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.

And another groundbreaking study – this one conducted by George Washington University – measured the health differential between senior citizens who are regular participants in community based cultural programs (i.e. music lessons), and those who are not artistically engaged. All of the subjects of this study had already lived beyond statistical life expectancy. The findings are striking and unequivocal: the arts participators enjoyed “better health, fewer doctor visits, and less medication usage; more positive responses on the mental health measures; and more involvement in overall activities.” The study notes, “The significance of art programs is that they foster sustained involvement because of their beauty and productivity. They keep the participants involved week after week, compounding positive effects.” The report summarizes: its results “point to true health promotion and disease prevention effects.”

Those of us who have made a life in music know intimately its profound positive effects, both on ourselves as music makers and on our listeners. We know the power of the social matrix within which music so frequently unfolds, and the deep satisfaction of participation as a small part of a vastly greater whole. Now it turns out that all along music has not just been nurturing our spirits, it’s been helping to build strong bodies twelve ways, too. We shoulda known. No wonder Old Town School shines with such a glow of good health.

As a teenager, my Mom used to frequently yell at me, “Turn down that @#%& electric guitar!” Now I know the correct reply really should have been, “Keep listening, Ma. It’s good for you!”

Old Town School is an incubator of such sentiments, as current statistics attest. For the eight-week session of classes that began on March 1, the School has taken in 7,233 registrations, an all-time record. This success is attributable to the dedication and talent of the 230 teaching artists whose work is at the heart of the Old Town School experience. Every day, seven days a week, they facilitate the face-to-face encounter that transforms a roomful of private individuals into a cohesive aesthetic force – and that is an act of magic.

Attendance at performances is strong, too. The 38 concerts produced so far in 2009 have been well-attended and enthusiastically-received. That includes artists from ten different countries, kids’ shows, rock, jazz, blues, country, Cajun, and lots more – and doesn’t even take into account several hundred student performances and field trips.

As Director of Old Town School, I am required to be concerned about the impact that the global economic crisis may have on our School and community. Yesterday’s assumptions will probably not hold water tomorrow. But it is exceedingly gratifying to see that, especially in troubled times, the services that we provide are clearly valued so highly by so many. Through the continued support and avid participation of this community, Old Town School of Folk Music will not simply survive, it will thrive.

Dear Congresspeople, allow me to present economic stimulus exemplar number one: the Old Town School of Folk Music. When Old Town School moved into the former library at Lincoln Square in 1998, this stretch of Lincoln Avenue was derelict. People worried if it was safe to come here. The School rebuilt an abandoned historic building, created new and sustainable jobs for several hundred creative workers, brought hundreds of people into the neighborhood every single day, offered an extremely broad range of free, public, family-friendly events, and jump-started the revitalization of Lincoln Square. Today, our neighborhood is thriving, filled with restaurants and retail, and allegedly it is one of the few areas in Chicago where property values are still climbing.

There are several banks in Lincoln Square, but you cannot convince me that the renaissance that this neighborhood has experienced is due to the opening of those bank branches. Old Town School was and is the most potent economic stimulus package in this part of town.

Artists’ jobs matter just as much as bricklayers or bankers. The “creative economy” in aggregate comprises more than 4% of the national workforce – more than either bricklayers or bankers. What is wrong with our government, that refuses to offer support to those with a positive track record of actually providing an economic stimulus, while offering more billions to those whose greed caused the current crisis in the first place?

But if the world is turning, it is surely turning in a direction that feels comfortably familiar to the Old Town School community. Our new leader calls on us to address the challenges of our time with a spirit of generosity, an acceptance of others, and a commitment to justice. He proposes a national consciousness guided by values of inclusion, not exclusivity; inquiry, not arrogance. Old Town School of Folk Music was a child of the great American folk music revival of the 1950s and ‘60s – a social movement rooted in precisely the values that again motivate our body politic.

The School was, and remains, an experiment in using music and art to forge something more – an open, caring and sharing community; an institution that embodies its beliefs. There was always plenty of room in our chorus for everybody. The earliest teachers represented the full spectrum of our community, including bluesmen, banjo pickers and Latin American songs. The performances today at the Capitol and Lincoln Memorial echo the meaning that has motivated Old Town School from the very beginning.

Now that the zeitgeist is awakening, we have an opportunity to show them what we’ve been practicing for 51 years. And unlike any other time in our history, the Old Town School experience is running in synchronicity with the American experience. Let’s show them what we can do. This is our time.

In January, a delegation of five teachers from Old Town School will spend two weeks visiting folk music schools in Mexico. Gail Tyler, Anacron, Shana Harvey, Lanialoha Lee and Jason McInnes will culminate their trip attending the annual Encuentro de las Jarañeras in the colonial city of Tlacotalpan. In February, teacher Nathaniel Braddock and Community Partnerships Manager Nashma Carrera will attend the Dakhla Festival in Morocco as guests of the Moroccan Ministry of Culture. Colby Maddox, Mark Dvorak and Paul Tyler will travel to teach and perform in Helsinki, Finland this June. Bill Brickey and Jimmy Tomasello will spend the month of July as guest teachers at the College of Improvising Music in Moscow, Russia. There’ll be a blog space on the website for all these voyageurs to provide us with a running travelogue – stay posted. And guest teachers are coming to Chicago as well: we’ll have a master fiddler from Finland in residence for the month of September, and a duet of singer-instrumentalists from Newcastle-Upon-Tyne in Britain as guest teachers-in-residence during October.

