Energizing independent voices through the media arts
02. CO-DIRECTORS REPORT By Helen De Michiel and Jack Walsh
06. NAMAC 2009: Commonwealth Conference comes to Boston By Yolanda Hippensteele and Deborah Obalil
wealth
SPRING/SUMMER 2009
In This Issue
common
09. We Make The Road By Collaborating By Paula Manley
13. Art Houses Unite! By Brian Hearn
2009
NATIONAL ALLIANCE FOR MEDIA ARTS + CULTURE 145 Ninth Street, Suite 102 San Francisco, California 94103 Tel. 415.431.1391 / Fax 415.431.1392 www.namac.org
NATIONAL A LLIANCE
FOR
MEDIA ART + C ULTURE
NATIONAL A LLIANCE
FOR
MEDIA ART + C ULTURE
conference Boston, MA A U G U ST 2 6 - 2 9 , 2 0 0 9
Co-Directors REPORT By Helen De Michiel and Jack Walsh
Helen De Michiel On my first post-election trip to Washington, D.C., in early February this year, I made the observation to the young journalist sharing a cab with me that the city seemed so bright and lively. As it reawakened to a new beginning—and hopes for stimulus dollars—it was still wrapped in reminders of the November triumph: Obama banners, flyers, murals, and window posters everywhere. She replied, “You’re from San Francisco? It’s funny, all my West Coast friends who come here now say that. So romantic.” Perhaps. But the line, “Ding, dong, the witch is dead,” did come up for me as I ran from meetings to appointments to receptions to dinner gatherings, trying to pull together a coherent picture of how we can move our cultural advocacy work from the margins to the center in the Obama era. No doubt, there is a sense of true empowerment: “we” are part of government now, and it is our responsibility to make sure our voices—representing so many who have never had any reason to believe in democratic participation—can have a once-in-a-generation chance to make a major impact. And for us, it is around what we know best: the arts and media culture. During the first meeting I attended at the Media Consortium conference, I noted that story and values still trump technology. Chris Hughes, a co-founder of Facebook and creator of the campaign site MyBarackObama, told us that online social media was strictly a method and a tactic that the campaign used to attract passionate people, organizing them around values and vision. Hughes’s objective was to connect those individuals through a strong story (why this candidate is important) and a strong fundraising infrastructure (how your money will impact the campaign) and to point people to onthe-ground organizing and real world events and gatherings (how you can participate locally and in your community to get Obama elected). The online world, with its agile ability to show videos and gather trusted guides and testimonials, while building a longer narrative arc for the candidate, was just the first step in the chain of connecting and communicating to people why “this is important.” Hughes made it very clear that no technology or cool gadget was deployed unless it had a proven ability to develop both the organization and the ground troops. At that same meeting, Art Kleiner, the editor of Strategy + Business magazine, laid out the sustainability challenges for both commercial and nonprofit media, offering this key insight: “All media has two basic assets: to convene an audience, and see what no one else sees.” The more distinctively we can deploy these assets, the more we have a chance to thrive. The way we communicate to and relate with our audiences—by building and expressing an identity that includes them—will help us through the chaos of this period. Bringing people together around common values, building relationships that matter, and experimenting with developing models rather than staying static, Kleiner said, was the “key to getting to something better” in the long run. Energized by these thoughts and those ubiquitous Shepard Fairey images of Obama coloring the urban DC landscape, I started talking to media reform colleagues around town like 2
SPRING / SUMMER 2009
Helen De Michiel and Jack Walsh on Capitol Hill for Arts Advocacy Day, March 31
Harold Feld (formerly of Media Access Project), Nathaniel James and Beth McConnell (Media and Democracy Coalition), and Gigi Sohn (Public Knowledge), to test a hunch we were discussing among NAMAC staff members after the election. I wanted to gauge how we could build a new arts advocacy movement to include the voices and expertise of community arts and media organizations who have little to no representation in government, be it local, state, or federal. Those February conversations led to the development of a project (now seeking funding) called the Campaign and Policy Institute. As a first step towards re-animating a policy and advocacy program for NAMAC, we are designing it to train a group of visual and media arts leaders in the tried and true tools of advocacy—from mobilizing the grassroots to influencing the “grasstops” and elected officials. The goal is to train those who can work with and train others throughout their networks, building up arts advocacy capacity where it did not exist before. When we returned to Washington at the end of March for the Arts Advocacy Days, we had already gotten strong interest from arts organization colleagues to sign on as interested collaborators in the Campaign and Policy Institute. During that visit we spent a day in advocacy training with Americans for the Arts and got a terrific crash course in how to lobby on the Hill with code words like “stimulus,” “recovery,” “shovelready” and a new one, “budget dust”—as in, “we’re just talking budget dust for the arts”—ready to be deployed at a moment’s notice. We learned what our messages were. We memorized them. Our slogan was “Arts = Jobs,” and we had the data to support it. We heard how to include arts funding into education and healthcare reform. When our California delegation of twelve arts representatives went to the offices of Nancy Pelosi, Dianne Feinstein, Barbara Boxer, George Miller, and Barbara Lee, we talked about workforce development. We talked about National Service and the Digital Arts Service Corps. We talked about art as economic development and the need for arts education. We lobbied to increase funding for the NEA. We watched Wynton Marsalis, Linda Ronstadt, and Josh Groban testify on behalf of the arts in a congressional hearing. And we realized how important it is to get the message out that everyone has to make advocacy a daily part of their
mission. It became crystal clear while we were lobbying that federal and state funding for the arts will no longer come to us because we deserve it, especially during these challenging times. The case has to be built clearly and forcefully and expressed over and over: The arts produce jobs. Artists are vital members of the economic ecology of communities. The arts are part of the economic and workforce engine of our country. And arts education for all citizens is a right we have to fight for. It may not come naturally to lobby for the arts as “economic growth drivers,” and collect data to support this, but it will make a huge difference in moving us from the edges to the center of the great debates of our time. If we can’t define ourselves to ordinary politicians who hold the purse strings and need votes, and can’t make the case for “why we are important,” we will simply evaporate on the contentious political stage. We elected them, and they and their staffers are there to listen and consider our requests. We are in a populist moment again, and making it work for us is the name of the game. Who would have thought twelve months ago that the New Deal would be the meme du jour of 2009?
