Latest / Arts Unscripted with Monica Holt / Erin Harkey, CEO of Americans for the Arts, on Advocacy, Resilience, and the Power of Community

Transcript

Erin Harkey, CEO of Americans for the Arts, on Advocacy, Resilience, and the Power of Community · Arts Unscripted with Monica Holt

0:08
Welcome back to CI to Eye. I'm Monica Holt. Picture this,
0:13
it's a Friday night in May, 2025.
0:16
You and your colleagues have a grant that will fund your community theater's
0:19
youth program for the next two years,
0:21
and so you've just finished your season planning,
0:24
you're celebrating with your team, when your phone buzzes.
0:27
An email from the National Endowment for the Arts.
0:30
Your heart begins to sink as you read,
0:33
"The NEA is updating its grantmaking policy priorities to focus funding on
0:38
projects that reflect the nation's rich artistic heritage and creativity as
0:43
prioritized by the president. Consequently,
0:46
we are terminating awards that fall outside these new priorities."
0:52
This is our new reality. In a single evening,
0:55
nearly 560 organizations across America lost over
0:59
$27 million in federal funding.
1:03
But the arts community doesn't just create beauty, we create resilience,
1:07
and at the center of the fight to protect America's cultural infrastructure is
1:11
today's guest. I'm thrilled to welcome Erin Harkey,
1:16
the newly appointed CEO of Americans for the Arts,
1:19
the nation's leading arts advocacy organization.
1:22
Erin stepped into this role just as the arts face their biggest existential
1:26
threat in decades.
1:28
She's a leader who turned Chicago's post-pandemic cultural scene into a model of
1:33
equity and innovation,
1:35
distributing a record breaking $23.5 million to artists and
1:39
organizations while creating programs that brought new communities into the
1:44
fold.
1:45
Today we're diving deep into what it means to lead with optimism,
1:49
how arts will always find a way to move forward, and most importantly,
1:54
what each of us can do right now to uplift the cultural soul of our communities.
2:00
Let's dive in. Erin
2:07
Harkey, thank you for joining us on CI to Eye.
2:11
I am so grateful that you're sharing your time with us today.
2:14
Thank you for having me. I'm excited to be here.
2:17
I think you've just already shown so much leadership in the months since you
2:21
have started leading Americans for the Arts,
2:23
and I'm really excited to talk about that and hear more about
2:28
how you're imagining the community working together in these next several
2:33
years. As we know,
2:34
there's so much for us to be collaborating on and building towards in moments
2:39
like this, but as we get started,
2:41
I'd actually love to hear a little bit about the Erin that came
2:46
before Erin CEO of Americans for the Arts.
2:49
I know you have a marketing degree from Howard.
2:52
You have a couple of master's degrees from USC,
2:55
and so I'm just curious about the young woman who chose to dedicate her career
3:00
to the arts and what really sparked that fire for you?
3:04
The arts have always been kind of close to me.
3:07
I played an instrument from the time that I was five until all through high
3:11
school and was a writer.
3:13
It might not have been the thing that immediately presented about me to folks
3:17
when I was young,
3:18
but it was certainly just a part of how I grew up and how I
3:22
interacted and engaged with the world.
3:26
But I think as I went to college and learned more and
3:30
started to see more and realized that there was a potential
3:36
professional path here, it just really resonated with me.
3:41
And as a young person coming out of college and doing all the jobs that
3:46
young people do, waitressing and what have you,
3:51
I made sure that this sort of continued learning, like the enrichment,
3:55
was always in the arts and culture.
3:57
And as I learned more about art history and all of those things,
4:01
I just fell so deeply in love with it. I think there was
4:06
also a time when I moved back from the east coast.
4:08
I had been living in Washington DC after college and moved back to
4:13
Los Angeles, which is my hometown,
4:16
and I started to hang out a lot in downtown Los Angeles,
4:19
which was in the middle of this redevelopment in large part due
4:24
to the significant cultural assets that they were building,
4:27
namely the Walt Disney Concert Hall,
4:30
and there was a lot of new restaurants and all kinds of things
4:35
that were happening and downtown before that had really been a place that
4:39
Angelinos went for very specific sorts of reasons.