This is a lot of activity, but it is a harbinger of additional opportunities to come. As international exchange becomes a part of the fabric of our community, many more teachers will have the chance to journey abroad, and we’ll all have an opportunity to meet new friends from around the world.

Well, you responded in a flood of generosity. The donations have been flowing in all week faster than we can process them. As of Monday, December 15, the desk staff has taken in $18,400 in contributions and new memberships, and there’s no sign of a slowdown. In addition, class registrations and ticket sales for the term beginning January 5 are robust.

While the rest of the country is falling apart, here is an institution that is, literally, self-sustaining. That’s a feat that General Motors and Wall Street banks have not mastered. Sure, Old Town School is a part of the national economy — money does change hands. But the strength of this institution is grounded in something more fundamental than a mere financial transaction: the face-to-face encounter of people sharing a passion. Everybody here — teachers, students, staff, performers — gives a little every day. But what we get in return can’t be measured by any kind of economic calculus.

We hear a lot about the spirit of giving at this time of the year. Old Town School of Folk Music nurtures a community that doesn’t restrict its expression to one special day, but offers it freely all day, every day, all year long. Everyone who enters here knows that is a special gift, indeed. And when the world is cold, it matters all the more. Together, we make it all possible. Thanks.

What does this mean for 2009 and beyond? The Capital Campaign for our new facility across Lincoln Avenue continues with our dedicated and experienced team of staff, volunteers and consultants. Our architect is days away from completion of design development for a state-of-the-art(s), LEED-certified, music and dance facility, and we are now beginning the zoning/permitting process. Most of our fundraising efforts in the next year will be devoted to pursuing commitments from large institutional donors, with the expectation that we will be able to break ground in 2010. You’ll be hearing a lot more about this exciting new phase in the School’s evolution.

With some belt-tightening, Old Town School is proposing a balanced budget for 2009. Since fundraising for next year must necessarily be projected very conservatively, this means that every expenditure has been scrutinized very carefully. The School is delivering its product with a high level of efficiency – every donated dollar is stretched as far as it can go. Fortunately, the School continues to enjoy a very high percentage of earned income through class registrations, ticket sales, and our music stores – about 87% in 2009. This is eloquent testimony to the core idea that is the arts are for everybody, and to our talented faculty who prove that it is true every day. When times are hard, it’s a good time to pick up an instrument and sing together.

We’re now firing up our fall Membership Campaign. Old Town School Memberships support community access programs such as financial aid, outreach to public schools, and free weekly performances. We hope you’ll choose to extend your generosity in support of these important programs. Our role is to nurture a celebratory aspect of the human spirit that soars when it is needed the most – in trying times like these. Communal music making: it’s a renewable heat source that we keep burning seven days a week to keep those icy winds at bay. It works for bankers and brokers, too.

Extended planning meetings with every segment of the School community produced a wealth of insight into how our classrooms actually function. Those insights are being incorporated in dozens of design modifications that separate a good building from a great one. Things like: built-in computer terminals and sound cabinets in every classroom; ample in-room storage space for everything from hula hoops to djembes; walls laid out slightly off-parallel to eliminate reverberation; clerestory windows flooding dance studios with natural light; cubbies on the far side of the room so students can keep an eye on their stuff while they dance; and our very own Schroeder Diffuser.

A Schroeder Diffuser is a surface broken up into multiple, apparently-haphazard angled planes, employed by acousticians who need to “deaden” a room. You may have seen one in a recording studio or radio station. The wall essentially “soaks up” audio waves. Our architects at VOA Associates have designed an entire interior surface, from the ground to the roof, as one giant Schroeder Diffuser. The result should be a building safe for the random music-making that makes our School so welcoming but can often turn a normal conversation in the lobby into a shouting match. Imagine enjoying that jam session in the hall – and conducting business at the front desk, too! Coming soon to a School near you.

Floor plans and renderings of the building can be viewed in the admin suite or teachers’ lounge. Our window of opportunity for your great suggestions is still open. Thanks!

This week, the School is hosting a meeting of 25 organizations from all over the United States to discuss how we might change that. Jointly sponsored by Old Town School and the Fund for Folk Culture, the first Water The Roots national convening includes concert presenters, festival organizers, directors of folk schools, ethnic service organizations and other arts professionals. For three days, September 25 – 27, we’ll discuss the formation of a network of folk arts organizations that could advocate for more attention from funders, raise its own funds independently, and develop vehicles for funneling money to working folk artists. Other disciplines (dance, jazz, avant-garde performance art) have created consortia that have delivered tangible benefits to aspiring artists – we aspire to do the same for the folk arts.

I’m proud to say that Old Town School is taking a leadership role in generating this dialogue. While our colleagues are here to talk about the state of our field, they’ll also have a few days to observe Old Town School of Folk Music in action. Please go out of your way to welcome our visitors and inspire them by the example we set here every day.