212th National Council on the Arts Public Meeting, March 27, 2024

I'd like us to pause. As. As you may know, lives were lost in the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. And as we advance our work on intentionally integrating arts, culture and design into all facets of society. Let's not forget the workers of all kinds who make that possible. And for them, please, a moment of silence. Thank you for the record. Joining us in person are Ishmael Ahmed of Michigan, Bitar Becker of Navajo Nation, Bruce Carter of Florida, Gretchen Gonzales, Davidson of Michigan,

Maria de Leon of Texas, Christopher Morgan of California. Fiona Wieland, Prine of Tennessee. Connie Williams of Pennsylvania. And joining us virtually are Keenan as mayor of New York, Michael Lombardo of California, Jake Shimabukuro of Hawaii, Wiseguy Medina of Kansas, N.M., King of New York, Paul Hodes of Maine, Aaron Dworkin of Michigan. Camilla Forbes of New York. Absent today are Deepak Gupta of Illinois and Ronnie Ramaswamy of Minnesota. Established by Congress in 1965, the National Endowm

ent for the Arts is an independent federal agency charged with making the arts available to all Americans by advancing equitable opportunities for arts participation and practice. The NEA fosters and sustains an environment in which the arts benefit everyone in the United States. We're a funder, a grant maker, and also a national resource, a convener connector or catalyst. We bolster arts, design and culture in all communities. The National Council on the Arts advises on agency policies, program

s and grants for our first order of business. Can I get a motion to approve the minutes of the October 2023 Council meeting? Thank you. Second. Thank you all in favor of I post. Thank you. Now, please welcome Ayanna Hudson, Chief Strategy programs and Engagement officer at the NEA. Good morning. I'm an African-American woman with long, dark hair. I'm wearing. Glasses, red lipstick, and a black. And blue suit. Good morning, council members. We will proceed with the application review section of t

he agenda. The tally of the votes will be announced at the end of today's session. The council will be voting by ballot today on award. Recommendations totaling. More than one. Hundred and $15 million and three funding areas. Grants for arts projects, state and regional partnerships and national initiatives. These funding recommendations are found in the corresponding sections of the Council book. For your vote to be tallied, you must be either present in the room, on the telephone line, or join

the meeting via video conference. At the time of the motion discussion and vote. Council members join us by phone or via teleconference. You must email your votes to Kim Jefferson in this category immediately at the conclusion of this part of the meeting. Council members affiliations are recorded in the Council book and will be attached to your ballot, and each member has been provided an opportunity to update this information prior to the meeting. Council members are recorded as not voting on

applications with which they are affiliated. This list becomes part. Of the agency's official. Record. Of a motion to consider the recommended grants and rejections under grants for arts projects, state and regional partnerships and national initiatives in the. Council book submit their second session. Thank you. Now summarize. The funding. Areas on which you will be voting and then pass for any comments or questions from council members. The grants for arts projects or Categories. The Principal

Grants Program of the National Endowment for the Arts through project based funding. The program supports opportunities for public engagement with the arts and arts education and for the integration of the arts with strategies promoting the health and well-being of people and communities, and for the improvement of the overall capacity and capabilities within the arts sector. Gap encourages projects that use the arts to unite and heal in response to current events, as well as elevate artists as

integral and essential to a healthy and vibrant society. Celebrate America's creativity and our cultural heritage and facilitate cross-sector collaborations that center the arts at the intersection of other disciplines, sectors and industries. Projects recommended today comprise the second group of Ccap applications brought to the Council this fiscal year. The first half was considered at the October 2023 meeting and July 20, 23. The agency received 2129 eligible applications, requesting nearly

111 seven $111,700,000 in FY 24 support recommended for. The Council's approval. Or 1142 projects totaling more than $37,700,000. Grants are recommended to 54. Percent. Of all applicants, with amounts ranging. From 10000 to $150000. Recommended projects span 13 disciplines and fields. Direct grants are recommended to 48 states. The district of Columbia and Puerto Rico. Please mark your ballot. State and regional partnerships assist the nation state arts agencies and regional arts organizations

in their support. For the arts. By law, 40% of arts endowment appropriated program funds are awarded. In this. Way. State arts agencies will utilize NEA support in combination with state appropriate funding to support arts organizations, schools and artists in producing arts projects in communities all across the country. This year, more than $55 million is being recommended for the states and $11,700,000 for the regions. Please mark your ballot. National initiatives support a wide variety. Of p

rojects of national and field y significance. At this meeting, the Council is requested to approve funding for projects totaling more than $9,300,000. Support is requested for an arts education initiative, the Arts Education Partnership, or AP. The AP demonstrates. And promotes the essential role of the. Arts in enabling every student to succeed in school and prepare for life and work in the 21st century. The Creative Placemaking Technical Assistance Initiative, which provides assistance in exec

uting creative placemaking projects in rural, tribal, suburban and urban communities to grantees of and prospective applicants to our Town program and to the larger creative placemaking field. The production and management of public events for the National Endowment for the Arts National Heritage Fellowship Program, which annually honors American folk and traditional artists or groups of artists for their contribution to our national cultural mosaic. Three projects in international Activities Th

e Performing Arts Global Exchange, a program designed to provide. Broader. Access to the work of international artists and art forms less frequently seen outside of major urban centers in the United States. The Performing Arts Discovery Program, an initiative to introduce international presenters to U.S. performing artists and companies, thereby reducing barriers for American artists to perform overseas. And U.S. Artists International, a program showcasing the excellence, diversity and vitality

of U.S. artists and arts organizations and international arts markets and other significant cultural events around the world. The Renewal of. Poetry out Loud. Another of the agency's signature national initiatives and literary arts, the NEA Big Read, The Independent Film and Media Arts Initiative, which will focus on knowledge and exchange and peer. Learning. With an emphasis on regional networks, equity and career sustainability for individual is working in the film and media arts industry. A c

ooperative agreement. To support the production and management of the NEA Jazz Master Ceremony and Tribute Concert, which honors the National Endowment for the Arts Jazz Masters Fellows, the 2025 Class of any eight Jazz Masters Fellows. The musical theater songwriting challenge for high school students. 68. Recommendations in Our Town. Which will help transform American communities into. Lively, beautiful and resilient places with the arts at their. Core. The renewal of 11. National Endowment fo

r the Arts Research Labs, which will focus on the arts, creativity, cognition and learning, as well as the arts, health and social, emotional well-being and the renewal of a Sound Health Network initiative, which will regularly convene experts. In music. Neuroscience, health and wellness, and will identify and promote research findings and Shakespeare in American communities. In which professional theater companies will bring performances. And educational activities to middle and high school stu

dents, as well as support apprenticeships for early and mid-career theater administrators and technicians. Across the country. Please mark your ballot. Council members joining. Remotely. You may now email your votes to Kim Jefferson on those categories. And finally, we turn our attention to the Projects and award Updates section. These grants have been awarded under the Chairman's delegated authority and are brought to the Council's attention at this meeting. But no vote is necessary. Included a

re 255 Challenge AmeriCorps grants totaling $2,550,000, which will extend the reach of the visual performing and literary arts activities in underserved communities across the country. Three 20% amendments and One Chair's Extraordinary Action Grants. Thank you all. Thank you, Ayanna. I'll take the next few minutes to share some updates and insights. Since our last council meeting in October, it was a busy and productive winter for all of us at the Arts Endowment. In the past few months, I've had

an opportunity to travel with NEA staff to urban and rural communities, announced over $32 million of grant awards launched arts here to support arts ecosystems serving underserved populations, and with the Domestic Policy Council at the White House, held a national convening on the role of arts and culture in building healthy communities. In early November, the NEA traveled with our colleagues at the National Endowment for the Humanities to Mississippi. Our trip included several extraordinary

experiences that underscored how essential the arts and humanities are in rural and urban places in Utica. We visited the Mississippi Center for Cultural Production, or SIP Culture, and learned about a community revitalization strategy anchored in honoring the history of a place advancing the work of artists and reconnecting to the town's agrarian roots. Throughout our visit in the Jackson area, we witnessed the power and legacy of historically black colleges and universities, including Jackson

State University, D, Tougaloo College and Hinds Community College. In each chair, Shelley Lowe and I spoke at the Phillis Wheatley Poetry Festival at Jackson State University City, discussing the power of the arts and humanities in providing information to and also providing information to the audience about the work of our agencies. The festival was a historic and inspiring event, celebrating black women writers across the generations and their contributions as steward and makers of our history

