What Everyone Ought to Know about Engaging in Asset Based Capacity Building

This session focuses on the distinct needs of small/midsize organizations and identifies how state arts agencies can tailor support—learning, networking or grants—to be useful to them. It draws on insights from 10 years of collaboration between Mid-America Arts Alliance and 80 cultural organizations in Houston, Texas, and Kansas City, Missouri.

Partnering for Pandemic Recovery

The scale of losses and the impact of permanent changes triggered by COVID-19 are more than any one agency or organization can address on its own. This session features examples of state arts agencies  in Pennsylvania, South Carolina and Vermont that are entering into innovative partnerships to leverage resources and help people and communities heal as we move into a postpandemic era.

Steps toward Greater Accessibility at Your State Arts Agency

Approximately 25% of all Americans live with a disability. Some disabilities are visible, some are not; some are temporary and some permanent. State arts agencies have an important leadership role to play in helping their communities to create more inclusive spaces and programs for people with disabilities. This session provides a look at the Breaking Barriers cultural accessibility project, a unique partnership between Art Access and the Utah Division of Arts & Museums, to provide disability accessibility training and mentorship for Utah’s cultural institutions.

Helping Nonprofit Arts Organizations Adopt Stronger DEI Practices

What technical assistance, training or consulting services can state arts agencies provide to strengthen diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) work at the grantee/community level? What strategies tend to be effective, and what could be counterproductive? Hear about various approaches that different states are pursuing. The Delaware Division of the Arts, Nevada Arts Council and North Carolina Arts Council share their experiences in working with constituents.

Successful State Level Advocacy Collaborations

State arts advocacy organizations and state arts agencies each have distinct roles to play when it comes to cultivating support for the arts. This session showcases ways that state arts agencies and citizen advocacy groups have joined forces to attain policy wins in challenging circumstances.

Belger Crane Yard Studios

Visit 100-year-old brick buildings that were transformed into a center for contemporary art and have some of the best views of Kansas City. Belger Crane Yard Studios is an arts complex dedicated to providing studio and exhibition space for artists, and a range of programming in ceramics education.

Your visit includes:

• tours of the Belger Crane Yard Gallery and Studios
• meeting artists from Belger’s Artists in Residence Program
• an in-studio clay demonstration
• a tour of the Lawrence Lithography Workshop with renowned master printer and founder Mike Sims, who’s worked with many contemporary art notables since 1979 (including Jaune Quick-to-See Smith, Roger Shimomura and Robert Stackhouse)

We hope you will visit all three of the Belger Arts locations–Belger Crane Yard Studios, Belger Arts Center and the Belger Glass Annex–while you are in Kansas City.

Charlotte Street Foundation

Charlotte Street centers Kansas City’s most forward-thinking visual artists, writers and performers, acting as the primary incubator, provocateur and connector for the region’s contemporary arts community, and its leading advocate on the national stage. Attend this session for a chance to see their incubation/collaboration space, enjoy an artistic experience and meet to speak with some of their artists on their changing needs.

Culture + Community in a Time of Transformation

As we emerge from the pandemic, how can our sector respond to the needs of communities and make our creative spaces relevant, inclusive and trustworthy? Culture + Community harvested data from hundreds of cultural organizations nationwide and delved into the experiences, values and hopes of arts participants. Attend this session to hear about findings that offer actionable information about how the arts sector can increase engagement, increase relevance and attain greater equity.

Supporting Teaching Artists’ Work in BIPOC Communities

State arts agencies play an important role in the development, engagement, employment and empowerment of teaching artists across the nation. A vital part of their work is equipping teaching artists with the skills to adapt to new learning environments, and that should include responding to the unique needs of distinct populations or exploring practices rooted in particular cultural traditions. A few states have programs in place that assist teaching artists and help support social equity in their work, but what about states that cannot put a full-fledged program in place? This session explores some ways that state arts agencies can equip their teaching artists with skills to work within cultural groups that differ from their own.

Advocates Abound!

There are many new state and national advocacy cohorts emerging, all working to grow support for the arts. This session offers a primer on who’s who in the arts advocacy landscape and how state arts agencies can stay apprised of their efforts.

Artist Workforce Strategies

The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant income losses for independent artists and creative workers. This trend is concerning not only because of the hardship it caused for artists and their families, but also because the creative economy relies on the robust production and engagement of artists. Attend this session to learn how a number of states and localities have launched new artist workforce programs to employ artists and lift up how they help communities address timely issues.

The Promise and Problems of the Arts in Rural Communities

Rural communities face challenges that are unique to their geographic and cultural settings. These often include impacts from increasing ecological changes, population shifts, resource limitations and complex cultural contexts. This session features a facilitated dialogue on the challenges and opportunities that state arts agencies face now and will face over the next decade with regard to the shifting landscape of their rural communities and the needs of the organizations and people that live there.

Climate Change, Migration and Sustaining Culture

Most of the focus around climate change has centered on the environmental impact, but cultures and communities will also experience displacement—predicted to be twice as large as the Great Migration from the U.S. South or flight during the Dust Bowl. State arts agencies, and the communities they serve, can be valuable allies in supporting cultural preservation for communities at risk and in preparing other communities to receive newcomers.

The Equity GAP Project

The Equitable Grantmaking Assessment Pilot (GAP) project examined the Ohio Arts Council’s general operating support grant-making systems to learn how that funding could better serve all Ohio communities, with a special focus on assisting BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and/or people of color), rural, low-income and disabled populations. This session shares insights and lessons learned that may be relevant to other states.