4:43
So I also then sort of understood that the arts were not just
4:48
a sort of exchange.
4:49
There was real value and they could impact the way that
4:53
communities were set up and organized and really be a reason why
4:58
people chose certain places as a destination.
5:01
So I saw the relationship between the arts and city development,
5:05
which then ultimately led me to the degree that I have,
5:09
which is in sort of urban planning and public art administration.
5:12
So I know that I've made the right decision because the decisions that I've made
5:17
in my career have led to even bigger better decisions.
5:21
And so I just feel like I'm fortunate to be
5:26
aligned with my purpose.
5:28
That's wonderful. I mean that's the whole ball game there,
5:30
but also how wonderful for us that your purpose is also aligned with this kind
5:35
of service that you've given to so many as you figure out ways to uplift the
5:40
arts in different communities, and now obviously throughout the country.
5:44
Chicago -- you held a number of successive leadership positions there.
5:49
Will you just walk us through the different roles you had in Chicago because for
5:54
folks who maybe don't know what types of jobs are out there,
5:58
how to apply their skills, I think your journey is really interesting.
6:01
I mean, I had every job basically at the Department of Cultural Affairs.
6:06
I moved from Los Angeles to Chicago about nine years ago to work at
6:10
DCASE, which is the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events,
6:14
and took sort of a policy job coming off of working at LA County
6:19
and being sort of a public art administrator,
6:22
but evolved to somebody that was thinking in the creative placemaking realm,
6:26
which made me a little bit of a generalist in some ways.
6:30
Started out at DCASE in a policy position, was there for eight months,
6:34
did a really good job at something and was promoted rather quickly
6:39
and then became a deputy commissioner overseeing the programming portfolio,
6:44
which is the largest division within the department,
6:47
and then worked my way up from there to become first deputy.
6:51
I also had a dual role under Mayor Lightfoot before I became commissioner.
6:56
I was head of her cultural policy strategy,
6:59
so I sat both at DCASE and also had a position in the mayor's office.
7:03
And then when came time, Mayor Lightfoot appointed me commissioner.
7:08
So I had the good fortune of being in the top seat,
7:11
but had really had a number of jobs within the organization,
7:14
which allowed me to see some real possibilities.
7:17
So when I stepped into the commissioner job,
7:19
I had a sort of real sense of what was possible.
7:22
Also, just understanding an organization so wholly as you move throughout it, I
7:27
imagine really helps create the trust in the environment.
7:31
I will say I'm someone who spent a long time at one organization as well,
7:34
kind of moving through it.
7:35
And one question I get asked a lot that I would love to ask you is,
7:39
as there are folks who are maybe younger in the industry or just getting started
7:43
in the industry who are constantly wondering,
7:47
what attributes or what things do I need to be doing to put myself on a path
7:51
like yours? Are there certain things, certain pieces of advice you would give?
7:56
I know mine are usually show up and do the work you say you're going to do
8:00
really well and on time or early,
8:03
but do you have any nuggets or anything to share?
8:06
I'll say that probably starting my career very early on in Los Angeles when I
8:10
was working in museums was that I started off in development.
8:13
I started off in the fundraising section and that has been really
8:18
helpful because it helps you understand both need,
8:20
but also what is something that will have resonance with people.
8:23
So having that sort of ability I think has been really helpful to me in
8:28
my career.
8:29
The fact that I started there and just doing a good job and
8:33
being a good colleague and being somebody that people like to work with
8:41
is a big part of it. And I think those are basic skills,
8:44
but also important in a job.
8:47
Still important. Yeah. Okay. So you're in Chicago.
8:51
COVID happens, and we all know the story. Venues are dark,
8:55
things are closing down. We're really worried about artists during that time.
8:58
As I look at the tail of your work coming out of COVID on the other
9:03
side, three years later in 2023,
9:07
you were bringing things back,
9:09
but you were also changing and revolutionizing how you were doing that.
9:13
I think you distributed over 23 million in grants, is that right?
9:18
And there was an increase in funding of more than 340%.