Jack Walsh I’ve been referring to the period between the November election and the Obama Inauguration as the “circle of confusion,” a film term describing a fuzzy area caused by the light rays not coming into perfect focus. Such was our post-election state. There were countless conference calls brainstorming the future of America, of nonprofits, of the media and visual arts. White papers, briefs, and manifestos were flying all over the Internet, fueled by catch-phrases like “first hundred-days” and “shovel-ready.” The economy, worsening by the day, only added to this manic activity. Then came the Inauguration. This was a crystallizing moment, as we witnessed perhaps the most profound event for our nation in a generation. Finally—a leader with intelligence and vision, a uniter, and an African American. After the last eight years, it felt like waking from a nightmare. For the first time in what seems like forever, we have hope and can believe that our government and our country will work for all of its citizens. When the dust began to settle, we found ourselves facing our gravest economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s. Foundations were telling our members that support would be down significantly in the next three years. When we polled our members about the economic effect of the current downturn, 65% reported that grant amounts were reduced; 47% reported that individual donations had decreased; and 60% reported using their cash reserve to supplement these losses. Even more surprising, 41% reported delays in payments of awarded grants, and—something I have never seen in my twenty-seven years in the field—46% reported cuts in already awarded grants. At the same time, 81% reported increased partnerships as a response to the economic downturn; as our history shows, as a field we know how to work together. Now, more than ever, we need to come together and chart a common agenda to forge our collective future. It was with this motivation that Yolanda Hippensteele, producer of CommonWealth, this year’s NAMAC Conference, and I visited Boston in February for a meeting called by the Center for Independent Documentary, the Conference’s host
organization. Twenty-one groups representing media arts and visual arts organizations, academic institutions, and funders attended that meeting and participated in a brainstorming session about panels, presenters, and funding. The energy in that room was contagious—ideas emerged highlighting new technologies, workforce development, and collaborations, among others. With these ideas swimming in my head, I flew to Washington to join Helen for a series of advocacy meetings. When I landed, the military was still posted throughout Reagan Airport, and it was an eerie 70 degrees in mid-February, but the spirit here seemed much lighter. Not surprising, the talk was all about Obama. From the frenzied activity at bars and restaurants, you would never know that the country was spiraling down in an economic recession yet to reach bottom. Coming from a tourist-industry city like San Francisco, where hotels and restaurants had been lightly populated for months, this was a shocker. An overwhelming sense of landing on another planet struck me, or more aptly perhaps, I felt like I was at Sundance, except that everyone was a suit. Like at Sundance, everyone had a deal to pitch; the difference here was that everyone was after the same funding source, the federal government. We learned new terms like “grasstops,” very popular in D.C., where everyone sees him or herself as, well, a top. In spite of this, Helen and I were able to connect with our allies at the Media and Democracy Coalition and Public Knowledge, who helped us tease out our Campaign and Policy Training Institute idea. We hope to hold the Institute in conjunction with our Conference, provided that funding helps us to reach that goal. While meeting at the National Endowment for the Arts, we learned firsthand that the arts remained in Congress’s stimulus package thanks to efforts led by our colleagues at Americans for the Arts (AFTA). In addition to meeting our tried-and-true media arts program staff—Ted Libbey, Mary Smith, and Laura Welch—we were joined by Wendy Clark of the visual arts program; Robert Frankel, acting deputy chairman for grants and awards; and Patrice Walker Powell, acting chairman for the agency. With the arts remaining in the stimulus package, the NEA planned a rapid deployment of funds into the field. Indeed, since then, the NEA has been lauded throughout the government and in public meetings around the country for the speed and simplicity in which they conceived and initiated the application process for disbursing these job-related dollars to our sector. These tireless public servants deserve your support, too. If you have not done so already, drop them a note or email expressing your gratitude for the work they do on our behalf.
Helen De Michiel and Jack Walsh join the California delegation during Arts Advocacy Day, March 31
SPRING / SUMMER 2009
3
When Helen and I returned for Arts Advocacy Day in late March, we experienced another crystallizing moment for us as leaders, one we wish to share with the field. You must do everything in your power to attend Arts Advocacy Day in 2010. There are a number of reasons for this; chief among them is that the media arts are not represented within the general body of attendees. As the ascendant art form, one that links and connects communities, tells untold stories, and pushes the boundaries of visual expression, we must have a greater voice within this confab of arts leaders. You need to be speaking with your elected officials in their D.C. offices and to their D.C. staffs to advocate for your issues back home. At every meeting Helen and I attended with our Northern California delegation (twelve of us in all), Congressional aides repeatedly asked us, “What do NEA support and stimulus arts dollars mean for jobs in my district?” AFTA’s ingenuous slogan for this year, “Arts = Jobs,” helped us explain how the arts support not only artists, but carpenters, electricians, ushers, and the many others who labor in support of putting work in front of audiences. Another reason to attend this annual event is to participate in AFTA’s National Arts Action Summit, which occurs the day before meetings with legislators. This daylong immersion provided us with meeting strategies, talking points, and teambuilding that kept our advocacy work on-message (jobs, arts education, increased funding for the NEA/NEH) and our message concise. We learned how to ask the right questions. By the end of our team’s second meeting we had our routine set; by our fifth and final meeting, we were downright smooth. The final, and perhaps most valuable, reason for attending Arts Advocacy Day is to build relationships with other local and state arts organizations. These relationships will be increasingly important, as government dollars for workforce development and capital projects will be administered through state and city governments via federal block grants. Building those relationships to ensure your place at the table and be 4
SPRING / SUMMER 2009
part of those disbursements will be key to your organization’s survival as you weather this uncertain economic reality. Many of you may already advocate at your local, regional, and state level. From my perspective, the value of D.C. advocacy in general and Arts Advocacy Day specifically is the feeling of participating in a national movement that impacts all of our well-being. For all of you who are part of the media and visual arts communities, building a movement requires that you come to Boston and participate in CommonWealth. As a field, we are diverse and complex. We span from community-based arts organizations serving emerging populations—immigrant, LGBT, people with disabilities—working on important local concerns like poverty, social justice, and broadband equity, to major cultural institutions exhibiting world-renowned artists who inspire us with their vision and ability to grapple with global issues like Diaspora, hunger, and economic disparity. We encompass youth and senior creators, participants and consumers, visionaries and connectors, and practically everything in between. Our future in the nonprofit arts sector will be formed by our determination to work together across differences, to ensure that the work we do remains of value to the communities, audiences, and artists that we represent and serve. As President Barack Obama said in March: We’ll recover from this recession, but it will take time, it will take patience, and it will take an understanding that, when we all work together, when each of us looks beyond our own short-term interest to the wider set of obligations we have towards each other, that’s when we succeed, that’s when we prosper, and that’s what is needed right now. So let’s look towards the future with a renewed sense of common purpose, a renewed d e t e r m i n a t i o n , a n d , m o s t i m p o r t a n t l y, r e n e w e d confidence that a better day will come. Join us in Boston at CommonWealth to chart our course together!
