May, 2006

News from the Field

Ellen Butz began her tenure as the Executive Director of the Lower Adirondack Regional Arts Council. Ellen brings her considerable talent and experience to Glens Falls from Blue Mountain Lake.

We welcome Anne Conroy-Baiter, Executive Director of the Cattaraugus County Arts Council. We send our very good wishes to Susan Vahl who has retired due to a progressive neurological disorder.

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NYS Budget Update

We now have an increase of $7.1 million to the New York State Council on the Arts budget. But now we are watching Albany for the final outcome as we move through vetoes, negotiations, and threats of litigation.

I don't have to tell you it took a coordinated public and private effort to make that happen. As a result we are finally moving in the right direction after six long years.

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Advocacy Conversation: Another Conversation added for May 9

We need to keep our advocacy efforts moving.

That's why I am extending another invitation to you to join an Alliance Advocacy Conversation. May 5 at 1 pm is still open. Our May 2 Conversation is sold out, so we added another conversation date: May 9 at 1 pm to discuss the statewide advocacy initiative. Ask questions. Discuss plans. Suggest ideas. Hear from your colleagues. Straight talk that makes sense.

On this telephone call Judy Weiner and Sherre Wesley will address your questions and advocacy strategies that you can use in your community and at the county and state level. Just use this link to reserve your place on the call and submit your question:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.asp?u=367482070431

Mark your calendar. On the day of the call, we'll send you a confirmation email with the call-in information. We're looking forward to hearing from you and hearing your questions.

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Rural Arts Program Workshops: EMPOWERING YOUR ORGANIZATION

These workshops are developed by the Rural Arts Program of the Alliance of New York State Arts Organizations and have been planned to help board members and staff of rural arts organizations in their leadership and development roles.

* Wednesday, May 17th 5-7 pm, Mount Morris
"Board Roles, Recruitment & Training" with Anne Ackerson at Genesee Valley Council on the Arts, Building #4, Livingston County Campus. The workshop will focus on basic board roles and responsibilities and provide tools and insights into recruitment and training to build board effectiveness. Light supper provided. Cost is $10 per person. To register, call GVCA at 585-243-6785 or email: kathryn@gvcaonline.org.

* Wednesday, June 21st, 11 am - 2 pm, Saratoga Springs
"Cultivating New Audiences" with co-presenters Anne Ackerson and Martha Strodel, hosted by Saratoga County Arts Council: The Arts Center at 320 Broadway in Saratoga Springs. The workshop will explore changing demographics that affect audience development and provide examples of best practice techniques that can be adapted by local cultural organizations to widen attendance and support. Workshop participants are encouraged to bring samples of their audience/member surveys and development tools to share. For information and registration call 518-584-4132 or email: deeed@nycap.rr.com.

* Tuesday, June 27th, 11 am - 2 pm, Narrowsburg
"Using Technology to Build Audiences" with Chris Andreola of ADC Studio will explore using internet and email tools, electronic tracking of data and using data collection to build audiences and market services and programs. Delaware Valley Arts Alliance, 37 Main Street will host the workshop; lunch is included with the $10 per person fee. Contact DVAA at: 845- 252-7576 or email elaine@artsalliancesite.org.

* Wednesday, June 28th, 9 am - noon, Binghamton
"Board Training Workshop, or What Have I Got Myself Into?!" Presenter: Donna Hill, Program Officer, Community Foundation for South Central New York. Being a board member of a nonprofit is a privilege; it's also a responsibility. How does this play out on a day-to-day basis? The workshop will look at some of the practical issues re board membership, such as the respective roles of board and staff, the balance between governance and fundraising, ethics, and building effective board/staff partnerships. The workshop is presented as a service to non-profit arts and cultural organizations in Broome and Tioga counties. Broome County Arts Council will host the workshop at the Decker Cultural Center, 31 Front Street in Binghamton. Cost is $15; $10 for BCAC members. Call 607-723-4620, Ext. 301 or email: sball@artscouncil.com.

Light refreshments will be served at each of the workshops. Pre-registration for each workshop is advised; the registration deadline is two days prior to the workshop. To register or for directions to a workshop, call or email the host organization.

These workshops are supported in part by Corning Incorporated Foundation and the New York State Council on the Arts, State & Local Partnership Program.

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Regional Meetings

This year, the regional meetings will explore the issue of "Building New Audiences", a topic identified by the field in the 2005 online survey/regional forums/Think Tank, as a pressing issue facing community-based cultural organizations statewide.