9:21
So walk me through that transformation in that time period where so many of us
9:26
were unsure how to move forward.
9:30
So Chicago is a perfect place in the summer and one of the reasons is
9:35
because there's just an embarrassment of free cultural programming.
9:39
And a lot of that programming is brought to you by the city of Chicago and in
9:43
particular the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events.
9:47
So we had a big sort of responsibility I think bringing people back to sort of
9:52
cultural programming.
9:54
But for a long time that was the majority of the work that the department
9:58
did. And the sort of local arts agency function,
10:02
which is the grant making, the technical assistance,
10:04
the professional development, the public art,
10:06
the policy work really took a backseat and it was my job,
10:11
I think, primarily to balance that portfolio.
10:15
So that was really since the time that I walked in the door,
10:18
I had come from a school that said that local arts agencies don't produce a
10:23
lot. They are just in this sort of space to not create additional
10:27
competition for the ecosystem.
10:30
So from the time that I walked in the door, I was like,
10:33
we need to sort of balance this,
10:35
but then recognized very quickly that it couldn't be a zero sum game.
10:40
So we had to increase resources on the other end if we wanted to sort of
10:45
lift up that other work because the major events that the city was producing
10:49
were also needed for economic benefit, et cetera.
10:51
So we just had to really be strategic and a good thing about where we sat,
10:56
and I think the relationship that I had developed with the mayor's office,
10:59
having spent some time over there,
11:01
is that we were considered in major initiatives.
11:05
So if there was money coming down for infrastructure or transportation,
11:09
we were included in that.
11:11
And so that opened up new pots of money that had not been accessed by the arts
11:16
before.
11:16
Can I ask, is that typical in cities across the country? I mean it should be,
11:21
but I'm not --
11:22
I can probably only think of a handful of examples that I'm aware of where
11:25
that's the case.
11:27
Yeah. Well,
11:27
where the arts and culture sits in the city is in the economic
11:32
development vertical.
11:33
So that's obviously a lot of money related to community
11:37
benefit, community beautification, community development,
11:41
which there are a lot of resources there.
11:43
So being able to tap into those pots of money helped us increase the resources
11:47
that were available to the field. In addition, I think like everybody,
11:51
we were just in a good place to advocate for
11:56
recovery act funds,
11:58
so that helped get general operating flexible revenue back into the hands of
12:02
artists and organizations as well.
12:04
That's great. So we move forward to present day.
12:09
Before we start talking too deeply about your work and Americans for the Arts
12:14
in this moment, in case folks aren't as aware of Americans for the Arts,
12:19
I would love, if you wouldn't mind, just telling all the listeners out there,
12:24
what is Americans for the Arts, this organization that was founded in 1960,
12:28
how do you describe it today?
12:30
Well, it's kind of evolving, which is kind of cool,
12:32
but I think historically it has been a big part of the ecosystem in this
12:37
country and is in some ways maybe the largest advocacy
12:42
organization in the nation. And it's not discipline specific,
12:45
it's in every geography.
12:47
It really works to serve the entire country and it does
12:52
that in a couple of different ways. Namely number one,
12:54
I think known for federal advocacy,
12:56
particularly around the cultural agencies.
13:00
Also an incredibly robust research department that does economic
13:04
impact and opinion surveys and also has a lot
13:09
of convening power. We do AFTACON,
13:13
which is a big convening of arts and culture folks,
13:16
and also just sort of commitment to building local arts agency
13:20
infrastructure in the country.
13:22
So it has a couple of different sort of historical mandates,
13:25
but in this time it's sort of interesting to think about the
13:30
evolution of the organization and how it both grows as an entity that
13:34
is important and relevant and meaningful to people and also meets some pretty
13:39
crucial needs in this moment.
13:43
So you were appointed and kind of took the helm as CEO for
13:48
Americans for the Arts in March.
13:50
I can't believe it. It's still like wow. But yes.
13:52
It's incredible. Like I say,
13:54
I'm glad that you feel wonderful about it because really it's our good fortune.