, heritage, and our humanity. In January, I participated at the Sphinx Connect, convening in Detroit, Michigan, joining National Council on the Arts member Aaron Dworkin in conversation about living art for lives, the power of the arts, and expressing our full humanity and uplifting our communities and diversity, equity and inclusion in arts, Leadership. In addition to the Sphinx Connect convening, I visited New York in January, delivering the keynote address at the Chamber Music American Nation

al Conference. I spoke on the role of music in promoting well-being and the vital role that chamber musicians and ensembles play in the arts landscape and the ways in which the NEA is showing up as a national resource to support arts ecosystems for the performing arts sector. Earlier this month, I delivered a keynote address at the Wisconsin Governor's Conference on Tourism, Speaking on cultural tourism and celebrating the Wisconsin Arts Board's 50th anniversary. On this trip, I also discussed a

ccess to arts experiences and arts integration strategies. With that has qu'avec, Director of the Wisconsin Office of Rural Prosperity. I was also in conversation with 2020 NEA Heritage fellow Karen Anne Hoffman about the profound contributions of Native American and indigenous artists and the systems of support they rely on and need for their work. On January 30th, the NEA and White House co-hosted Healing, Bridging Thriving, a summit on arts and culture in our communities. It was a first of it

s kind gathering, bringing together local and state leaders, artists and arts workers, philanthropy and federal officials in many different policy areas to highlight the role of arts and culture in creating healthy communities where all people can thrive. The summit was inspired by President Biden's executive order to integrate arts and humanities into policies and strategies that create opportunity and equity and the summit built upon foundational work that was decades in the making at the inte

rsection of areas of policy and practice that span the spectrum. Federal leaders, including the U.S. Surgeon General, agency leaders and the second gentleman joined the NEA and the White House Domestic Policy Council to lift up the importance of thoughtful and intentional arts integration across the policy spectrum. Let's take a few minutes to watch some highlights from the summit. There's a quote from Toni Morrison that I find very inspirational. She said, As you enter positions of trust and po

wer. Dream a little before you think. I challenge us to take a moment. To dream. To suspend what we're used to. What's standard, what's typical. And to stand in the space of possible. What if we included arts and humanities in all policies and programs intended to help us deliver on the promise of our nation? What if we thought of health and healing more holistically? What if we better enabled and compensated artists, culture bearers and cultural organizations for contributing to health and heal

ing at a national scale? What if we fully recognize the ways our physical environments influence our civic life and our social fabric? And we fully recognize the power of art and design in those realms? And what if we could find modes of expression in our daily lives that unite us instead of divide us experiences that allow us to see one another's for humanity, experiences that make visible our commonalities and our meaningful differences and experiences that fuel a healthy democracy. And that i

s really what is so vital in this time the understanding we have of people's lives, the emotional connection the arts creates to make us see people who are very different from ourselves. And honestly, that is central to democracy. Because in a democracy, we really must be able to see the human dignity of all Americans. Private philanthropy plays a vital role in supporting arts and culture in communities around the country. Yet for all of the resources that we are able to invest, it's our ability

. To have meaningful and sustained. Sound partnerships with the public sector that ultimately enables enduring change. That's why this historic and cross-sectoral event is so important in these times. And it's why the theme of arts integration is so central to our success. It positions the arts as fundamental whole essential and inescapable. The arts. Are just as important. As the sciences. They're an important part of the human experience. They tell our story and. Help us process emotions and h

elp us access imagination and inspiration in very different ways than science does. And we need both of those to really and truly lift people up and to benefit humanity. So this is a time where I do think revitalizing the arts. Is essential for not only fostering social connection, but for bringing hope to people at a time where a lot of people are worried about the future and they feel taxed by everything. They have gone through in the past. We made important strides in expanding the narrative

around the value of the arts and culture in our society, expanding from our default economic impacts to include contributions to health and healing, a robust democracy, and to getting us unstuck and on our way to solutions that help our nation deliver on its promise. We also affirmed the important role of artists and creative workers in all aspects of society, and we stepped out in a prominent way as a national resource, able to convene, connect, catalyze, amplify and lead in the short window of

time. Since the summit, the NEA has been working hard to continue animating the integration of the arts across all areas of policy and practice, and good effort has gone into strengthening our relationships across the government. Here are a few examples. On January in January, I spoke on a panel with the Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Havia Becerra and Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack and award winning chef Sean Sherman, a member of the Oglala Lakota Sioux Trib

e. At an event titled Food is Medicine. Our discussion focused on the role of food in promoting health and the ways food and culture foster belonging, deepen identity and connect us with one another through the rituals encompassing how we prepare it and with whom we consume it. All important components that contribute to our health and well-being. In February, I joined Acting Secretary Sue at the Department of Labor, speaking to an audience of artists and arts professionals, union representative

s and students from HBCUs on the importance of supporting pathways to good paying jobs in the arts and promoting a diverse workforce in the cultural sector. I also joined the White House Office of Public Engagement for a fireside chat with actress Gina Torres in media personality Sunny Hostin. The event celebrated the diversity and artistic contributions of Afro-Latinos in media music, television and film and addressed aspirations for a more diverse and inclusive cultural sector. I spoke to more

than 500 female employees from across the country and addressed the ways in which our two agencies can continue to help bring the power of the arts and artists to bear before, during and after disasters. In addition to this, I'm pleased to see FEMA taking action to better support artists as survivors of disasters through reforms in their individual assistance programs. In February, the NEA kicked off the first meeting of the Interagency Working Group on Arts, Health and Civic Infrastructure, co

-chaired by Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Becerra and me. 20 individuals joined representing diverse agencies, including the Environmental Protection Agency, Department of Transportation, National Science Foundation, AmeriCorps, and more. This month, the NEA released a podcast between between U.S. Census director Rob Santos and me, where we elevate and appreciate the myriad ways that social sciences and arts and culture can converge in beneficial ways. Director Santos, an art

ist himself, noted how the arts make him a better social scientist and how they can be a critical force enabling government to better serve the public. The summit and the work that follows represents a watershed moment for the arts sector. It builds on a foundational body of work that has been created with immense potential and possibility for the integration of the arts in every sector. In this moment of opportunity, we recognize, however, that despite the additional support of $210 million mad

e available to the field through the American Rescue Plan and the CARES Act, there's still more work to do. Research released this week by the NEA and the Bureau of Economic Analysis shows that overall, the arts sector is a $1.1 trillion industry that helps support 5.2 million jobs. However, certain parts of the cultural sector, especially the performing arts sector, are struggling to introduce our panels. Discussing the state of the arts, performing arts, the state of the performing arts sector

, and provide some framing remarks. Please join me in welcoming National Council of the Arts member Kamilah Forbes. Good morning. And I'm pleased to help introduce the today's program meeting, The Moment Building a healthy performing arts ecosystem. And on behalf of my fellow National Council of the Arts members, I want to thank all of you all for being here today and for the work you do every day to bring the arts to American communities and I especially want to thank the panelists who traveled

far and wide to participate in this important conversation. Now, all of us in the room attending this meeting virtually and in person were part of the cultural arts sector Artists, administrators, practitioners, partners, funders. Know that all of the arts are central and fundamental in our individual lives and our national life. But we also know that in 2024, our field is not on the surface is at a moment of changing and unsettling tides as we recover from a global pandemic. Audience have not

returned to pre-pandemic numbers, causing our economic models to tilt on its axis. Philanthropy directed to the arts is currently on a slight decline. Competition for cultural attention via technology streaming is also on an incline. There's there is a forced struggle on the ideas and books and ideas being banned in states across the country. Now, this may seem as a bleak outlook, as if our industry and field is standing on a bed of sinking sand. But I want to join me here to sit in a moment of

remembrance and reflection. Century ago, our globe was also on the tail end of a global health pandemic. Century old Black Flash. The Black. Last year reconstruction was some of the most restrictive legislation in the form of Crow laws. Redlining legislation was also present, but also a century ago. Against this backdrop were the cultural revolutions, as we've never seen them before. One of those was the Harlem Renaissance. The genius of Alain Locke and W.E.B. Dubois created, curated one of the

greatest foundations of beauty, art and narrative building. And what we learn from this period in time is that cultural revolutions are curated. They're conjured, believed, debated and doubted. It is established an. So with that in mind, the National Endowment on the Arts is engaged in a deep listening to the field practitioners and thought partners, and it's committed to serving as a driving force in addressing the challenges and opportunities of this moment. There will be more work on this are

a in the coming months, but we wanted to dedicate time in our meeting to delve into this critical issue and begin to look forward to positive steps that we can take in improving the health and vibrancy of this most valued sector. Building on the agency's recent convening Health Healing, Bridging Thriving, a Summit on the Arts and culture in our communities. The panels this morning are part of the agency's work to build and sustain efforts to strengthen the arts and cultural ecosystems across the

country, including theater, dance, music and opera fields. And today's program will feature two panel discussions on the state of the nonprofit performing arts sector. We've assembled an esteemed group of speakers and presenters who've graciously agreed to share their insights and perspectives on the performing NEA Theater and musical theater director Greg Reiner will moderate the first panel. How did we get here? And the panelists will explore the challenges that companies and cultural venues

and performing arts organizations face, as well as examples of strategies that have emerged to help organizations navigate for the current environment and better connect with their communities. And following the first panel producing playwright and citizen artist Analisa Diaz will share a reading. NEA Dance Director Sarah Nashville Moderate the second panel. Where do we go from here? Panelists will share their ideas around the future of live performance in America. How to strengthen the ecosyste

m for the performing arts and how they can contribute to our lives and communities in many different ways. Following the two panel discussions, there will be a short Q&A session between panelists and council members and that I'm happy to invite any ace director of theater and musical theater group writer up to the stage, as well as the members of our first panel. How did we get here? Thank you. And please enjoy the program. Thank you so much, Camila. It's such an honor to be introduced by you. I

