{"id":1050,"date":"2012-01-25T07:18:10","date_gmt":"2012-01-25T12:18:10","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/?p=1050"},"modified":"2012-01-25T07:18:10","modified_gmt":"2012-01-25T12:18:10","slug":"laas-and-the-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/engage\/2012\/01\/laas-and-the-community\/","title":{"rendered":"LAA’s and the Community"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"In my previous post, The Ink People<\/a>, I highlighted a fascinating local arts agency that is facilitating community engagement work by acting as an incubator for arts-focused engagement work. This time, I want to follow up, as promised, with some ideas put forward by Roberto Bedoya<\/a> (Executive Director of the Tucson Pima Arts Council) in another ARTSblog post,\u00a0Stewardship: Culture Wars 2.0 and Placemaking<\/a>. He has a very particular view of the role of local arts agencies. This is the quotation that I pasted into my “to be blogged about” file:\u00a0 \u201cI believe strongly that the LAA\u2019s [Local Arts Agency’s] charge is to build and defend civil society through the tools we have at our disposal.\u201d For myself, I wholeheartedly agree that that is one responsibility, though not the only one. (And, to be clear, I don’t see Mr. Bedoya saying it is the only one.) For many in the arts establishment, the statement may seem jarring. One reason for that is the view that the arts are separate from (and above) everyday life. While that view is often unconscious, it’s out there nonetheless.<\/p>\n

As I have both said and intimated before, while my personal conviction is that we all have moral responsibilities here\u2013and this is especially true for 501c3 organizations\u2013my most frequent clarion call is the practical one. If the arts establishment is to remain viable into the demographically-transformed future, it must be seen as a vital participant in things important to the community as a whole. As the scales tip from sustainability via relatively small sources of great wealth to large numbers of smaller gifts (that, in total, can yield more), the necessity of being seen as relevant in the community (and as an advocate for justice) becomes clearer. (See Arts 2.0: 40k x $25=$1M<\/a>.) I’ve had interesting arguments with those who believe the latter (the small gifts approach) is utterly impossible. However, if the former model becomes ineffective, what is the alternative? We may disagree about the inevitability of that transition, but the labor-intensive economics of the arts and the potential for widening gaps between the arts establishment (without reorientation of organizational focus) and evolving communities seem pretty strong arguments that the future necessitates change.<\/p>\n

Mr. Bedoya includes in his post an example of what he means:<\/p>\n

Our community of artists, arts organizations, and audiences provide visions and evidence about what\u2019s right about our plurality \u2014 how we imagine and live our lives together. TPAC\u2019s P.L.A.C.E. (People, Land, Arts, Culture and Engagement) Initiative is a platform that we established to support the work of creating shared visions of our relationships to each other.<\/em><\/p>\n

The P.L.A.C.E. Initiative supports arts-based civic engagement projects that address contested and complex social issues in Southern Arizona. It supports placemaking arts activities that shape the physical and social character of the region through projects that create a sense of belonging.<\/em><\/p>\n

To date, P.L.A.C.E. has supported 27 arts-based civic engagement projects that address community concerns. TPAC is fortunate to have the Kresge Foundation, the Nathan Cummings Foundation, and the Open Society Institute as partners in this initiative.<\/em><\/p>\n

A few examples of projects supported:<\/em><\/p>\n