How Will Our Arts Communities be Impacted by the 2013 Americans for the Arts Convention?

Here we go again – another annual AFTA convention in Pittsburgh, June 14-16, 2013. I think this will be my 8th or 9th convention. There is no published theme for the convention, however the website talks about the overarching topic of storytelling and messaging. As usual, there are several pre-conference offerings. They are Cultural Districts, Emerging Leaders, and Public Art. In addition, the various business type councils (such as united arts funds, urban arts federation, arts education, private sector) will be taking the opportunity to meet.

The schedule has been described in ‘tracks’ – Discussions, Workshops, and an Innovators speaker series.  The schedule can be easily organized by the track you wish to follow, or your choice from the scheduled listings. In reviewing the schedule, here are some of the offering areas:

·      Reviewing Business Models

·      Arts Education

·      Your Local Cultural Ecosystem

·      Resources and Services for Artists

·      Income Streams

·      Role of Arts Agencies

·      Partnering with Business

·      Civic and Community Identity

And, of course, the Keynotes, Art Venture Tours, receptions and late night jam sessions! But really, when you get down to it, the real value is in the networking with colleagues – reconnecting with old friends and meeting new ones. The opportunity to share, learn, and grow are incalculable.  Perhaps the deepest value of this is being reminded that others share your issues and problems so you are not alone, and to have our passion for the work we do rekindled.

I am personally looking forward to our conversation with some of the participants and Advisory Council with the National Endowment for theArts’ creative economy definitional research that has been in process for months. This research was submitted by the Creative Economy Coalition of the National Creativity Network in collaboration with Creative Alliance Milwaukee. Margaret Collins (Center for Creative Economy, Winston-Salem), Dennis Cheek (National Creativity Network) and I are in the throes of putting together the final report now. We will be submitting to the NEA by end of August. Watch this space!

But then again, I wonder about the bigger picture at AFTA. Will we really collectively tackle the issues facing us – how do we reach more audience, is our connection to the creative economy hurting or helping us, what changes in programming and product delivery do we need to make for more relevance in today’s community, what will we all do as soon as we get back home to improve the trajectory of our organizations – or are we just nibbling around the edges?

Don’t get me wrong – I love the networking and the learning, but I have been around long enough (have been in arts administration for over 30 years) to witness way too often patting ourselves on the back, focusing on advocating for public funds at the expense of developing new earned revenue strategies, and not getting into the nitty gritty of discussing the impact of larger societal trends on our work and sustainability.

Collaborative discussion and collective impact is tough work, particularly with a large crowd, but if I were to wish one thing about this convention it would be that we dive deep into the tough stuff collectively, roll around in the mud, and get a newly invigorated conversation about our future underway.

The TIME Creativity Poll and Creativity Conference

On April 26, in a one-of-a-kind event, the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) convened leaders from the world of politics, media, business and government to engage in a direct dialogue about the role creativity plays in our economy and in creating the workforce of the future in Washington, DC. The Creativity Conference brought together many of the most important artists and innovators of our time from all parts of society for a mediated conversation about spurring growth and opportunity based on creativity. This event was presented in partnership with TIME and Microsoft.

Panelists and speakers included President Bill Clinton, TIME Managing Editor Rick Stengel, film studio executive Harvey Weinstein, House majority leader Eric Cantor, and the chairman and CEO of the MPAA Chris Dodd. They discussed questions that are fundamental to the future of the country–from the push to develop environments that inspire creativity to how our leaders can harness the power of a workforce that is moving from industrial manufacturing to the tapping of the creative mind. You can watch speaker highlights here.

In advance of the conference, TIME conducted a poll on creativity and the economy. More than 7 in ten people say the current economic situation makes creativity more important, and even over 8 in 10 think America should be considered a global leader in creativity.

Here are the results:

* 72% say creativity is more important in today's economy
* Of those who say America is not the creative leader, 31% say that American schools are not building creativity in students and 30% say that the American government is not doing enough to support creativity
* 55% say that technology is making Americans more creative, while 32% think it is making us less creative
* 81% of employees say creativity is important to them in the workplace, with 41% of them saying very important
* 31% say that their employers place little to no value on creativity

This says we have an imperative opportunity that if we don't do something about could cost us global competitive edge. The poll shows we agree that improving our creativity capacity is critical today and yet our schools are not doing enough to build creativity and employees think their employers don't value it very much. This disconnect needs to be addressed and shifted so that we prioritize and support advancing our community's creativity.

You can access the TIME poll here.

The Link Between More Creativity and a Stronger Economy

 

The 2010 IBM Global CEO study, called Capitalizing on Complexity, revealed that over 1500 CEO’s consider creativity to be the number one leadership capacity needed to manage the complex issues of our global economy.

You see it all around you these days – we need to be more creative to be more competitive in today’s global economy; our children are not being better prepared for the creativity needed in the 21^st Century workforce; our creativity is too tied to our technological devices, etc. Messages about creativity are coming from the business world, the human development and psychology world, and the educational pundits. Basically, they are all saying that without more creativity in our workplace we will not have the kind of innovative nation that will fuel continued growth.

So, how can we link our creativity to building a stronger economy? We’ll look at three connections – personal, educational, and corporate.

First, make it a priority to invest in developing your own personal creative capacities.  Here are some resources that could be helpful.  The Four Steps Toward an Everyday Creativity blog by Beth Robinson – develop an insight outlook, build a tool box of problem solving techniques, capture your ideas, use your eyes to help your mind. Another group blog on How to Enhance Personal Creativity. And, from the Merit Resource Group,  Top Ten Keys to Developing Personal Creativity. Basically, believe that you are inherently creative, break out of everyday routines, identify steps of the creative process that work for you, and make it a habit to deliberately practice some element of the creative process everyday.

Second, help your community reframe the conversation about arts education in our schools.  For decades the research has been proving that arts education helps develop creative and critical thinking capacities, team development, cultural understanding, higher academic performance, and keeps at-risk youth in school. And yet, not only has the needle has not moved on access to quality arts education for every student across the grades, budgets have been cut and specialist art teachers have been eliminated. There is no correlation built between an education that includes the arts and being a more creatively productive member of the workforce.

So, it's time to change the conversation. Let’s talk about creative education – including art, music, theater, dance, multi and interactive media, design – and how experience in these areas builds our individual and collective creativity capacities.  And, let’s make sure that we develop assessment protocols that measure growth in creative capacity.

Third, let’s get our definitions accurate in the corporate lexicon. From my research, I have learned that the business community often prefers to talk about ‘innovation’ versus ‘creativity’. Why?  Because they think that innovation means product, productivity and profit whereas creativity is artsy and squishy. But the truth is, you will not have innovation without creativity. In order to optimize our innovation potential we need to maximize our creative capacities. I am reminded of the ICI continuum: Imagination = conceiving of what is not; Creativity = applied imagination; and Innovation = novel or unique creativity. There is an inherent process that is important to recognize and language appropriately.

If we get serious about building the creative capacities of our communities on an individual and collective basis, then we will have built a foundational and self-sustaining link between our development and growing a stronger, more globally competitive economy.