Bau’s Blaug
The latest news from “the Big Cheese” – Executive Director Bau Graves.
Mister Graves Goes To Washington
Yesterday, an extraordinary meeting that would have been unthinkable just a few months ago took place in Washington. I was privileged to be among a group of sixty arts leaders from around the country who were invited to participate in a White House briefing about “Art, Community, Social Justice and National Recovery.” The assembled cultural advocates included musicians, dancers, poets, hip hop activists, union organizers, theater people, media artists and champions of social change with impressive credentials – none of whom had ever been invited to the White House. Mike Strautmanis, Chief of Staff for the Office of Public Engagement, opened the meeting by saying “Welcome to a relationship!”
While we did not get to meet President Obama (he was busy with other things, among them naming a new Chair for the NEA and participating in the first ever White House poetry slam), we did hear from a string of aides with responsibility for overseeing the variety of intersections between art and our government. The message that they delivered was clear and unambiguous: “The arts are back on the nation’s agenda.” The President frequently noted during his campaign the centrality of creativity to our national future, and that leads directly to a commitment to the sustained support of the arts. His team asked for our assistance and guidance in shaping future initiatives. Kareem Dale, Obama’s chief advisor on cultural policy asked us to consider “how can you challenge us to be better?” For the assembled arts activists who have spent their entire careers working with meager resources while being politically marginalized, this was an unprecedented acknowledgment of the importance of our work. Several of the speakers singled out Old Town School as an example of how the arts can transform lives and communities. It was a remarkable experience.
And now comes the hard part. The Obama Administration has reached out to us, and very explicitly invited us to be a part of a dialogue. It is now up to us to respond with care, with creativity, with nuance, and with a vision that can energize our nation. An opportunity of this magnitude is rare and precious. Let’s seize the time! Policy debates about a national Artist Corps, a new WPA for the Arts, and the demonopolization of the media are all in the air. But what do you think? Old Town School is at the center of the conversation. I invite everyone in our community to take up the challenge and imagine what the future could hold. Just what does “change we can believe in” really look like? Let me know. Let’s have the conversation here and now. Responses to this blog will be collected and condensed and passed along to our colleagues who are now beginning to draft policy recommendations, and ultimately forwarded to the White House. This is a time for our very best thinking. We may never have another shot at it.
Filed under: Uncategorized by Bau | May 13, 2009 | Comments (11)