'm sorry we can't be together in person. And welcome all. And thank you all for being here today. As Camila said, you know one of my questions. Why are we here? Why are we having these conversations and engaging in this deep work? It's because of, as Camila mentioned, this this renaissance of 100 years ago. If you've had the privilege of attending a live performance in the last year, you'll know that that kind of energy, that kind of creative force is very much alive and well in our nation as we

speak. And so that's why we're putting all this effort into sustaining and building up the field, because the work is so valuable, so important. The idea of live performing arts, where we can be in a room together, having a communal experience, not just sitting at home alone is so, so important. It echoes some of what the surgeon general said about the loneliness epidemic and how the arts are really a solution to that. So I'm so honored to be with all of you today. I'm going to say I also want

to recognize my colleagues here who have put this program together, Sara Nash, our director of dance. You'll be hearing from soon, and Maya Baker, our director of music and opera. And I really appreciate their leadership and collaboration on program today. So the goal of the conversation today is to explore the challenges that companies, cultural venues and performing arts organizations face, some of which predate the pandemic, which we'll talk about, and look at some strategies that have emerge

d to help organizations navigate the current environment and better connect with their communities. So our panel today, they've traveled far and wide to be with us. Thank you. And I'm going to introduce them now. First, we'll start with Andy Burch, who's the general director and CEO of Austin Opera. Kelvin Dinkins, junior executive director of American Repertory Theater. Carrie Lee, the co-artistic director of Atlanta Chinese Dance Company. And Laura Penn, the executive director of the Society o

f Stage Directors and Choreographers, as well as a member of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities. So let's get right to our conversation, because we don't have that much time. We've got a lot of important stuff to talk about. So my first question I'll throw open to the group is how is sorry, I was looking at the second panel here for a second. What were the existing structural challenges facing the field prior to the pandemic? I'm I'm I'm happy to start. I'm going to read someth

ing, if that's okay. And I promise I'll be brief. But whatever the balance of the decade holds, our assumption about the role of the arts in a complex and contradictory scheme of American life has begun to unravel. And our assumptions about the strength, endurance and resilience of our arts institutions has been challenged by hard economic realities. We are caught in the crossfire of circumstance brought on by design and neglect. While we ultimately view this period in light of many economic, so

cial, environmental and political events, the situation for the arts is defined by crisis. I, I want to echo Camila's comment about actually being very optimistic. I know that sounds not so good, but I also believe in in in history and in understanding what has come before so that we can both know the ground on which we stand, but also so we can thank people who helped us get to the position that we are in. This report was published in 1991 by Fed App, which was a federal agency that was looking

at how to help grow and sustain the nonprofit theater sector. So I think that's an important thing for us to just sit with for a moment and to realize that that was published at the same time that we were beginning to enter the culture wars of the nineties, which I suspect everybody in this room has some sense of what that meant for the field. That was also the moment that we were entering the first attempt at diversifying the field, multi-culturalism, as it was referred to at the time, because

the field had been the purview for too long of a singular demographic. We made it through the nineties, but the cost was the loss of operational support, sustaining support to the arts community. We then hit 911, we hit the dot com bust. You know, we had the mortgage crisis, the financial crisis. We then went to meet to. We then hit covered the murder of George Floyd. All the while, the distribution of wealth was growing so dramatically in this country. So I think there there's much to celebrat

e in the moment and there is a lot of work to do. And I think the pandemic laid bare much of what we'd been struggling with for a very long time. I can speak generally and specifically to opera and opera in Austin. I would say pre-pandemic most of my colleagues working in opera, every organization had some kind of structural gap in their budget that we had to solve for every year through some extraordinary act of philanthropy or some genius act of cost savings, whatever it was. And so that was c

hallenging as we were emerging from COVID. All of those had at least doubled for all of our colleagues as expenses have increased. So, you know, in opera, we uniquely we we are the most extraordinarily expensive undertaking on the planet. Sometimes, I think just because of the sheer number of artistic personnel. Right. We've got an orchestra of 60, a chorus of 40, a crew of more than 58 to 10 principals, a conductor, a stage director, designers. So it's a huge undertaking in terms of very talent

ed personnel. So we've always been like the most reliant art form, I would say, on philanthropy and also unique about Austin, Texas, and about producing an art form that is that vast in Austin, Texas, as we have virtually no institutional support. So I was with Opera Philadelphia for nine years before moving to Austin. In Philadelphia, I could raise 3 to $5 million foundation grants every year. I moved to take the post in Austin in 2016, and that year they raised $10,000 in foundation funding. T

here are no foundations or major entities in Austin that are supporting the arts, so most of the cultural organizations there are about half the size that we should be for a market of our size in a market that has grown so rapidly and I'll just say post-pandemic, those two challenges have grown triple fold. Right. We were able to competitively win some national grants each year to get that number from 10,000 to about 200 to 300000. And we had to do $100,000 grant from our city every year funded

by the Hotel and occupancy tax. All that money is gone now and the city has zeroed out the large cultural institute regions national foundations of shifting priorities, as we've discussed in my expenses, are up 30 to 40%, so I'm down 10% in revenue from the sources I just cited. My expenses are 30 to 40% higher, mostly driven by increased personnel costs, travel and housing for incoming artists. Thank you, Gary. Yeah. Thank you so much to the NEA for inviting me to be part of this conversation.

It's truly an honor, especially because Chinese dance is an art form that has historically been marginalized in the U.S. And so this topic has been written about in an essay by a leading scholar of Chinese dance studies, Dr. Emily Wilcox, and she talks about how Chinese dance is often perceived to be only relevant to the Chinese community. Whereas Western artforms like ballet and modern dance are perceived to be universal and required to be studied and understood by everyone. And so this has led

to most of the dance world lacking basic knowledge about Chinese dance. So Laura mentioned multiculturalism in the nineties, but as late as 2016, like leading Chinese dance drama touring from China came to New York and it was trashed by New York Times critic because he didn't really understand how to appreciate Chinese dance. And so, like many other marginalized dance forms, Chinese dance has been excluded resources and attention afforded to those in the center. So my mother, who founded the At

lanta Chinese Dance Company in 1991, and we co-direct the company together and between the two of us, we do most of the artistic and administrative tasks for the company, so it's stretched pretty thin. And recently I were a choreographer, a professional theater company, and I realized that I was doing like six people's jobs. So that's probably not surprising to anyone who's run a small organization. But I was born and raised in Atlanta, which is in the American South, and I think most people thi

nk of that as a black, white, racial binary. So for me, it actually took a long time to unlearn, unlearn this internalized racism that I grew up with, that basically I thought only a white person can be a real American and that my Chinese heritage is backwards. And so for a long time, I actually looked down on Chinese dance as inferior to ballet, which I also studied at Atlanta Ballet. I didn't understand as a kid, like the vast discrepancy in resources. So for our organization, where our budget

size is like under $100,000 for Atlanta Ballet, it's like multi-million dollars. And also like systemic issues, like cultural hegemony. So I thought it was Chinese dance. That was the problem. So I just really hope that we can all recognize that Asian Americans are part of the American story. And so Chinese dance is also part of the American dance ecosystem. So my colleagues have put it very well. Greg, in to your original question about what we were facing prior to the pandemic. There's no sec

ret that we had a sustainability crisis from the get go. You know, we formalized, we've professionalized as an industry. We've built up these institutions, these edifices. We've professionalized in a way that is just going to scale year after year. We are artists now, have unions, right? We are all fighting for equitable conditions in which we can produce and create art. And so with that comes a cost. There's never advocacy for less money. Right. We will always have more of a need. And so we are

on an incline that has just been exacerbated by the past four years to actually focus in on the fact that there are a lot of professional companies. You know, the regional theater movement is only close to, you know, 60 plus years. Right? We are still developing as an industry. And when we as we seek greater resources, as we continue to advocate as Chair Jackson has already illuminated, there are things we have to pivot to start doing now as businesses, because I think we were set up to fail fr

om the get go. If we don't have robust support, if we if there is more philanthropic fatigue over the years and everyone's dollars are being disseminated in different ways, we have to continue to advocate for the arts and the leadership of the arts in a more inclusive way. So that was already endemic to what we were experiencing and in particularly the theater now is going through a wave of leadership transition right now. And that was happening right before 2020 happened. And supporting that an

d sustaining that change actually requires investment. And anyone who thinks that does not is kidding themselves. Right? We have to continue to infuse, you know, our dollars and our resources into the arts in the same way we've invested in the tech sector. No one is telling those folks to pull back and be less innovative. Right. It shouldn't be any different from the arts. And so we are we are experiencing this condition of scarcity right now before and going forward that I think we just have to

get rid of in order for the arts to be more sustainable. We have to actually change our own narrative and we've needed help for years. And I think the sustainability crisis was one of my my parts of my master's thesis coming in as a very new and emerging artist saying that there is a problem in this industry, there's no way this is sustainable. And so now we're staring at it in the face and I hope we can actually find ways to get us out of this together in a more collective way. And I would jus