Simple Steps to Make Arts Advocacy A Daily Part of Your Work When you have an issue, or just want to connect to elected officials: 1. Get your “grassroots” to write letters and emails to the official’s office. Anywhere from five to ten letters or emails from your membership, board members, artists, or supporters about one topic, concern, or theme will get their attention quickly. These letters and emails are taken very seriously. 2. Cultivate your “grasstops,” those connected people who influence elected officials, such as: •
personal friends of the official
•
community leaders
•
members of organizational boards of directors
•
business leaders who can make a case on behalf of the issue
*
request they write letters or emails to the representatives when needed
3. Write letters to the editor of your local newspaper, and write op-ed pieces for publication that relate to the issue at hand. 4. Get involved with your state’s arts advocates group, and build relationships with members of the Congressional Arts Caucus. Visit The Americans for the Arts Action Fund for lists and resources: www.artsactionfund.org. 5. Who are the staffers in your Congressional district’s local office? Get to know them. Make your organization a resource for the district office. Visit the district office in Washington if you go there. 6. Invite your district or state elected officials, or their staffers, to visit your organization. Invite them to your events or conferences to speak. 7. When meeting with staffers in the district office: •
Have collected and memorized facts and statistics relevant to making your case. For example: “This arts-related workforce development program will create 500 new jobs in the Bay Area…”
•
Tell stories that are relevant to the district: about artists, audiences, your organization and its impact, educational-related changes, and more.
•
Have a clear solution, next step, or funding request ready to conclude the meeting.
•
Follow up the meeting and request with a phone call and email so you can talk about the next steps you wish to take.
SPRING / SUMMER 2009
5
Commonwealth comes to Boston A Preview of NAMAC’s 2009 Conference By Yolanda Hippensteele Over a year ago, when NAMAC chose Boston as the location for its 2009 biennial conference and chose “commonwealth” as its theme, nobody involved knew how important this convening would become. CommonWealth is a theme that evokes the best intentions of democracy and community, of interconnectedness and common purpose—all good concepts for an alliance of artists, media makers, and cultural workers to explore at any time. But the theme has become more and more àpropos over the past year. In just the past twelve months, we’ve witnessed, through an epic grassroots campaign, the ascendancy of “a skinny kid with a funny name” toward his spot in history as the first African-American president of the United States. We’ve witnessed the collapse of our country’s financial system and the ensuing moves toward more collectivist economic policies. We’ve also seen great leaps in the democratization of our political and policy-making processes; further leaps in the technological innovation and adoption that have often transformed our work and social lives; pronouncements of the deaths of some forms of media and the births of new ones; a funding crisis with great impact on our organizations; and distinct indicators of demographic and generational shifts. The times, as they once said, are a-changin’, and on so many levels, with such dizzying speed, and such a complicated mix of opportunity and threat, that it’s hard to stop spinning long enough to make sense of it all. In an environment of such flux, the impetus to convene is not only strategic, but almost primal. People who have lived in earthquake and tornado zones will recognize the analogy to the convergence of neighbors in the street that occurs after a significant bout of ground-shaking or window-rattling. Instinctively, we are all drawn to leave our individual homes,
Barbara Lee Family Foundation Theater The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston 6 SPRING / SUMMER Diller Scofidio + Renfro2009 Architects Photo: © Peter Vanderwarker
meet on common ground with our community, and process what just happened: “Did you feel that?” “Is everybody OK?” “Is this a crisis?” “What do we do now?” We need to share our individual experiences, pool our knowledge, collectively diagnose the situation, and develop an action plan. Darwin might tell us that the instinct to convene in times of threat or opportunity is a survival mechanism hard-wired into our reptilian brains; millennia of natural selection have rewarded those who convene and collaborate with fortitude. This 2009 NAMAC conference is of critical importance as our “coming together” during an extraordinary time. It is our opportunity, as a collective of like-minded organizations experiencing similar shake-ups, to gather on common ground to make sense of all the change swirling around us, and to plan our action steps moving forward. But let’s not let the analogy of neighbors converging after a natural disaster, with its connotation of catastrophe, prime us with a crisis mindset or lead us into a “woe is me” chorus. While many organizations are experiencing funding shortfalls and challenging transitions—and our convening will certainly help us take stock of those and share strategies for sustainability—our state-of-the-field picture has at least as many bright spots as dark ones. Increasingly, we are coming to understand that communication and collaborations among organizations are strengthening individual organizations, regional networks, purpose-driven networks, and the field as a whole. This theme of mutual support, shared resources, and network-centric organizing is a hot topic in the nonprofit sector, the arts, and the media industries. This time of economic hardship is a perfect opportunity to explore how innovative collaborations can be implemented to strengthen our organizations and create a field that is greater than the sum of its parts.
The Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston Diller Scofidio + Renfro Architects Photo: © Iwan Baan
On the policy level, we see perhaps the greatest opportunities in a generation to advance progressive regulatory structures and funding initiatives in support of independent media arts. The new administration and Congress are stocked with friendly allies who want to hear from us and help our organizations get the governmental support we need in order to serve our communities well. There are opportunities for increased funding for arts and media projects; subsidies for artists and media makers through national service programs; advancements in internet policy that make broadband open, affordable, and accessible to all; progressive developments in copyright and intellectual property regulation; and more. At the state level, we see exciting programs, including the efforts of our host state of Massachusetts, which has truly embraced the arts as a key component of its economic and workforce development strategy. Technology, too, continues to present us with exciting opportunities to raise the bar on creative expression, engage our communities in meaningful ways, and innovate our distribution strategies. Media and art are being revolutionized by increased involvement and creative production from “the people formerly known as the audience.” Our contentdistribution opportunities have exploded outside the bounds of a few conglomerate-dominated media through social media, virtual reality spaces, and online distribution portals. Our creative community is rapidly adopting these technologies and applying them in mind-bending ways. These topics are just a few of the key issues to be discussed in Boston this August. The Conference will feature keynotes and panel presentations on a few Big Ideas and developments in the field, as well as best-practice presentations that share innovative strategies among colleagues, and skill-building workshops that provide training in key competencies. But we know this is a meeting of colleagues and peers, and that most of us don’t want to sit and be talked at all day. So there will be ample opportunity for structured and unstructured “open space” discussions, initiated by any conference participant who has an issues he or she would like to gather a group discussion around. It is critical to our theme of CommonWealth to approach this gathering with the understanding that we are all experts and that as a network, we hold the wealth of information we need. In addition to meaty discussions about important issues and ideas, we’ll have the opportunity to see the best of Boston, thanks to our gracious local hosts. We’ll party hardy on the
beautiful summer evenings of a charming East Coast city. There will be tours (by bus, by foot, and maybe even by boat or bike!) to check out Boston’s most exciting media arts organizations and landmarks. And you won’t want to miss the closing party, to be held at the stunning new facilities of the Institute for Contemporary Art. When we’ve asked NAMAC members what they most want to get out of the Conference, we’ve heard some themes loud and clear. You want to be energized and inspired. You want opportunities to connect with colleagues and meet new ones. You want a big-picture overview of the “state of the field” that helps you understand where we are and where we’re going. You want to learn new information and skills and share ideas about innovative projects. You want to revel in the diversity of our network. You want a sense of community, a sense that your work is connected to something bigger. You’ll get all of that this August in Boston. And you’ll get to scratch that itch, fulfilling the primal instinct to gather with your people at a time when that’s exactly what you need to do.
YOLANDA HIPPENSTEELE is the 2009 NAMAC Conference producer. Prior to NAMAC, she was outreach director at Free Press, and produced four installments of the National Conference for Media Reform. She can be reached at yolanda@namac.org.
CommonWealth: 2009 NAMAC Conference
When: August 26 – 29 Where: Boston Park Plaza Hotel Registration rates: Sliding scale, $130 -250. Further discounted student rates and day rates also available. Early-bird deadline: Register by July 22 and save $30! Register Online at: www.namac.org/conference
SPRING / SUMMER 2009
7
BOSTON WELCOMES YOU By Deborah Obalil Boston: Birthplace of the American Revolution and host to CommonWealth, from August 26–29, 2009. We’re looking forward to welcoming NAMAC members from far and wide, and we promise to host a wicked-fun and engaging conference! While many people know about Boston’s place in history, fewer recognize its role in current advances in media and the creative economy. Home to major universities, Boston has long been at the center of the convergence of technology, science, art, media, culture, and innovation. CommonWealth promises to showcase how Boston continues to build on its rebellious history and take the lead in areas of media innovation, collaboration, collective action, and support of creative endeavors of all kinds. A few examples of what makes Boston a hotbed of media and arts activity: • Recognizing that digital media is a thread that ties all the creative disciplines together, the City of Boston created an initiative—government-driven but with strong partnership from the private sector, via CreateBoston at the Boston Redevelopment Authority—to focus on nurturing a growing online and video gaming industry that employs hosts of visual and media artists.
research on the state’s media and film industries, and proved their worth to policymakers. • This effort has led to some of the most aggressive film tax credit legislation in the country, benefiting both small and large projects. The conference will include opportunities for participants to explore Boston’s diverse neighborhoods, visit some of the nation’s leading youth arts programs, and tour artists’ studios in the city’s expansive artist space initiatives. And we wouldn’t let you leave Boston without at least one fantastic party on the waterfront. Hosted by the Institute of Contemporary Art/Boston (ICA) in its stunning new facility—the first new art museum built in Boston in over a century—the closing night party will feature great food and music; and dancing on the museum’s expansive outdoor deck overlooking Boston Harbor. Boston is a compact city with great public transit, lots of green space, with the Boston Common as its crown jewel, and countless museums and other cultural attractions. We hope you’ll consider coming early or staying later to enjoy the many summer activities Boston and New England have to offer.
• Plymouth Rock Studios, dubbed Hollywood East, is building a major movie studio complex and investing in workforce development.
See you this August!
• Plymouth Rock’s investment was made possible by the collective action of the Massachusetts Production Coalition. They undertook significant economic-impact
DEBORAH OBALIL is the local event coordinator for Commonwealth, an arts consultant, and an avid salsa dancer who will happily point all Conference attendees to the best salsa dancing venues in Boston.
Join us for our 2009 NAMAC Conference Informational Call Call in to learn more about our exciting plans for Commonwealth. Conference Producer Yolanda Hippensteele will share with you which key note speakers, panels, workshops and events are slated to make Boston NAMAC’s best conference yet. Free for all NAMAC Members.
When: July 9th Time: 3pm Eastern/ noon Pacific Dial-in Number: (605) 475-4825 When prompted, enter Participant Access Code: 115188#
8
SPRING / SUMMER 2009
WE MAKE THE ROAD BY COLLABORATING By Paula Manley
Collaboration has moved from the sidelines to the center of how we do business and fulfill our arts and cultural missions. As media arts organizations and practitioners, our context is an increasingly interdisciplinary and participatory culture: “We make the road by collaborating” to borrow a sentiment from poet Antonio Machado who said, “We make the road by walking.”