Regional meetings, open to all arts and cultural organizations, will be a workshop format and group discussion of best practices. Content and handouts will be based on two resources that explore ways to build new audiences and relationships within the community: "The Values Study: Rediscovering the Meaning and Value of Arts Participation" published by the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism and "A New Framework for Building Participation in the Arts", a report by RAND that presents the findings of a study on arts organizations across the country who are actively expanding their efforts to increase public participation in their programs.

The meetings will also include timely updates and public policy issues, and the building of public discourse on the arts with the potential to increase audiences, donations, programs and public participation. The meetings are an opportunity to network with your peers and discuss issues of regional concern.

The Alliance thanks our Regional Meeting Hosts. Please plan to attend and pre-register for the Alliance regional meeting scheduled for your area by phone or email.

Hudson Valley/North Country
Tuesday, June 13, 3-5 pm: Westchester Arts Council, 31 Mamaroneck Avenue, White Plains, NY. This meeting will follow up on an evening session entitled "Gifts of the Muse", with a Wallace Foundation representative (funders of "The Values Study" done by the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism) and will be a discussion on the intrinsic value of the arts on June 5, 6:30- 8:30 p.m. For more information, contact Joanne Mongelli at 914-428-4220 or jMongelli@westarts.com.

Wednesday, June 14, 2-4 pm: Greene County Council on the Arts, the meeting will take place at the historic Thomas Cole House in Catskill, followed by a tour of the building and grounds at Cedar Grove. Contact Kay Stamer at: 914-943-3400 or kay@greenearts.org.

Thursday, June 15, 11-2 pm: hosted by Arts Council for the Northern Adirondacks and will be held at Blue Seed Studio in Saranac Lake. Caroline Rubino will also present information about the Creative Industries Report and North Country participation in an NEA Arts & Economic Impact Study. A light lunch will be provided. Contact Caroline or Karen at: 518-962-8778 or: artsco@westelcom.com.

Southern Tier/Western New York
Tuesday, July 18, 3-5 pm: hosted by ARTS of the Southern Finger Lakes, 32 West Market Street, Corning. Contact Ginny Lupi at 607-962-5871 or glupi@stny.rr.com.

Wednesday, July 19,, 10 am - 12 noon at Arts & Cultural Council of Greater Rochester, 277 North Goodman Street, Rochester. Contact Christina Laurel at 585-473-4000 EXT 222 or: claurel@artsrochester.org.

Thursday, July 20, 12 noon-2 pm: hosted by Arts Council in Buffalo and Erie County at location to be announced. Light lunch to be provided. Contact: Celeste Lawson at: 716-856-7520 or celeste.lawson@artscouncilbuffalo.org.

Long Island
Tuesday, July 25, 10 am - 12 noon at Huntington Arts Council, 213 Main Street, Huntington. Contact Diana Cherryholmes at 631-271-8423, EXT 13 or huntarts@optonline.net

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Alliance Strategic Plan Goals 2006 - 2010

The annual two day Alliance Board Planning Retreat in January in NYC brought the Board and the staff together in a series of intensive strategic planning meetings facilitated by Consultant Anne Ackerson. The follow-up in March in Albany produced the clearly defined goals and strategies below which we are pleased to share with you.

VISION
We envision a future where the art and cultural organizations in New York State have the resources and potential to engage all residents in the arts.

MISSION
Providing essential leadership and services to empower New York State arts and cultural organizations.

GOALS
* Professional and Organizational Development
To promote and encourage professional development and capacity-building of arts organizations through education, training, and best practices development.

* Connectivity
To facilitate a lively community of practice among arts organizations that encourages information sharing, collaboration and a sense of ownership in the Alliance.

* Advocacy
To champion the values and needs of arts organizations and secure better funding for the field.

* Alliance Sustainability
To meet the changing needs of the state's arts community by being an effective, responsive and sustainable organization.

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Succession and Transition in the Field

The Alliance is playing close attention to the crisis of executive leadership across the state and the country. We began highlighting it in the April Member Memo and continue here with the following from the Museum Association of New York.

Museum Association of New York Publishes White Paper, Who's Next? Questioning the Future of Museum Leadership in New York State Who will mind the store? That is the theme of a white paper released by the Museum Association of New York (MANY) at its annual meeting April 9 in Saratoga Springs, N.Y. Titled "Who's Next?: Questioning the Future of Museum Leadership in New York State" the 22-page report examines the changes in leadership the museum field faces when a generation of baby boomers retire.

"The evidence was overwhelming," Anne Ackerson, MANY executive director said. "If the figures are correct, the state's museum community could lose one quarter of its workforce to retirement in the next 14 years. One of the challenges MANY set for itself in its most recent strategic plan is to support professionalization, training and leadership programs for museums. This changing of the guard was something we had to investigate." If the statistics are correct, New York's museum community will lose 3,000 or more veteran workers along with a wealth of experience. The white paper suggests there may not be enough able and willing leaders to fill the positions.