t to piggyback on Kelvin's brilliant words, there is no path forward without increased institutional support, government, foundations, corporations, this amazing level of art that we are still creating under these circumstances, it can it is impossible for it to continue. My organization is now 95% funded by individuals and there is absolutely unsustainable. Its point to point out we have, you know, three very different kinds of organizations represented here from disciplines, different sizes, f

rom small to very large and labor here at the table. And while each of these art forms is so unique and different and the challenges are different in different scales, there are some commonalities that we're hearing that are really interesting. I think to sort of tease out of the conversation, and in particular, I'm hearing the need for institutional support across the board with these structures. If we want to have the kind of art that can be free of the commercial pressures of the commercial m

arketplace, because that's what we're talking about here. So I'm just curious if any of you have as as we're looking at those challenges, are there any practices so far that you can talk about that you've taken on in your organizations that have been successful in moving forward, innovating, moving this conversation and finding new ways of working in your communities. Of I mean, I can jump in. So, you know what I find astonishing? I talked about specific funding challenges in Austin, but the exp

anse of what we're all doing has grown so significantly that there is no revenue mix anywhere that that is keeping up. And so there is less and less performances, certainly in theater. Absolutely. In opera. And yet I have never in the 22 years that I have been working as an opera administrator, I have never seen a higher demand or a higher enthusiasm for opera. We just did. Krizner Mariachi Opera, which was the highest selling February show we've done in 15 years. My production of Carmen that's

coming up is selling at triple the rate of our highest pre-pandemic selling show, which was LA boom. We will sell 75% more tickets and revenue to Carmen than to La Balam. Pre-pandemic. And so I think a lot of that is years and years of work to better reflect and partner with our community in Austin, which in 20 years will be a majority Latin acts Hispanic. And our organization has changed over the past decade to really reflect that. A third of my staff are bilingual. Everything we do is in Spani

sh and English. Everything that we publish, 25% of my staff are Mexican-American. We are the only opera company that has a curator for Hispanic and Latin Acts repertoire. Our largest gift came two years ago 3.3 million to endow Spanish language programing. I could go on and on about the investments we've made, but here's what's really astonishing to me. So we just at Cruz are this is an opera about a deadly border crossing, a family, a mexican immigrant family that's torn about, torn apart by a

deadly border crossing. And then our post-performance audience surveys, we receive the highest net promoter scores in our entire company history. So the highest enthusiasm rating we've ever received, our white audiences rated us only slightly above our Latin audiences, which was 25% of our total audience. And so we we did an opera in Texas with a literal modern day representation of the border wall on our stage and the entire political spectrum of my audience, which goes all the way to the patro

ns who I've heard chanting, Build that wall in other circumstances, that entire audience. And this is just weeks after our governor signed us before into law, wept together at the humanity of this woman dying in front of a border wall and stage. And that is what artists supposed to do. But it still feels astonishing to me that in this day and age that that is happening and this type of art is needed more than ever. I think that's why so many of us keep still working. We're still doing our jobs a

nd still trying to push this forward. You know, I would say that my answer to this question is it's not something new, but continue to produce great art. I mean, I feel like that has to be the basics of bringing people back into an environment where we were separated for so long, to actually give them reason to be joyous, to celebrate, to, to actually delight in the art of convening. Again. I think that is something we've had to invest in and make sure as part of our plan and part of our patron

experience because we want audiences to return. And so luckily at the American Repertory Theater, audiences have been coming back. We had one of the highest grossing, if not the highest grossing season of our history last year with four titles, right? So it's one of these things that we've had to engage in dynamic ticket pricing because again, it feels like the theater is the place where people scarcity, where we do have an audience that is willing to pay more, that is willing to actually give a

nd be a part of a donor community and donor base that is supporting great art. And I think that has to be part of the things that we have to lean back into, is leaning in to our mission and making that as enticing as everything else that we're competing with right now. Right? We're one of the last bastions where people can actually unplug and connect in real time. We can have critical discourse in the theater about the art, and that is where theater is thriving and it still has the capacity to h

elp solve some of what we were talking about. What were some of the world's problems? Right. And we can do it through art. We can continue to be a community form. We're having to pivot so much about how we are engaging with our community because we want folks to benefit from the art, but also share the art with communities that have been underrepresented, underserved by our markets. And it's something that we have to continue to invest in and find donors who want to help support that because we

can't sell our way out of this problem right? Are not a commercial entity for a reason. So we have to continue to solicit partners in a in a really aggressive way. To figure it out. And he was talking about it as a social justice issue. One thing that we've been doing is creating new work to share our Chinese-American stories and address social justice issues, because I feel like often people exoticized Chinese dance and they associate it with a faraway place and time. And so I want to help peop

le view Chinese dance in the context of present day Americans society. So in this process, we partnered with other disciplines such as a multicultural chorus and a hip hop crew so that we can share a message of cross-cultural solidarity. So to give an example, in 2023 we made a piece called We Belong Here Rising against Asian Hate, which was inspired not only by the recent Stopasianhate movement, but also a historical event that most people didn't know about, including our own dancers who are mo

stly Chinese-American. Because Chinese, Chinese and Chinese American history isn't really taught in schools. It's like Chinese dance isn't really tiny dance schools. So after the 1982 murder of Vincent Chin, which had an unjust verdict, there was an Asian-American movement that was much like the one that we all saw during the pandemic, which brought together Asian-Americans from all walks of life, and also the ACP and local churches and synagogues and many other groups. So we partnered with a mu

lticultural chorus and they sang an Irish blessing. You do not walk alone to share a message of solidarity. And we also showcased artwork by Amanda Ipokia, who's a child of Thai and Indonesian immigrants. Some of you may know her. I think she's spoken here at the NEA. Fun fact, she's actually a former Atlanta Chinese dance company dancer. yeah. And we've also had the opportunity to set that work on high school and college dance programs. As I mentioned before, most people are not getting Chinese

dance education. And so at a young age, when they're developing taste for for dance, they're you know, they're mostly being fed like western esthetics. So I think it's really important for them to have the opportunity to learn and perform marginalized artforms like Chinese dance. And the last thing I want to highlight is we've been trying to bring Chinese dancing to small towns. So as limited exposure as we have in in Atlanta to Chinese dance and culture, like in small towns in Georgia, it's li

ke even worse. Like most of the time when we go there, there's like barely any Asian faces. Like, for example, we went to like elementary schools in Marjorie Taylor Greene's district. And the kids, like, literally like us watching counselors, which just like kind of crazy, like in this time that that's still happening. But for for us, I mean, I think I imagine they must be learning it from their parents. We probably getting it from the China bashing in the news. So beyond dance, I hope it's like

our performance is just a way for them to. Just meet a Chinese person in real life and and have a positive memory from it. So yeah. I'd like to just get the advocacy issue is is critical. And one of the things that's been happening with the arts and entertainment unions through the Department of Professional Employees, which is affiliated with the AFL-CIO, is we've been working collectively for the last number of years in a way that is quite inspiring. It's a wide range of unions. I think there

's some 18 of us. But to try to understand how we can collectively become a force for advocacy, I think to Calvin, to your point about the growing professionalism, we want to sustain that profession and we want people to be able to have a life in the arts, to have a career in the arts. And so how can the unions be be part of the solution in advocating for funding? Because sustainable support is critical to the infrastructure so that we can sustain these jobs and really, really, really flourish.

I think one of the things that we've been successful at doing this is true absolutely. At SDC is working to close the wage gap that unions can be a real force for that, both in working with employers so that employers understand what that wage gap is. I think sometimes we don't think of that in the arts in the way we maybe do in other sectors, but we've been very good about putting the right kinds of pressures on employers to consider those, particularly as they pay over scale, which is a longer

conversation. I'm also really excited about our work with employers around capture and distribution of live work. A lot of. The unions came forward during the pandemic to find new ways to address and keep audiences engaged, and many of us have agreed to continue some of those practices. At SDC, we have been working with employers to make sure we understand where that's going, because it does seem to be a new way of reaching and sustaining audiences. But how can the folks that put that work toge

ther be included in success when that happens? And how can we, most importantly for directors and choreographers, be really engaged as creatives in what that work is When it's captured? It's a new form in some ways. So there are a number of places and of course the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities is working to put together an agenda of activities that will also, I think, make a real difference with policy in the future. So and we want to have the last word here in our last minut

e here. Support the arts, please, as fast as you can and forever. But thank you so much for having us. This has been a real honor and privilege. Well, I knew this conversation would go way too fast and there's so much more to talk about. So I'll invite us all to continue the conversation in this room and out there in the world as we move forward to a better and stronger field. But thank you all to this extraordinary panel for this conversation. Microphone. It is my come back now. We got a treat

for you. So where would our field be without the vision and voice of the actual artists who speak their truth, who illuminate what ails us and what inspires us and point the way forward? Our next guest tonight, it's afternoon, really embodies the spirit of one of my favorite poems by Mary Oliver, which is called Rules for Living. It's just three lines Pay attention. Be astonished, tell about it. So please join me in welcoming, renowned producing playwright and citizen Ana artist Analisa Diaz, wh