“Trust is the most essential element of a collaboration. When you work across different organizational cultures, you need to take the time to communicate to maintain that trust”
There are many reasons why collaboration is becoming more of an operating norm for our organizations: The diversity and complexity of our communities necessitates that we seek out partners and work jointly to fulfill our missions. The public policy environment has motivated us to amplify our collective voice in advocacy campaigns. The internet and a host of online tools have made it easier to collaborate in an increasingly networked world. Economic realities are challenging us to become even more efficient and cost-effective. And our funders and supporters simply expect us to collaborate to make the most of our strengths without reinventing the wheel.
Toward Conscious Collaboration The term “collaboration” holds multiple meanings. Based on a review of collaboration literature, the Wilder Research Center defines collaboration as “a mutually beneficial and well-defined relationship entered into by two or more organizations to achieve common goals.” Media arts organizations collaborate frequently and with much success. Just as often, collaborations prove to be frustrating and fail to live up to their potential. One pervasive barrier to collaboration is the well-ingrained mindset of scarcity (which is amplified by the current economic recession), in which competition for funding and credit overshadow our potential to share, learn, and co-create. Another barrier, closely related to the scarcity mindset, is the challenge of the “nonprofit industrial complex.” This recently coined term sums up our tendencies to protect turf and pursue growth, even when it is not sustainable or mission-oriented. Entering into any collaboration consciously—with a spirit of inquiry, clear goals, and a few basic agreements—can make a big difference. In our fast paced and often reactive culture, we sometimes skip these fundamentals, only to pay dearly later with wasted time, unsatisfactory results, and fractured relationships. When considering a new collaboration, the following questions offer a useful framework: Are the project goals defined and mission-aligned (including what you want to accomplish together and what success looks like)? Are the benefits of the collaboration clear (what each organization will get out of it, and what your individual needs/interests are)? Is accountability clear (including who will do what by when, how decisions will be made, and how plans will be monitored and adjusted)? Can you depend on each other (with the right people involved, and enough trust and mutual respect to move forward)? Do you have the necessary resources (including time, money, and expertise)? Conscious collaboration is not the only answer to the question of how best to operate and flourish in the new environment, but it is at the heart of the matter. When we persist with a “we’ll do it on our own” philosophy, we put our organizations at risk of stagnation—cut off from the flow of ideas and resources (including financial and other resources) we need to fulfill our missions.
SPRING / SUMMER 2009
9
Filmmakers respond to questions at opening night of the 2008 Queer Women of Color Media Film Festival Screening of “Kindred Queers.”
Collaboration Resources Collaboration: What Makes it Work, 2nd Edition (2001). Authors: Mattessech, Murray-Close, Monsey, Wilder Research Center. Available from the Fieldstone Alliance. go to: http://www.fieldstonealliance. org/productdetails. cfm?SKU=069326
21st Century Collaboration Resources (2005). Editor: Michael Gilbert. Available from The Gilbert Center. go to: http://news.gilbert.org/ pub/21stCCR
Forces for Good: The Six Practices of High-Impact Nonprofits (2008). Authors: Crutchfield and Grant. JosseyBass.
Here Comes Everybody: The Power of Organizing Without Organizations (2008). Author: Clay Shirky. Penguin Books.
Are We Saving Money Yet? Working in collaboration is often beneficial, but it doesn’t necessarily follow that it will cut costs. For example, if two organizations decide to combine programs to expand their reach, they may assume they will save on administrative costs; however, the time spent on planning, coordinating, and integrating systems may outweigh any savings—at least in the short term. “Cost-cutting is not always realistic,” says Alyce Myatt, executive director of Grantmakers in Film + Electronic Media (GFEM). She notes, “Trust is the most essential element of a collaboration. When you work across different organizational cultures, you need to take the time to communicate to maintain that trust.” Based on working with funders and media arts organizations over many years, Myatt emphasizes the necessity of keeping mission at the forefront. “What’s driving the conversation about collaboration?” she asks. “Is it mission or money? If it’s just about the money, it’s not going to be successful. We can learn that from the private sector, where the landscape is littered with failed mergers and acquisitions that were initially perceived to be financially advantageous.”
Collaboration along a Continuum Collaboration is not a one-size fits all proposition. Instead, collaborations come in many shapes and sizes, ranging from informal joint projects, to formal joint ventures, to the merging of two or more organizations into a single organization. At NAMAC’s regional gathering in the Bay Area last year, participants highlighted inspiring examples along this continuum, including Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project, Ninth Street Independent Film Center, and San Francisco Film Society–Film Arts Foundation. Joint projects, which are based on relationship-building with partners over time, are central to the work of the Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project. According to Kebo Drew, development and events manager of QWOCMAP, the organization serves as a bridge among different communities including LGBT, people of color, immigrants, artists, arts groups, and social justice groups. “We are educating with film—both to teach filmmaking and to educate about issues in collaboration with other nonprofits,” Drew said. She emphasized, “Our nonprofit partners are deeply involved from the beginning, not brought in near the end.” The results of these joint projects have been mutually beneficial: The nonprofit partners bring new audiences to film screenings, which supports QWOCMAP. The screenings help to grow the constituency for the nonprofits and their issues, which often results in increased membership.