The museum field is not alone the report points out and the demographics are the same everywhere. One quarter of the country's population will be between 45 and 64 by 2010, with many in that same group anticipating retirement by 2020. The Museum Association of New York wanted to know what these figures could mean for the state's 12,000 museums. Even if employment were to remain stable, the white paper points out, New York state's museum field will continue to grow because the State Board of Regents issues an average of 28 provisional charters each year for new museums and heritage organizations which will require full-or part-time directors.

Fueled by national data as well as in house surveys of New York's museum community, MANY launched a series of conversations to gather more information. "We focused on the broadest possible question," Ackerson said. "Where and how will museums find future leaders?" In three separate discussions in Rochester, Albany and New York, MANY invited current and emerging leaders, graduate students and those running graduate programs to discuss questions of leadership and more particularly leadership in transition. The discussions focused on the importance of mid-career training, the value of mentoring, the need for continuing partnership between the museum field and museum studies graduate programs and the need for succession planning.

At the conclusion of its white paper, MANY proposes leading a partnership of the state's museum service agencies, graduate programs and the New York State Council on the Arts to create a leadership initiative to address these issues and lays out an Agenda for Building Leadership, a series of challenges for the field. Companion discussion guides, Around the Water Cooler, are based on the white paper and are designed to help staffs and boards get talking about succession planning and institutionalizing professional development opportunities.

Download Who's Next?
Questioning the Future of Museum Leadership in New York State

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FEDERAL UPDATE

NEA APPROPRIATIONS UPDATE
The arts community supports a budget of $170 million for the NEA, an increase from the current level of $124.4 million.

The Administration's FY 2007 budget request called for level funding of $124.4 million. The request includes an unwelcome cut of about $3.5 million from the NEA's successful Challenge America program in favor of other NEA programs. The congressionally-popular Challenge America program has enabled the NEA to make direct grants in every congressional district across the country.

At the same time, the Congressional Arts Caucus circulated a Dear Colleague letter asking that NEA funding be restored to $170 million. 122 members signed the letter. Restored funding would allow the NEA to give significant increases to all of its core grantmaking programs, including Challenge America.

ARTS EDUCATION APPROPRIATIONS UPDATE
Arts advocates support an appropriation for the U.S. Department of Education's arts education programs of $53 million, an increase from current spending of $35.3 million. Each year, the administration has proposed zeroing out the program, but the chairmen of the full Appropriations Committee and the Labor-HHS-Education Subcommittee, respectively - include funding for it in their bill.

Last month, a Dear Colleague was submitted requesting $53 million for the Arts in Education programs at the U.S. Department of Education. The 2006 letter, with 136 signatures, represents a new level of support for arts education.

ART-FRIENDLY PROVISIONS OF TAX RECONCILIATION BILL IN QUESTION
When Congress left for recess at the end of March, a conference committee was still working on the tax reconciliation bill (H.R. 4297). The Senate version of the bill includes several provisions of interest to the arts, including a long-sought provision allowing artists to claim a tax deduction for the fair market value of works that they donate for mission-related use by charitable organizations.

The artist provision is part of a larger package in the Senate that would change charity law in a number of ways. Part of the package would provide new incentives for charitable giving, while the other part would reform several areas of charitable governance and practice. Some published reports say that the entire charity package has been dropped by the conference committee, while others maintain that it is still on the table.

HEARING ON PUBLIC DIPLOMACY AND CULTURAL EXCHANGE SET FOR MAY
The House State, Science, Justice, and Commerce Appropriations Subcommittee is scheduled to hold a hearing in May on public diplomacy programs at the U.S. State Department. An important part of the public diplomacy initiative is the cultural exchange program, which makes grant awards available to local arts agencies and others to assist with their international exchange efforts.

The House Government Reform Committee held a hearing on, "The Impact of Visa Processing Delays on the Arts, Education, and American Innovation." One of the witnesses testifying was internationally known cellist Yo-Yo Ma, who spoke about the impact delays in visa processing has had on the arts community.

The Alliance of New York State Arts Organizations has a long history as New York’s service association for arts and cultural organizations. The Alliance provides leadership and vision, and delivers services, resources and tools that strengthen cultural organizations. The Alliance informs the field on statewide and national issues affecting the arts and assists local arts agencies in building community support.

P.O. Box 96
Mattituck, NY 11952-0096
Phone (631) 298-1234 / Fax (631) 298-1101