o will share her piece. Decomposition Instead of Collapse. Dear Theater Be like soil. Thank you, everybody. Before I begin, I do want to give a quick shout out. To Stephanie. Ibarra, regina. Victor. And Lauren Halvorson, who helped. Encourage me to write this. Piece and to publish it and get it disseminated. One of the biggest obstacles to. Systemic change, the. Unwillingness to move beyond the current. Paradigm that we inhabit. We won't be able to identify solutions or a viability and scalabili

ty of those. Solutions until we move beyond. An economic paradigm driven by scarcity. This essay is for. Those interested in using. The imagination to push past the limitations of our current social economic. Containers. I'll start with a quote. At the time. I only knew was the story had run out. All the stories of staying young to cheat death, of thinking young. People wouldn't die. Of immortality via making a difference of genetic imprint as, stability, of stacking money and etching names on b

uildings. People. People used to do those things before. Not to mention. They would not mention death and would hide the dying away and strive to protect the eyes of the children who already knew everything. At some point, all the dead being here anyway. And all of us being here obviously doomed. We let go of that particular. Game and started breathing. And saw our hands. We let go. I felt like I could fly. That's from Alexis. Pauline Gumbs archive. I encourage you all to read it. Beginning, mid

dle. There are lists going around every day, another closing, another staff shattered. People ask, Is anyone keeping track of the losses? Who's watching? Do you see the magnitude of the disaster? An archival impulse make a list. Order the chaos. Name the emergency. Do you realize we've become conservation biologist? Critically endangered. Endangered. Vulnerable. Near threatened least concern? Some are reeling in shock. Some are wringing their hands. Others have seen it coming for decades. Their

hearts are still breaking. Do they truly understand the scale? Room is full of dedicated leaders saying over and over. Rock bottom. While they compare deficit budgets and whisper incantations like implosion and existential threat. Beginning middle. I need a different metaphor than rock bottom. I'm exhausted by the stories of scarcity threats and imminent collapse. I'm a playwright and. Dramaturg, so what I know. Is we have a. Narrative. Problem. It's the same narrative problem we have in climate

organizing. We keep spell casting about all we're losing and describing the immensity of the damage, so it becomes too overwhelming to build, to imagine buildings something different. It becomes impossible to build the political will to act. I long for a different dramaturgy in Western dramaturg. These endings are final in a capitalist narrative of constant growth and perpetual sustainability. Endings are tragic. No wonder people are panicking. No wonder it hurts so much. We've been telling our

selves that endings, equal failures. Institutional and worse, personal. What if, instead of dramaturgical collapse, we looked to the earth and learned from natural processes of decompose ocean decomposition as gruesome pieces of an organism get pulled apart? Decomposition is intimate. Decomposers Digest the. Dead. Decomposition creates new worlds. Nutrients recycle and release back into the ecological system. A dramaturgy of decomposition. Is a tender invitation. Beyond loss toward. Remembering

our. Interconnected futures, can we be like mycelium? Can we be like soil? What might we recompose. With the nutrients being. Released into the system? Right now? What if this moment, painful and. Raw though it be and grief. Does have its place is not just the ending of a world, but the beginning of something? What if instead of at rock bottom, we're at the dawn of an arts ecology that's more healthy, more loving, more free? I long. For a theater that turns its gaze. Downward toward the land, ou

tward to the water and. Upward. To the sky. I long for a theater that earnestly for the lessons the Earth has to teach us. This is how we'll remember that. Like my cilia, like the soil, like interconnected forests and seas. We have always belonged to one. Another. This is how we'll find unexpected pathways. This is how we'll. Reconstitute the. World and let us keep our grief in perspective. We're in the midst of an actual global extinction crisis driven by colonial, capitalist enclosure of wealt

h and an ideological worldview that positions whole peoples and geographies as sacrifice zones. Institutions programing fewer shows or shutting down altogether isn't the root problem. Beginning, middle. And then, in a recent conversation, someone told me the field is ablaze. It's up to us to put on our vests and be firefighters. Someone else said, These institutions want to be told what to do. They're looking for someone to save them. But we don't need saviors. So many leaders of color have been

appointed in the last 5 to 7 years and expected to. Be singular saviors of institutions. That enclosed wealth for decades. So many more are about to appointed. This, again, is a narrative problem. We know what happens to saviors. They're designed to be crucified. No, we don't need saviors. We need world builders. And thank God us. Our field is rife with them. I see world builders making bold choices to leave behind buildings. I see world builders mapping and pooling collective resources. I see

world builders reinvesting in local ecologies. We need mycelial networks. Compost. And time. Where do you see them? What? You pay attention to growth. People keep talking as though there's a single solution to. The business. Model. As though it was ever singular. Like whoever can crack the code first will win. What game are they playing? There won't be a single magic remedy for the whole field. Valorized in the monoculture of Lort, institutional theaters is what got us here. We need to build a s

olidarity economy of ideas. Not every idea will work for everyone. Not one intervention, but many interventions. Not one vision, but many visions to change everything. We need everyone in the spirit of interdependence, of living systems. I have invited Lockyer's interlocutors to continue worldbuilding alongside me. Their responses will come soon. In the meantime, let us revere biodiversity, a form of esthetic, of story. Let us celebrate by a regionalism. Think global acts local. And let us be li

ke. Nutrient rich soil, regenerative and moving always. Towards new life. Thank you. Wow. I think that's what everybody that's in the room and hopefully out there is probably. Thank you so much, Analisa. That was just incredibly inspiring. I am the NEA's dance director, Sarah Nash, and I am really, really honored to be sitting down with all of you today and to moderate our next panel, which is where do we go from here, Right? Where do we go from here? How can be like royal? I've really been look

ing forward to this conversation and really enjoying the conversations leading up to this with you all and and really hope to be able to draw on the expertise of our panelists. But maybe I should call them world builders who all lead and work really passionately on behalf of their performing arts organizations, on behalf of artists and on behalf of our communities. So our goal today with this conversation is for each of you to share your perspectives about how we can strengthen the performing ar

ts ecosystem. And to imagine, maybe conjure, as Camila said, what the future of live can be. So thank you all so much for being with us today. And to begin, I will introduce Blake Anthony Johnson, president and CEO of Chicago, Sinfonietta Kristie Bolingbroke, Executive artistic director, the National Center for Choreography, Akron. And Leslie Ishii, artistic director of Perseverance, Theater in Juneau, Alaska. Let's see. So, Blake Anthony, you're in the hot seat. I'm going to start with you. And

I would love for you to tell me how you think the performing arts are contributing to the health and the well-being of all of our communities and how they can drive equitable outcomes. I don't have my cello on stage to go after performer. I'm like, Man, here we go. Okay, I'm really going to give hopefully a few like tangible examples, but really within the context of breaking the fourth wall or B, maybe a better way of setting that, like redefining what breaking the fourth wall is. So I think w

e talk a lot about what art happens on stage, but really like how it interacts in the communities in which we reside. So I'm the president CEO for Chicago Sinfonietta Orchestra. Its mission is championing equity, diversity and inclusion and belonging by creating community through both symphonic experiences as a cultural institution, we really feel like we have a direct role in using or I guess, presenting art for art's sake without defense, but also having art be a very effective tool at address

ing the social determinants of health. And so a good example of that is our pay what you can ticketing model. So Chicago Symphony has to essentially at its core with this pay what you can. It basically says like we want to promote accessibility by making sure we address economic inequities. And so this program started in Chicago, but is now used nationally. So you can use this in California they use it in Texas, they use it in New York. And it basically it eliminates economic segmentation betwee

n those who go to the concert hall and who don't, but also eliminates economic segmentation within the concert hall itself. So whether you spent $200 or $2 in the concert hall, you don't know. And there's been a couple of learn outcomes from this. One is this idea of I think we have a lot of assumptions. So who would use the program? One of the largest actually populations who use the program are households who have kinship care. So there's a very large population that keeps growing in our count

ry of grandparents raising, grandchildren, but a lot of them have this income and they want to expose their dependents to arts and culture. They want to have them is supposed to community and things like that. People that you can take any model actually allows that. Another just take away that has been really interesting as I look at our concert hall, but also other orchestras around the country who have adopted it is it allows us to reduce the barrier of entry, not just for individuals to enjoy

the art form, but also it reduces the barrier to entry for us to actually present our strongest value proposition statement. And what I mean by that is they come into the concert hall, but they actually get to see, yes, we are providing arts for art's sake, but we are also doing things in the community that address social determinants of health and quality of life for everyone. So they get to learn about education programs, they get to learn about our historically black colleges and university

tours. They get to learn about just in firsthand experience what community and fellowship actually looks like. And so one of the most defining moments I've had with this particular work is during my tenure in Louisville. Louisville has a CEO Health Council. Louisville is one of the largest concentrations of aging health care headquarter operations. And they were crazy enough and maybe innovative enough to invite someone like me at the table and say, like, what can we do that's better? And one of

the outcomes of this was created the aging, this idea of like lifelong learning does not need to siloed. And by kind of marrying health care with creative industries is creative creative aging and redefining the workforce and then kind of bringing it back to Chicago. As another example, I have the privilege of serving as the chairman for the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events Quarter Advisory Council for the City of Chicago. Long title I know and one of our programs that we relea