10
SPRING / SUMMER 2009
One of the most visible joint ventures in the media arts field is the Ninth Street Independent Film Center in San Francisco’s South of Market (SoMa) district. In late 2001, a consortium of independent media groups purchased the building after two years of planning. Film Arts Foundation, Frameline, the Center for Asian American Media, and San Francisco Jewish Film Festival came together as the original four equity partners in the building, with Canyon Cinema, NAMAC, San Francisco Cinematheque and TILT as non-equity partners. One of the most tangible benefits of the collaboration has been the creation of a building-wide IT department, which provides a greater level of support and expertise than any of the organizations would have been able to accomplish on their own. At the far end of the collaboration continuum are organizational mergers involving the full integration of two or more groups. Film Arts Foundation (FAF) and San Francisco Film Society pursued this path a few years ago. According to the Film Society’s executive director, Graham Leggat, it was crucial to approach the process with respect and thoughtful language from the start. “We didn’t use corporate language such as acquisition, takeover, or merger,” he emphasized. Instead the approach was to work for a seamless “handoff” of filmmaker services from FAF to the Film Society, while “stewarding” the FAF legacy. The coming together of the scrappy and cash-strapped FAF with the well-established Film Society seemed unlikely to some. Despite their cultural differences, however, both groups shared a deep concern for indie filmmakers in the Bay Area and a desire to support local, independent filmmaking. In working through the process with his board of directors, Leggat emphasized the most significant assets brought to the table by FAF, “thirty years of relationships at the heart of San Francisco’s filmmaking community.”
Leading the Way For many media arts groups, collaboration has long been the primary mode for doing business. After all, most long-term media arts organizations are rooted in filmmaking, an inherently collaborative endeavor. Furthermore, our collaborative capacity has grown as we have adapted to an ever-changing stream of media formats, platforms, and applications. Now working with an expanded global network and a growing menu of social media tools, independent media organizations continue to be leaders in twenty-first century collaboration. A few examples follow. The Media and Democracy Coalition (MADCO), founded in 2005, involves more than thirty regional and national organizations working jointly to promote equal access to a democratic media system. With so much at stake (nothing less than the openness and diversity of our future media system!) and so much complexity in the telecommunications landscape, the coalition offers a structure to develop needed technical and policy expertise, while also bringing the power of multiple voices to the public policy arena. Appalshop’s Thousand Kites Project (featured in NAMAC’s fall 2008 newsletter), a national dialogue project and multimedia endeavor, has engaged multiple partners and forged unlikely alliances around the common goal of reforming the U.S. prison system. Building on the storysharing ethic that has been Appalshop’s hallmark for 40 years, the Kites project is coalescing a national constituency for prison reform as part of its highly interactive and interrelated web of video, radio, social media, and live theater offerings. With a decade-long track record of “linking nonfiction film with cutting edge activism,” Working Films continues to construct collaborative media campaigns around films (Ghosts of Abu Ghraib, Two Towns of Jasper, Blue Vinyl, and many others) with a well-established partner network including distributors and social justice NGOs. In May, the North Carolina-based Working Films opened a London office in partnership with Channel 4 BRITDOC Foundation, an outgrowth of their success with several earlier collaborations. These examples and innumerable others are pointing the way toward the “new normal” of collaboration as a core organizing principle for how we enact our media arts missions. As we navigate the era of “ridiculously simple group-forming” (to borrow a term from Clay Shirky in Here Comes Everybody), media arts organizations may be better positioned than others to survive the inevitable challenges associated with (quoting Shirky again) “the explosion of new groups pursuing new possibilities with new tools.” This advantage is not wholly attributable to comfort with media tools or past experiences with collaboration; it’s also a matter of perseverance in service of the big picture. In describing the philosophy and approach of QWOCMAP, Kebo Drew illustrates this point well. She explains, “We look at collaboration as a life or death issue in how
Queer Women of Color Media Arts Project (QWOCMAP) Workshop, “The Stories We Tell.”
SPRING / SUMMER 2009
11
we do our work and serve our community. Collaboration is not something we can drop because it’s too much work. In fact, even if we have difficult partners, we will still continue to build those relationships…If it takes a couple of years to make it happen, then QWOCMAP will continue to reach out, because on a larger level, those relationships are crucial to social justice.”
Cultivating a Network Mindset Our habits of mind inform our behavior and our capacity to collaborate. Cultivating a “network mindset” is essential to having an impact and staying relevant, according to Forces for Good, a new study of successful nonprofits by Leslie Crutchfield and Heather McLeod Grant. They define the network mindset as a shift from competition to collaboration, from growing the organization to growing the network or field, from competing for scarce resources to growing the funding pie, and from acting alone to acting collectively—including sharing credit and power. With a network mindset, are we better prepared to collaborate in an increasingly networked world? From the vantage point of the present, the scale and meaning of our networked world is hard to fathom. Yet important clues are emerging. In his latest book, Blessed Unrest, Paul Hawken chronicles the world-changing power created by thousands of nonprofits—from tiny grassroots groups to large NGOs—as they have become more interconnected and collaborative across continents and previously separate social justice and environmental issue organizing. In what is perhaps the ultimate network mindset, Hawken posits that these groups, working together in a multitude of variations, collectively serve as a “global immune system” and are creating “a new curriculum for humankind… some of it corrective, some of it restorative, and some of it highly imaginative.” In a similar vein, Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales describes Wikipedia as “self healing,” a reference to its robust system of continuous content generation and correction by a large cadre of volunteers; collectively this community keeps the whole project intact and in balance.
The Case for Collaboration As we recognize our interdependence—from the local to the global—the successes, struggles and lessons learned through collaboration help us become more flexible, adaptive and effective, and perhaps also more awake, caring, and whole. When we become isolated in our work, we become irrelevant and less able to fulfill our social and cultural missions. When we collaborate on a regular basis, we discover new potentials beyond what we would have envisioned or accomplished on our own. Summing up the case for collaboration eloquently, Michael Gilbert of The Gilbert Center says, “The less tightly we hold to our narrow organizational identities, because we have unpacked them in the process of collaborating, the sooner we will forge the movements and coalitions needed to truly save the world from the forces of fear and greed. Every step in that direction counts.” We make the road by collaborating.
PAULA MANLEY is co-director of The Learning Commons, NAMAC’s partner in the NAMAC Leadership Institute, and the principal of Paula Manley Consulting, based in Portland, OR. She can be reached at:
paula@paulamanley.com www.paulamanleyconsulting.com
Conscious Collaboration Fundamentals 1. Are the project’s goals defined and mission-aligned? what you want to accomplish together what success looks like
the right people involved enough trust and mutual respect
2. Are the benefits of the collaboration clear?
5. Do you have the necessary resources?
what each organization will get out of it your individual needs/interests 3. Is accountability clear? who will do what by when how decisions will be made how plans will be monitored and adjusted
12
4. Can you depend on each other?
SPRING / SUMMER 2009
time, money, expertise Adapted from: The Collaboration Continuum Technical Assistance Manual, published by the National Minority AIDS Council (1996).
