ART AT WORK An Arts & Equity Initiative With the City of Portland, Maine – 2007 to 2013 + Holyoke, MA 2012 – 2013
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ART AT WORK An Arts & Equity Initiative
Fundamental Goal: to increase cities resilience and ability to effectively address anticipated economic & societal challenges by integrating the powerful resource that comes from direct creative engagement into municipal governments
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ART AT WORK An Arts & Equity Initiative
The Key: The process of making art dramatically increases our ability to access our flexible intelligence, function collaboratively, analyze complex challenges, integrate contradictory perspectives, envision a positive outcome and take inspired risks that lead to innovative solutions. Our Funders
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ART AT WORK An Arts & Equity Initiative
History & Background: A year long community performance “home land security� -interviews, story circles, workshops -participants & cast included Mayor, Fire Chief, Sudanese leader, Chicana minister, Micmac student leader, Maine Senate President, homeless writer, Franco union leader, Portland NAACP president, Iranian & Somali high school students and others. Our Funders
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ART AT WORK An Arts & Equity Initiative
2 of 15 Projects:
#1 THIN BLUE LINES POLICE POETRY PROJECT
ATTITUDES
Challenge: Historic Low Morale Among Officers 5
ART AT WORK An Arts & Equity Initiative
Strategy: raise visibility & awareness among officers, families, colleagues & the public re: their personal & work lives through poetry, photos, readings & civic dialogues.
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ART AT WORK An Arts & Equity Initiative
Outcomes: - 83% increase in morale - Increase awareness & relationship cops/community - Significant positive media: local, regional, national, international - Strengthen family ties - Strengthen union - Establish credibility re: art as tool for non-arts challenges
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ART AT WORK An Arts & Equity Initiative
#3 FOREST CITY TIMES Original Performances KNOWLEDGE
Challenge: Escalating incidences of groups of African-born youth throwing rocks & bottles at police officers & city workers after a police killing of a Sudanese man 8
ART AT WORK An Arts & Equity Initiative
The Weeping City & Radio Calls
Strategy: develop two original plays from workshops and interviews with officers & African-born students, then perform for all 3 high schools & public followed by audience discussions 9
ART AT WORK An Arts & Equity Initiative
How to make it happen in your city? WHO? Building Relationships - department heads, leaders - union members, leaders - elected officials – Mayors, City Managers - Artists/Arts Community - Community Leaders, make sure to reflect city’s diversity
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ART AT WORK An Arts & Equity Initiative
HOW? Building Relationships
Meetings, award ceremonies, employee recognition ceremonies, drop by, hang out, ask who is respected, read papers, be bold, don’t wait to be asked/wanted, be willing to ‘walk away’ if you can’t get agreement re: integrity of AAW goals
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ART AT WORK An Arts & Equity Initiative
Develop an evaluation plan with goals, indicators, outcomes, strategies sketched out Invite stakeholders to give their input, lend expertise to refining/defining that plan Process lends real credibility to the project, contradicting notions that art is trivial, marginal & has no place in a serious municipal context Advisory Team may not be possible at start, but Holyoke’s Team has played a key role in success. 12
ART AT WORK An Arts & Equity Initiative
Stay very clear about methodology • Identifying non-arts challenges • Designing arts solutions • Implementing projects • Documenting process • Measuring & disseminating outcomes • Stay very clear about methodology • Identifying non-arts challenges • Designing arts solutions • Implementing projects • Documenting process • Measuring & disseminating outcomes 13
ART AT WORK An Arts & Equity Initiative
Identifying Artist(s) Collaborators Helpful things to look for in Artist Leaders • High quality • Already established/published/gallery/recorded, produced, etc; • Experience re: community engagement – diversity+ • Confidence = Ability to not be in spotlight • Willingness to be led, to follow, to trust
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ART AT WORK An Arts & Equity Initiative
Some general to do’s • Generate good-looking materials/art and distribute regularly to your stakeholders, partners, participants • Those materials will be invaluable in establishing credibility of idea & process • Quite likely that there won’t be a lot of encouraging words from colleagues 15
ART AT WORK An Arts & Equity Initiative
How to choose the department, how to choose which challenge, how to choose the art form? • Don’t be afraid of going big • Try to go for multiple gains – surprise, impact, provability, poetry + police, sexy, bang • Considerations: do you have artists that match form? Serendipity – funeral eulogy • Lots of things don’t work – laboratory • Something you personally connect with 16
ART AT WORK An Arts & Equity Initiative
Cheap & Effective Ways to Collect Evidence of Impact #1 Quick emails To yourself, from Participants, staff All with “Impact” in Subject heading. Same process When labeling All relevant photos writing “Impact” In the name 17
ART AT WORK An Arts & Equity Initiative
#2 Include an evaluative question in the sign-in sheets EX: What’s something that’s stayed with you from our last (event)? EX: Did anything from our work show up in your life since we met? EX: something add here or not. 18
ART AT WORK An Arts & Equity Initiative
#3 Arrange for someone to take verbatim notes during events, especially during opening & closing go-rounds
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ART AT WORK An Arts & Equity Initiative #4 No matter how large the event, include an opening and closing evaluation goround with a specific question – insight, highlight, take-away – that gives you and other participants information and a reflective moment to take in the experience for participants, even if only 5 people out of 100+ participants.
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ART AT WORK An Arts & Equity Initiative
#5 Document events, including participants & documentary team as participants, enlisting participants in holding mics when possible Occupy Maine leader & Police Chief singing Art At Work Chorale Leadership/Followship workshop
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ART AT WORK An Arts & Equity Initiative
Having an in-depth evaluation design process and such a respected evaluator diminished the misconception that an arts project was by nature trivial, and allowed municipal government employees to see the project as a more serious, credible, and useful activity.
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