sed in the 2023 report is a partnership between the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events, the Chicago Department of Public Health, and also the sister colleges at City Colleges of Chicago. And essentially what this is, is the Chicago Arts and Health Program for Creative Workers. This idea of expanding what it means to have a viable career in creative industries by actually training and employing them in health care as well. And so I think over this, like maybe three tangible

s to the question, but also I think in alignment with so much of you guys were talking about in the summit in January, this idea of how does art for art's sake, again, with no defense, but also how does it lead to more equitable outcomes in community? Thank you so much. Christie, over to you. Okay. Yes, and I'll address the question. I'm so excited to get to the work. I'm so inspired by what we've heard so far today. I want to share that for NCC, Akron, we don't have audiences. We are dedicated

to being a research and development space to advance the art form of dance and as a national center advocate for it in the creative process as a more essential part of culture in this country. So I very much relate to what Annalisa shared as we have a narrative problem, because when I first got to Akron, who's bread and butter, its economy had really thrived on polymer sciences for over 100 years until the last factory closed in the eighties. But your tires used to get made in Akron, and I had t

o shift the narrative when I first got there and people said, you're making dance. When can I come to your show if I'm not going to invite you to a show, what do you do? And so then I started to share and I really appreciated with the surgeon general said last time that artists and scientists are very similar. And so I would say a choreographer going into the studio is the same as a scientist going into a lab. We have a hypothesis. We think we're going to make a 50 minute dance. We think it's go

ing to premiere on this day and time things happen, you know, especially working with humans or otherwise. It never goes as you thought it was going to be planned. And I think that for a long time the assumptions have been that art making is a sort of formula and you just like have the music and you have the dancers and they just make that. And so we can reveal more of our process. And I might offer today that a reframe artists is that we're civic problem solvers. We're not just making art as an

escapist. I will share from a personal experience in Akron then NCC. Akron has been able to be a part of a national cohort called Reimagining the Civic Commons, and this is something that is about designing public spaces so that they are more equitable, environmentally conscious, regardless of background. Why is a choreography center a part of that? We get to be along for the ride on research, and when we hear from other cities, Akron is in it. It shows up differently and how it manifests in De

troit or Memphis or Chicago. And I am always equally surprised and not at all surprised when I hear other participants talk about the most powerful and impactful program that maybe they tried in the last year. Usually involved dance. It is Hustle lessons in a dilapidated parking lot in a neighborhood that no one seems to care about. And that's because those of us in the performing arts know that people feel better when they can be together, when you can move together, if you want to feel like yo

u belong. Keeping in line with the traffic of line dancing is the easiest way that you know whether you belong or not. And so those are small ways that the arts, particularly live performing arts, can contribute the health of a community and its ecosystem. The balance or difference I would offer is were not just a value add. We should be able to drive those residents from the center of the planning in the conversation. I love that. Civic problem solvers. Leslie, I'd love to hear your perspective

and what you want to share. Sure. Thank you. First, this is how I always start. I just encourage us to look around, just take each other. And this is our community. And today. Thank you. We get to join your community and just breathe notice. Yeah. My deepest gratitude to you, Chair Jackson. I've known you for some time. You've been true inspiration and to your staff through incredible and to the National Council. Thank you and my esteemed colleagues here today. I've learned so much already, and

I'm so inspired by you are. So it's truly an honor to be here. So thank you. And thank you for those tuning in as well. Help me out. Came. I also want to take a moment to pay homage to a colleague that was my mentor and the National Council on the Arts member Dianne Rodrigues. She was a tremendous mentor to many of us, really held the door open for so many of us. And I believe I'm sitting here today because that and because of her, I'm inspired my entire career now to look at the health and wel

lness of our communities, to look at weathering that has plagued many bipoc communities, navigating systemic oppression, but really all of us, right? And so I carry that with me into every process to changing structures where we can and systemic oppression will have as target people and blame people. But Bill Rauch taught me at Oregon Shakespeare Festival, it actually might be the structure. Let's change the structure and the processes. So with that, that's really been what I've been able to do

to support perseverance theater in this new chapter. And I currently sit on the board of the Consortium of Asian-American Theaters and Artists, and we have a conference festival coming up in May that will center Kanaka Maoli, Pacific Islanders and Asians throughout the Hawaiian Archipelago and the Oceana. So I've learned a tremendous amount in thinking this way. And with that, I want to lift up. It kind of ties us back to the original panel, the first panel that through the COVID pandemic, I lea

rned that black and brown people's life expectancy was shortened by over four years and the white community as well by less than that by about 1.2 years. It's been rising since gratefully. But now, as I think about processes and health and wellness, I think about how can we extend our lives, how are we contributing to our communities? Because, you know, in the past it's been a very patriarchal model where we put up a cute or sexy ad and expect everybody to come. And many times they did. You know

, it kind of worked for a while, but that was limiting which audiences felt welcome, which patrons, which communities felt welcome. So now at Perseverance, we actually listen in community, we do listening tours, and we also choose our season that way. I was chatting with Calvin Deakins that it kind of challenges the managing side, like when can we ratify the budget? Because we're decolonizing time to really listen in community and choose a season, will serve the community and lift up the convers

ations they would like to have and what we need to have. So that's one way we're working around health and wellness. Also, I'll just share few examples, and I want to give credit to the consortium of Asian-American theaters and artists with an ad hoc committee from the L.A. Next Theater Commons. Black Theater comments and native Indigenous leaders conducted an COVID impact survey that brought forth devastating anecdotal research. And with the science again combining the science with the scientif

ic health research, we were able to have a program called Healing Over Hate. When anti-Asian and Violence and anti-blackness was spiking over 100% and actually 400%. So we were able to offer de-escalation upstander, bystander training and self-defense training. And we continue that now in Alaska with arts and culture leaders. We about creating safe and brave spaces. And it's really just talk. So now we're implementing training to actually support our artists, including guests, artists and our ar

ts and culture leaders who welcome our communities into our spaces. To have that training, those tools, those resources in order to actually in community as well, de-escalate and support safe and brave bravery. And I also go by the Clink at Sing Egoyan, which be strong and have courage. So we're moving in those ways. I'll also share that I'm greatly inspired by my Japanese-American elders, Dr. Chuck Skinner and Dr. Joe Okamoto, who were children in the U.S. concentration camps during World war t

o survivors. I'm young, say fourth generation, a descendant of survivors and non survivors, and they have helped me learn and. We practice now in our community healing circles to heal from historical trauma, but also what we have to call contemporary trauma. So we practice that in our also in our processes, in our structural changes throughout our theater making. And it's what Dr. Suzuki inner says is healing justice. So healing justice along with equity, diversity, inclusion and access is reall

y part of decolonizing irie Indigenous housing at perseverance. And I bring that to every space that I come to with that to inform by my own, you know, legacy in the Japanese community. Because during the time of settlement, when they were finally released from camp and the West Coast finally reopened, they could come back and resettle on the West Coast. For my family. Resettlement meant food insecurity, houseless ness. So my parents actually dedicated their lives to meal programs. So I grew up

in kitchens serving the community. And how can we create dignity for those who are more in our communities? That comes first for me. So now in our arts education processes, in our rehearsal processes, and with our crews and staff, we offer meals so that every child and their parents or guardians that want to come, their aunties can can be in community and have a hot meal. And that way everyone has a hot meal. And those who might be more vulnerable can participate with dignity and enjoy the progr

am and benefit hopefully from our programs. We also make sure now that our arts education faculty is primarily bipoc faculty, because I've learned from the Juno at Sydney Improv Junos education programs. They rarely see a teacher of color, so a teacher of a global majority. So we now offer that faculty so that our students are campers. Summer campers can come and have that influence, and those programs are run from based on my influence and my inspirations from one of my mentors that was also a

survivor of camp and a tremendous leader and coalition builder with the Black Power movement. Yuri Kochiyama And she taught me liberation theory. So Liberation Theory, coalition Building Solidarity building is at the forefront of every process, and that is helping us to build community in Alaska. The last thing I'll mention in this really lifts up the NEA summit. Thank you so much for that. It was so affirming in Alaska murdered a missing indigenous women and peoples issues have the highest perc

entage in our state. That's a rabbit hole. I won't go down now, but I'll just say that we are also providing and working with the Central Council of Clinton and Haida Indian Tribes Association to offer stocker training to our arts and culture leaders and any citizens that would like to join us along with a de-escalation Upstander bystander training so that we again can continue to build a safer, braver community and ecosystem. One of the other main challenges is suicide. And so we have been able

to pivot during COVID to create a digital programing of a play that used to tour throughout the villages called the Winter Bear. And it's based on an elder Cindy Sidney Corey, Sid Sorry, Sidney Huntington, who's Coyoacan Athabaskan. And this plays written by Ann Hanley, who had permission from Sydney to offer this play. And he dedicated his life because of his own struggles with suicide to suicide prevention. So and we create arts education materials that go with that. Absolutely. In collaborat

ion and with permission from the Coyoacan communities and mental health organizations. So I'll close with that, that we've been able to really build and support organizing of communities around these vital issues. And the NEA summit was so affirming to learn so much and from Surgeon general General Muti, who really affirmed the practices that we're offering and the way we go forward in our community. Thank you so much for all of that. Leslie I think some of the things that I'm hearing all of you