ART HOUSES UNITE! Annual Confab Explores the “Yes We Can” Spirit of Alternative Film Exhibition By Brian Hearn Three days before this year’s Sundance Film Festival, dozens of staff and board members representing approximately fifty art house cinemas from around the United States gathered in Salt Lake City for the second annual Art House Convergence. This motley group of cinephiles had at least one thing in common: We all work for missiondriven, community-based theaters. There was a good deal of diversity among participating venues: Some are for-profit, most are nonprofit, many inhabit historic single screen hardtops, while others inhabit converted spaces with multiple screens. The Art House Convergence was created as an initiative of the Sundance Institute Art House Project, which in 2006 brought together twelve independent cinemas from across the country. The Art House Project recognized those in the trenches committed to building audiences for independent film at the community level. After two years of interacting at the Sundance Film Festival, representatives from the Art House Project venues saw the need to bring together a larger network of likeminded operators to address our common challenges and share our successes, anxieties, and perhaps most importantly, our hopes and dreams. Throughout the busy schedule of sessions I found myself sitting at the back of the jam-packed conference room wondering, “Who are all these people?” Broadly speaking, I would pour this group into three different demographic buckets. The largest bucket held the Old Schoolers. I imagined these folks suckled on the nourishing mother’s milk of Eisenstein, Kurosawa, Bergman, Fellini, Godard, and Buñuel, when the art house was a thrilling place of discovery, wholly independent of the Hollywood studio machine. Theirs was also the heyday of prolific, deep, and original voices in print-based film criticism: James Agee, Pauline Kael, Andrew Sarris. This group witnessed the demise of
the studio system and the dirty, sexy, violent revolution of Bonnie and Clyde, Easy Rider, Midnight Cowboy, and Shaft. They saw the emergence of Kubrick, Cassavetes, and Jodorowsky, and the shift from soft-core to hard-core pornography. Now seasoned, the Old Schoolers, sometimes in second or third careers, have realized their dreams of owning and operating the art houses that turned them on decades before. They cherish celluloid and the theatrical experience above all. Then there were the Tweeners. I count myself among them. We were the original latchkey kids raised to a great extent on “teevee.” We were awed by Atari and enamored with the first wave of personal computers. We benefited from the last gasp of single screen, neighborhood cinemas with burned out neon marquees, but we were easily lured by the candy-coated suburban shopping mall-tiplexes soaked in artificial butter. The number of screens seemed to double every other year while the movies got louder and the walls got thinner. Then home video hit us hard, like a first puff of analog crack, on tape. We were the last generation to learn the shuttle/jog dance from A-roll to B-roll. We were exposed to film history on 480 lines of video. Film criticism came to us in Siskel-and-Ebert soundbites. We were goosed by the indie boom of the early ’90s: Soderbergh, the Coen brothers, and the derivative genre-junkie turned It Boy, Tarantino. We all had dollar signs in our eyes, for a minute. And then lo and behold, another revolution: digital! WTF? It didn’t take long to ditch the analog for DVD/nonlinear/mini-DV. And with that brave, newfangled Internet, we learned to burn and share. Let’s call the smallest of the demographic buckets the New Schoolers. These kids were born speaking digital. They were easy to spot with their abnormally large thumbs from incessant gaming and texting. New Schoolers often
SPRING / SUMMER 2009
13
“How do art house cinemas survive in the 21st century with a business model that appears to be quixotic at best and suicidal at worst?” appeared to be in tow with Old Schoolers at this event. They tended to have irrational prejudices against black and white films, subtitles, and the primacy of the theatrical experience. (Did one of them just say “loss leader” again?) New Schoolers dwell in the multi-platform media-verse with seemingly infinite ways to consume movies on increasingly smaller screens. Jon Stewart jabbed this generation on last year’s Oscar-cast with his, “Hold on, I’m watching Lawrence of Arabia on my iPod.” (Utter blasphemy to an Old Schooler.) The New Schoolers take for granted the digital wizardry that enables enormous consumer power. On-demand is expected. They simply want what they want, when they want it, no matter how. Their film critics are webbased bloggers, fan boys, and celebrity gossips. Meanwhile, what’s old in film exhibition is new again, but better. The pictures have also gotten bigger (IMAX), clearer (1K/2K/4K high definition), more dimensional (stereoscopic virtual reality 3D), and the soundtrack is downright earsplitting (Dolby 7.1). Soon theirs will be a world free of film prints altogether. Really?!? So with sweeping generalizations aside, let’s get down to business. How do art house cinemas survive in the 21st century with a business model that appears to be quixotic at best and suicidal at worst? The conference kicked off with a keynote address from John Cooper, director of festival programming and creative development for the Sundance Film Festival. Though he was a bit punchy from a long day of dealing with press, he raised our collective pulse by telling us, “You don’t know how sexy you are!” He went on to explain that our authenticity, passion, and community-building efforts were vital to our industry and greatly appreciated. This stands in marked contrast to our common daily experience of being disrespected, undervalued, or ignored by the for-
14
SPRING / SUMMER 2009
profit film production/distribution sector. Cooper talked about how people still want to feel connected, and the communal theatrical experience continues to fill that void. He suggested that “local was the new black,” meaning that as the hyper-commercial multiplexes get bigger and more soulless, we have a role to play as a “living room.” Following this much needed pep talk, we enjoyed a showand-tell slide presentation of our various theaters from Helena, Montana to Key West, Florida. Bright and early the next morning, we reconvened for a session on “How to Survive the Economic Downturn.” Business consultant Fraser Nelson focused on the value of strategic planning: how core values—our competitive advantage—guide decision making, how a clear mission steers resource allocation. The next two sessions dealt with “Current Art House Technology.” From the raging debate about standardizing digital cinema projection, to box office and concession sales-reporting systems, to patron/donor/ customer database systems, this was a nuts-and-bolts discussion about the costs and benefits of appropriately scaled technology for art houses. Emily Laskin, development director of the Sundance Institute, and Russ Collins, executive director of the Michigan Theater in Ann Arbor, presented a session on “The Not For Profit Model and Proven Fund Raising Methods.” It was helpful to hear the fundamentals reiterated in no uncertain terms. Besides box office and/or concessions revenue, it is essential for nonprofit art houses to seek contributed income from the community that they cultivate. The presenters stated that 80% to 90% of charitable giving comes from individuals, and the primary reason that they give is that they are asked. While businesses, government, and foundation grants can be important sources, individual contributions yield the best results. Emily Laskin’s basic
