts: link to tax base, develop dedicated sales tax, connect to corporate funds - 15%
• Integrate arts teaching in educators' professional development and integrate teaching programs in artist organizations - 16%
• Bring art into non-traditional spaces (e.g. parks, workplaces, social programs)to  create new educational opportunities -- "enter into the communities we serve" - 14%
• Develop joint arts education programs across disciplines and within the community for fuller distribution and comprehensive programming - 8%
• Establish and share assessments that create empirical data to demonstrate correlation between arts and educational impact - 7%

• Directly engage teachers to integrate the arts into their teaching and create professional development programs to address their needs - 19%
• Commit your entire organization to arts education in mission, budget,     programs, and collaborations - 13%
• Create new partnerships to share responsibility for planning and delivering local arts education - 11%
  
• Leverage new technology to create art, engage more people (especially young people), and support learning. - 10%
• Run candidates for school boards and local government - 9%
• Use comprehensive education models to engage the whole family in your mission and programs. - 8%
• Join, be active, and take leadership roles in civic organizations - 7%

The Challenge/Opportunity:
Our communities do not sufficiently perceive the value, benefits and relevance of the arts, which makes advocacy and building public support for the arts a challenge at every level.

• Create a Department of Culture/Cabinet-level position which is responsible for implementing a national arts policy - 23%
• Lobby elected political officials for pro-arts policy and funding; demand arts policy platform from candidates - 14%
• Create a coordinated national performing arts policy campaign involving artists and organizations - 12%
• Collect, analyze and disseminate data demonstrating the value of the arts (e.g. economic, intrinsic, developmental/educational values) - 12%
• Establish a National Arts Day/Festival with free performances, open houses, and art-making opportunities - 8%
• Explore interactive new media initiatives to increase access and relevance (e.g. create a "Google Arts"-type resource, blogs,YouTube) - 5%

• Foster cross-disciplinary conversations to share data and best practices, develop common goals, and create joint activities/ performances - 14%
• Mobilize audiences to be advocates for the arts - 13%
• Utilize existing advocacy and data to influence local funding, policy and public support for the arts - 9%
• Create collaborative local marketing campaigns in mass media and public venues - 8%
• Develop and promote recognizable champions for the arts - 7%
• Create new cross disciplinary events and festivals to promote the local arts community - 6%

• Create opportunities for active participation in the arts for all ages (including interactive websites, open rehearsals, etc.) - 24%
• Expand relationships across the community to find and develop new leaders (e.g. through Board development) and local champions for the arts - 12%
• Participate in the local political process by lobbying city council, school board, etc. - 10%
• Create multi-media marketing strategies (including YouTube, Facebook) to communicate and demonstrate value and relevance - 9%
• Connect the stories and experiences of local community members to new and existing artwork - 9%
• Create arts supporters out of our audiences - 7%
• Build relationships with local media to widen their coverage and exposure of the arts - 4%

Saturday: 21st Century Town Meeting®: Building A Performing Arts Community
10:00am-12:30pm

All convention participants will be seated in the Korbel Ballroom at assigned discussion tables. We will work with each of the top opportunities/challenges, one at a time. First, we will consider the major action ideas that emerged from caucus three. Then using wireless keypads, each person will vote on the top priority actions to be taken--at both a national level and a local level. By the end of the meeting we will have established clear priorities for action toward a stronger future for the performing arts in America. Leaders from the national performing arts community will respond to this collectively-developed action agenda--noting steps to ensure that this agenda is enacted.

The NPAC steering committee selected AmericaSpeaks to lead this meeting approach because of the impressive results that AmericaSpeaks has achieved in engaging large groups of people--as many 4,500 people in a single room--in focused and productive conversations that lead to action. AmericaSpeaks developed the 21st century town meeting® as a response to the growing disconnection between citizens and leaders across the U.S., so that people can have a genuine voice in the most important decisions that affect their lives. AmericaSpeaks has employed this approach in addressing a wide range of issues including the rebuilding of the World trade center site, the recovery of New Orleans, and health care reform in California. We believe that our performing arts community can benefit from this approach--especially in this nascent stage of our development as a community, where the need to create accountability, trust and action is so essential.

Slides were projected on two large screens, and participants knew the results of their voting within minutes (slides posted in the following entries). I had the good fortune of sitting next to the very-cool Elizabeth Streb (her business card says "Elizabeth Streb - Action Architect"; I'm thinking about changing mine), and together we figured out the seemingly uncomplicated keypads (you had to vote as soon as voting opened OR at the very end - not while everyone else was doing it). I was greatly amused by the number of TECHNOLOGY signs that flew up after the first (ten) round(s) of using the keypads; New Technologies in the Arts indeed.

International tours for US troupes travelling with tools-of-the trade i.e. instruments, pros, sets, costumes or equipment, are threatened by the pending 10+2 US security initiative. This will require harmonized tariff numbers on carnets for these tool-of-the trade and thus create unnecessary barriers to cultural exchange unless carnets are allowed the requested waiver. Said waiver was requested by the League of American Orchestras and the United States Council for International Business and is still in play.