describe, you know, as we're talking about the role of the performing arts and you all are really described being performing arts organizations and practices artistic process in relation to your communities that people might not traditionally about when they think about the arts and the performing arts and they think of a stage. But all of these artistic practices and where the arts are showing up and the role that artists can play and performing arts can play in bringing, you know, intergenera

tional families together. And in just lifelong learning. And I'm finding all of that really inspiring. And I know we don't have too much, much time left with our conversation before we move to the next part. But Leslie, I would like to start with you and just ask you to share, you know, where you see the future of live performance moving forward. Thank you so much. I see it as extremely bright. We have a bright future, especially if we decolonize and we re indigenous. I can share with you just b

riefly too, because I want to be conscious of time that as I support the revitalization of arts and culture, language, ways of life, of the clink of Heidi Simpson and all Alaska Natives and native indigenous peoples throughout, especially Turtle Island, including Hawaii, Guam, Puerto Rico, and colleagues who are all working in the arts with their with their own processes, you know, and projects. Yeah, I feel more Japanese and I have ever felt my life camp really took away our art and culture, ou

r language, and I've been able to feel the true collective liberation of getting back to root cause and healing from colonialism. The white supremacy that intertwined in developed with the capitalism that was referred to. Thank you. On a lease that is so critical decolonize time, get rid of urgency. Do you know there's no competition as Annalise pointed out, it's be like soil hike. We have so many trails to hike y'all and y'all that come to Alaska, you will reclaim your relationship to the land.

You must come and see the vast mountains where it comes right to the water. And look. That doesn't inspire. You're imagination and your creativity in whatever field. I don't know what will, but I invite you all to come and visit. It has really supported my healing of historical and contemporary trauma. And if you need to know more details about how to decolonize. Start with a gift. Gift giving in many of our cultures opens the reciprocity process. It appreciates who you're visiting with and lis

ten and don't come to get come to be relational. First, we must move from transactional to relational. Transactions are necessary. We know that, but we must reinvest in our relationship building. And I just know I was called to this position because of my family and how they had resettle and the activism that is ensued since Appreciate those who mentioned the border. Japanese-Americans are actively working in coalition with border and detention because that's exactly what happened to us in mass

incarceration. So I'll just share that. We're community organizers, we're artists who organize community and build community. So I encourage you to invest in that yourselves. Thank you so much. Q Yes, Christi, variations on a theme perhaps, and what I hear also inside of that. So I'll try to make some connections because it's not new information, but how we continue to hear about it. One of the initiatives that Cochran has been doing and we prototyped it before COVID and then we're very grateful

to lead support from the Mellon Foundation to really run with it is we've built out a think tank of 22 creative administrative teams. What is creative? Administrative research is based on the premise that there isn't one way of making art, so there shouldn't be just one way of doing arts administration. And a big part of that work has been about empowering the artists to own. They know how to make dance. They don't question themselves, honor those artistic practices in the studio, and find ways

to also use them in your administrative work. I've worked with some artists as part of this think tank who have had companies for 20, 30 years and they're like, I guess I should get to board development, really. You know, so a lot of it is about letting go of the shoulds, of the ideas, of the one way of doing things. And I want to also offer because sustainability has been brought up a lot. Scarcity has been brought up a lot. Scarcity the the opposite of that. At NCC Academy, we work on practic

ing abundance and it is a practice because the world will continue to come at you and it's easy to slip down that slope. And so when we then hear about well, such and such venue is only going to do three productions this year instead of four, I want to offer that. That's not a loss. That is a practice of abundance, because they may need more time and space to decolonize time. It's going to take more energy and effort to move through there, and it's of continuing to list, listen to the artists, t

o say to their institutional partners this is how we want to work. But I think it's going to be our institutional. Partners. Who are going to resist that way of changing for so long. They're upholding a different definition of success. That to Laura's point, I love that you brought up a study from 1991 because when I entered the field two decades ago and I had some mentors who said, we've been asking these questions forever, then maybe they're not the right questions. Instead of seeking the same

answers, we need to stay curious and ask different questions to find our way. How to navigate that brighter future. And finally, specific to dance, I'll just share dance and the performing arts. We specialize in ephemerality. You can't hold it the way you can. A subject or a sculpture or a piece of visual art in a museum. Why wouldn't we work towards building that enable to celebrate the ephemerality instead of trying to hold us into containers? Thank you all. And Give the last word. Blake. Ant

hony, where do you see the light of the future? You know, I like performing arts. I'm going to be very quick here in the sense of this quote, this idea of four star to be born. There's one thing that must happen. A gaseous nebula must collapse or collapse. Crumble. This Isn't your destruction, is your birth. And I think as we look at this breaking point in terms of what artists and cultural institutions need to be able to look like, it's a destruction, it will look like we're losing. But I can a

ssure you, at least in my own experience, kind of traveling and seeing a lot of my colleagues in the work that they're doing is really not, you know, call and response is one of the oldest traditions that we have in this art form. And we've had a lot of calls from the public, from our communities and what they want to see. But in that process, just know it's not a distraction, it's just the birth. And so I'm quite optimistic. Thank you so much. What a beautiful way to end. Thank you so much. I w

ish we could keep talking, but I know we're going to move on to the next part of the conversation. And I believe that Greg and the panelists from Part one are going to join us back on stage. Thank you all so much. Thanks, everyone is people are getting back seat. I think we get to invite some questions from the from our wonderful council now and we have one right. Let's jump right in. First of all on the there we go. First of all I was moved by the whole program, by the speakers who I think are

doing a lot of great innovative work. And we thank you for that. I think that will help to lead the nation and home as well. I thought really, he challenged me to think about the question of innovation and change. As a presenter myself, I present in Detroit the country's largest world music festival, the Concert of Colors, and I have been thinking, along with many of my partners, some of which are here today, about how do we change, how do we innovate in a way that takes what we do and the impor

tance of the arts to the ground level? And how do we reach diverse communities where there and in their neighborhoods, those that can't afford, which most tend not to take part in our major institutions and the performances of those institutions? How do we change the way we sustain our work? I'll give an example. Corporate funding of the arts has gone down tremendously. Foundation funding at best has stayed limited. Government funding as much as we do is also limited. So how do we change that fo

rmula and get what we do to the street level? Because that's where the real change will happen and the ideas and the art that we bring with those ideas can change the world, but we have to change in order to do that. So I'd be interested in ideas that you have that continue to move us in that direction. Thank you for that offering. I'll just say very quickly, it's incremental. The work that we're doing, right. No one breaks their leg and is then asked, run a5k, right. And we're in the five K now

. Right. We are very much a recovering industry. Right. So we have just suffered again these past four years and we're building back and there seems to be this urgency for us to recuperate and get back to business in a very different way without actually diagnosing the and some of the root causes that have been shared by the panelists all day today. And so last night at our dinner with the chair, Jackson, she talked about designing discomfort before you make radical change. And I think that we h

ave been challenged as an industry with these moments of discomfort with the retreat and funding with with competition in the broader sector to actually examine and pivot what we are doing. There are a lot of, as I said before, there issues we could be solving as arts organizations. But I also think companies relinquishing a lot of ego of what we do, that we have to be the world premiere, that only one production can only premiere at one of our theaters at a time I haven't seen in the past few y

ears this many partnerships of artistic leaders calling each other up, saying, What do you have? How do we develop and how do we share, right? Otherwise you're done with the production. It goes to the dumpster and we're done right. Rather than elongating the life of creative work, which is what we should be doing and sharing in broader communities that are not our own. So finding those opportunities for partnership and shared resources I think is one of the keys that I think that has allowed us

to be more innovative, but also collapse some of the many things that we do. You know, we all have these buildings and they are aging, right? Or they need to be renovated. Why not be shared more broadly, right? That initiate these conversations in a way that are focused on collective action. So that's one of the offerings. And I'm sure folks have other ideas, but I hope we can move in that direction. I was happy to riff off of that. Kelvin. I love to point to strategic partnerships and I think t

hat speaks to the shared economy thinking that also came up with Lisa. I think it is about the removal of ego though, because I've been thinking about. Nina Simons The Art of Relevance, and it's a book, Nina had written it over a decade ago, ran the Santa Cruz Museum of Art and did radical things like move art exhibits down to the beach. Because if you know anything about Santa Cruz, it's a beach culture. Why would they want to go indoors? But that's not something that's been taught in museums.