mantra was, “Get the gift. Get it repeated. Get it upgraded.” She also reminded us, “You don’t get milk from the cow by sending it a letter.” It requires a continuous commitment to informing, involving, and bonding with our constituencies. Given the seismic changes in the world of film consumption, it is little wonder that one of the liveliest panels was “New World Distribution—The Role of the Art House.” Peter Broderick, whose Paradigm Consulting helps filmmakers and media companies maximize distribution strategies, described a paradigm shift from a model in which the distributors had most of the power, leaving many filmmakers disappointed, to a new hybrid distribution model in which filmmakers assume more responsibility and benefit from multiple revenue streams coming directly back to them. Bob Berney, the legendary Midas of indie film distribution, and most recently president of the now defunct Picturehouse Films, talked about his experience dealing with the commercial pressures from corporate parents who are reluctant to admit that “the system is kind of broken.” Veteran indie producer Ted Hope also embraced the transformation to a new paradigm of creator-controlled content: more interaction with virtual and real audiences through multiple platforms, ranging from theatrical to digital downloads. Education took center stage in the session “Aligning Education with a Programming Mission for the Art House.” Steven Apkon and Emily Keating outlined the outstanding educational initiatives of the Jacob Burns Film Center in Pleasantville, New York. Their classes for adults, teens, and children have a strong emphasis on storytelling and helping people bring new stories into the world via digital audiovisual media. In a compelling video clip produced by students in their innovative World Crew program, we saw the impact on young filmmakers encountering their peers in Uganda with unforgettable stories to tell.
Producer Ted Hope wrapped up the conference with closing remarks. He took the opportunity to further articulate what the future might look like for independent film. The filmmaker of the future will dwell in a world of collapsing theatrical windows, declining film criticism, and diminished print advertising. There is a gap emerging between films with small budgets ($500,000 and below) and films financed by the studio “dependents,” with budgets north of $20 million, designed to capture awards as well as audiences. To complete a film is only half the job for filmmakers who must take a “long tail” approach to creating work that can remain relevant for years. Filmmakers must seek a dialogue with their audiences, while considering multiple methods of engaging them. Art house exhibitors often become the “places of worship” or “community centers” where this interaction can thrive and deepen. Despite the current economic challenges, Hope was optimistic about the future viability of independent film in which filmmakers collaborate with exhibitors to facilitate appreciation, community, and revenue. With that final pep talk under our belts, most of the conference participants gradually began the trek up the canyons to Park City and the first day of the Sundance Film Festival. In summary, the Art House Convergence proved to be a fruitful forum for networking and sharing best practices in protecting, promoting, and growing cinema culture in our communities nationwide. Save the date for next year’s Art House Convergence in Salt Lake City: January 12–14, 2010.
BRIAN HEARN is film curator at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.
Socialize With NAMAC! Are you active on other social networks? Are you looking for new ways to interact with NAMAC? Add, tweet or follow us! Official NAMAC social network accounts can be found on: • Twitter: @namac • Facebook: http://bit.ly/namacfacebook • Flickr: http://bit.ly/namacflickr • del.icio.us <http://del.icio.us> : http://delicious.com/namac
Come say hello! SPRING / SUMMER 2009
15
NON-PROFIT ORGANIZATION U S P O S TA G E
P A I D SAN FRANCISCO
145 9th Street, Ste. 102 San Francisco, CA 94103
NAMAC’s mission is to foster and fortify the culture and business of independent media arts. Through dialogue, collaboration, research, and advocacy, we connect, organize, and develop organizations.
NAMAC STAFF HELEN DE MICHIEL Co-Director helen@namac.org
CALIFORNIA PERMIT NO. 800
NAMAC BOARD David Dombrosky Center for Arts, Management & Technology Pittsburgh, PA
PRESIDENT Will K. Wilkins Real Art Ways Hartford, CT VICE PRESIDENT Nettrice R. Gaskins Massachusetts College of Art Boston, MA
Paul Espinosa Arizona State University Tempe, AZ
TREASURER Katy Chevigny Arts Engine New York, NY
Andrea Grover Founder, Aurora Picture Show Houston, TX
SECRETARY Sharese Bullock Producer New York, NY
Ken Ikeda Bay Area Video Coalition San Francisco, CA
Subscription to the NAMAC newsletter is a benefit of membership. To join NAMAC, visit www.namac.org.
Rebecca Campbell Austin Film Society Austin, TX
NAMAC’s programs are supported by the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the William and Floa Hewlett Foundation, The Fledgling Fund, The National Endowment for the Arts, The Tides Foundation, The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Arts and NAMAC members.
Gretjen Clausing Program Director Scribe Video Center Philadelphia, PA
Carol Stakenas LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibition) Los Angeles, CA
© 2009, National Alliance for Media Arts + Culture ISSN: 0889-8928 Design: Susan Davis / www.paintboxproductions.com Copy Editing: Karl Soehnlein
Pamela Colby The Minneapolis Telecommunications Network Minneapolis, MN
JACK WALSH Co-Director jack@namac.org DANIEL “DEWEY” SCHOTT Senior Manager of Leadership Services dan@namac.org YOLANDA HIPPENSTEELE Conference Producer yolanda@namac.org
NATIONAL ALLIANCE
16
SPRING / SUMMER 2009
Robert West Working Films Wilmington, NC Doug Whyte KDHX Community Media Portland, OR
FOR
MEDIA ARTS + CULTURE