And so going where the people are is one thing. But the idea of relevance. When I hear statistics that audiences are down, they're not coming back to what we have to offer. When the success sell out success of Beyonce and Taylor Swift Tours shows that people are hungry for live performance experiences. But maybe we have to remove ego that they maybe don't value what we're offering. That's not what they want. And so then it's a self-diagnosis too. And I love hearing the Austin Opera example when

you were like, Yes, this resonated with them and they showed up for it. So it's not just the funding mechanism because that might have one sense of, you know, well, they're interested in this, so we go and seek out that community. But it's also the combination of the artistic planning, your local environment as well, like that ecosystem thinking. I would agree innovation requires working capital and we've never had less working capital. And so the only solution is to be combining everything we a

re learning, everything we're doing sharing that knowledge. Because I'll tell you, my audiences in Austin, does it matter if the work has premiered in seven other places when it premieres in Austin? My premiere for the first is the first in Austin, and that's fine. You know, But we have there there is absolutely no room left in the field for ego. We have to share ideas. We have to share resources. If hope to keep growing and innovating because we don't have innovation labs in-house, you know, wh

ere we can come up with this on our own. I mentioned earlier this year we reduced the video entry for us to preserve our strongest kind of value proposition and I think, you know, we operate obviously under this 1964 tax shelter in 523, which refers to public good and social good and I think when I look at my own kind of career trajectory, I'm like within my lifetime, you know, the global majority will be the majority in this country. But in my lifetime, we will have an enormous amount of wealth

transfer in the world. But 68% of that will increase U.S. households. And so this idea of like we have the desire to create and innovate and to have the rate of change within our institutions match that of what's happening outside. But I think we have to be very honest about some of the very real hurdles that we face of the structures that build the institutions themselves. And so for my students at Roosevelt University and even the evolution of unions, for instance, is something that people ne

ed to fundamentally understand how they went for mutual aid societies, how they went to the National League of Musicians, why we needed to have a Negro African, a Negro association, the Jewish Association, and what it looks like to have been that Knights of Labor versus the American Federation of Musicians and what does their breaking point look like and what's their role in also finding some of these solutions? So I think kind of getting back to them, reducing barriers is really important to me

. I see. We have a question from Camila. Very hands raised. Absolutely. Thank you all. I love this talk. And in specifically around the idea, around solidarity, economy, movement. But my question is also about, you know, the response of you in 2020 brought brought forth a lot of change that I've even heard, you know, on this panel specifically, like the BLM movement pushed our field into a moment and to which they were bold, aggressive swings around creative decisions that were happening on stag

e, but also leadership transitions. And now, as we've talked about, that doubling structural deficit that institutions are being faced with and I love what Analisa said is that, you know, there's so many leaders now who have been appointed and specifically leaders of color and a broad performing arts centers and and more theaters and been hoisted as these moment of saviors. Right. And I love she said the idea of saviors designed to be crucified. How do we as a field support this moment, this mom

ent that has has has it brought forth this sort of broad swings, but at the same time invest in current leadership so that we are we are we're setting up not only our field, but leadership wins. And I'm just curious from the panel on various different modalities in which that can happen. All right. I'm going to just say before we get responses that I'm told, even though I'm hearing Leslie in my head saying we need to time, we are actually running out of time. So we have one or two responses, the

n we're going to wrap it up and turn it back to Chair Jackson. Hello. Kamala. That's a great question, and I think it's one of the big struggles we have right now is that we are opening up the field, which is long overdue, I think, as we all know, and we're opening up the field both to leaders and to workers. And yet what is the expectation of success or being able to have a life, Right. I mean, it's really it's really a challenge. And I think as we talk about innovation and new ways of working,

I think we have to keep in the center of the that thought that we're talking about having people work harder for less resource with less chance of success, or we're encouraging folks into this field, and yet they will find themselves in ten, 20, 30 years unable to live a life. And I don't have the answer to that. I just think it's something that we lose sight of in this moment and that we want to keep our grassroots on the ground work happening. But we can't lose sight of the need to support th

e infrastructure so that leaders can succeed and so that folks can come into this work and have a life. I have a thought. Hi, this is Leslie. Thank you. Thank you for that. You spurred some thoughts there, Laura. One of the things is building a board that supports leaders of the global majority at Perseverance Theater. Since this new chapter, we have a board that has majority women of color, and they come from different sectors. Our board, President Joe Biden, our great kudos to him. He is U-Pic

k Cree, Alaska Native Native, Indigenous and works in the IT sector and with the Sea Alaska Regional Health Consortium. And then we have relationships with the chief medical officer. So we we started to build relationships out that help with how do we increase our life expectancy, how do we create the programing. But the other thing I want to mention, too, is and this is a bigger leap for many of us, and gratefully I was able to come with a gift. As I mentioned, and make relations and deepening

trust with Alaska Native leaders and elders. So our relations with Central Council of Clinton and Haida that I mentioned, it means actually getting to study, look at observe and respect and even be in accordance in alignment with how native indigenous governance works. It's critical. We talk about innovation and I'm kind of in a weird place about it. The word innovation and what that's meant for us, I'm not sure it's I think it might be integration. When I look at the the learnings, we at persev

erance work with consent and permissions with the Alaska native elders and their governance, their leaders, their arts and culture, culture bears or arts and culture leaders and artists, so they bring such knowledge is such wisdom from since time immemorial. Their ways of life that are not innovative. It integrate and with that historical I mentioned trauma. But now we're moving into the healing part with the contemporary and their newer generations or generations that are up and coming. And man

y them now established are incredible. They've been able to successfully take the traditional and integrate it into the contemporary. So I don't know if that's innovation. I think it's in integration again, tour of decolonizing towards Re and digitizing, and we're all growing and healing and finding new ways of working and again, in accordance and alignment with governance there. That's such a perfect note to end on. Thank you, Lesley, and thank you to our Council for hosting us at the door. Jac

kson For having this conference, inviting this conversation and to our incredible panelists. And even though we have to cut off this public conversation, I really invite us all both on the stage and in the audience to continue the conversation with our panelists. We all have so much to learn from each other. But thank you again so much for hosting us today. So thank you, Greg. And thank you, Sarah. And once again, thank you to our counsel, to Analisa Diaz, to our presenters today. Your insights

are certainly helping to strengthen our sector in our nation every day. And thank you for encouraging us to consider other worldviews and consider multiple perspectives and different ways of seeing. Knowing. And evolving. Thank you. An important component of the Anya's work is that we go back. I'm sorry. So again, as we rounded another round of applause for our members case. So panel members. Okay. So as the final piece of business, I'm pleased to announce that the National Council on the Arts h

as reviewed the applications presented and that a tally of the council members ballots revealed that all recommendations for funding and rejection have passed. Thank you. Council members. An important component of the day's work is recognizing select individuals who have contributed an outsized measure to the vibrancy and cultural vitality of our nation. And next month, the NEA will host a series of events in honor of this year's NEA Jazz Masters. Do we have the sizzle reel? The National Endowme

nt for the Arts, along with the Kennedy Center, presents the 2024 Indian Jazz Masters tribute concert honoring 4 minutes long in Meyers, Gary Bartz, Terence Blanchard and Lily James, a free in-person concert hall streamed online at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., on Sen 13 and in-person tickets will launch online. More details and Kennedy Center Board reports Duncan. The NEA Jazz Masters Fellowship is the highest honor that our nation bestows on jazz artists. And each year since 1982, th

e program has elevated into its ranks a select number of living legends who've made exceptional contributions to the advancement of jazz since the inception of the honor. The Endowment has awarded 173 fellowships to jazz greats such as Regina Carter, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Donald Harrison Jr, Sonny Rollins and Yusef Lateef. This year's Jazz Masters, as you just heard, are saxophonist and educator Gary Bartz, trumpeter, composer, bandleader and educator. Terence Blanchard, pianist, organist

, vocalist and educator Ameena myers and artistic director, writer, oral historian and educator Willard Jenkins. We hope you'll join us at one more of the following opportunities to commemorate and honor their storied careers in jazz. On Thursday, April 11th, at 12:30 p.m., Willard Jenkins will participate in a discussion and Q&A at Howard University. It's titled Music Careers and Beyond the Bandstand. The public is invited to attend and observe on Saturday, April 13th at 10:30 a.m.. NPR will ho

st a listening party in honor of the 2024 Jazz Masters at their headquarters in Washington, D.C. and this event will include conversations with the jazz masters using music from their careers to tell the stories of their lives. And this event is free and open to the public, but it requires tickets. Finally, as you saw in the video, the 2024 Jazz Masters Tribute Concert, a place on Saturday, April 13th at the Kennedy Center at 7:30 p.m.. The concert will feature performances by the Jazz Masters,

and this event will be available through livestream and radio broadcast as well. For additional information regarding registration and ticketing for all of these events, please visit our website. Our next council meeting will be held in person in Ohio on June 27th and 28th and will place a special emphasis on rural communities during that meeting. I think we have a clip. Yes. Our partners at the Ohio Arts Council have provided a brief clip to welcome us and showcase some of their work throughout

the. On behalf of 11.7 million residents of the Buckeye State. We're excited and honored to welcome the national of the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts to Ohio. The heart of it all. Ohio excels in how we invest engage, innovate and lead through our strong and diverse arts and cultural sector. Whether we're helping students thrive in the classroom or improving the quality of life of our veterans and seniors, we can't wait to showcase how the build bridges through our strategic partn

erships in Ohio. The arts are always stronger when we work together. We'll see you in June. We hope that you'll follow the work of the NEA on social media and engage with the important work the agency is doing and support organizations in your communities and nationwide. Thank you for attending. Thank you for tuning in. The 212th meeting of the National Council on the Arts is now adjourned.