13:59
But March 2025 is a moment. So for me,
14:03
we're on the heels of obviously everything that happened at the Kennedy Center,
14:07
but more broadly impactful is you're coming in at a moment
14:11
where the new presidential administration is proposing eliminating the NEA
14:16
entirely. They had started pulling grants that were already rewarded,
14:21
and we know that happened more fully in May, I believe.
14:25
But paint a picture for me of what it was like to walk into the organization
14:30
and what were you feeling? What were you managing?
14:32
What was going through your mind?
14:35
Yeah, well, it's been incredibly challenging.
14:39
It's been difficult. It's hard for me to say.
14:42
I really don't have the words sometimes for what this feels like,
14:45
but we're dealing with it I think as best as we can and also
14:50
trying to, I think,
14:51
stay focused in the midst of things that are constantly changing.
14:56
I will say sort of with the grants and with the National Endowment for the Arts,
15:00
we had seen the cancellations happening at the other cultural agencies.
15:04
So this is going to sound sort of strange,
15:07
but in some ways it was a relief because then we knew what the full sort of
15:11
magnitude of what we were looking at was. And before then,
15:15
we didn't really have any sense of what the totality of these grant
15:19
cancellations was going to be. So from there,
15:23
it felt like we could start to think about what a response to
15:28
this needed to be once that happened. And from there,
15:31
it's just been really trying to understand and sort of amplify why these
15:35
agencies are important.
15:37
We had a very active day on the hill a couple weeks ago where we actually
15:41
brought in advocates whose grants had been canceled to speak directly with their
15:46
legislators,
15:47
to just make sure that people understood that there were real communities
15:50
attached to these dollars.
15:52
And as far as the agencies being canceled,
15:55
I think we're optimistic in this moment that that will not be the case,
16:00
that these agencies budgets will be restored,
16:03
but we still have a lot of work to do to ensure that that bipartisan support
16:08
still remains intact and that we can continue to fight another day
16:13
in terms of the focus and intention that these agencies will have.
16:16
Yeah, I can't imagine walking into an organization on
16:21
this kind of scale. This isn't,
16:24
the infrastructure of the organization needs to be revisited and kind of the
16:27
normal, let's say, organizational crises that a new leader might walk into.
16:31
This is much bigger, much broader,
16:34
but what I love is that everything you've been talking about and that what I've
16:39
been seeing has been really action-, future-focused. As you said,
16:43
when we know what the problem is, then we can start to create the solutions.
16:47
And even just you talking,
16:48
using the word optimism about what we still can fight for,
16:53
what we still can preserve, feels so important.
16:56
I obviously have a vantage point that is more on kind of the federal government
17:00
side,
17:00
but I know one thing that you've talked about just throughout your career is the
17:05
importance of federal grants, state grants,
17:08
local government grants in the way that they support particularly
17:13
small community organizations that might not be getting the attention of
17:17
corporate giving at a certain scale or even individual donors of a certain
17:21
scale.
17:22
So how would you convey that to folks who might be listening or
17:27
out there who maybe don't think of themselves as arts people,
17:31
but why are those small community organizations so important and so important
17:36
for us to be investing in to sustain?
17:38
Yeah,
17:39
let me just say a little bit more about why public resources are important.
17:44
There's a lot of models that we can think about in terms of broad national
17:48
support for the arts,
17:49
and certainly private philanthropy and individuals and corporations have a
17:52
significant role to play in that,
17:55
but public funding is very unique in the way that it moves and operates in the
18:00
system compared to those other resources.
18:02
And the NEA actually did a great study where they mapped the giving of the
18:07
top, I think it was a thousand private foundations,
18:10
and where those dollars were going adjacent to where their funding was going,
18:14
and they're in 700 more counties.
18:17
It is much more substantially distributed,
18:21
and that gets even more finite as you get to state and sort of local
18:26
funding and its ability to be targeted and to get into parts of the ecosystem
18:31
that may be harder to reach for whatever reason,
18:34
in terms of private philanthropy.
18:36
Public funding is more equitable. So that's important to
18:41
remember and it's important to still advocate for these dollars for that
18:45
reason. And again,
18:48
those communities where private foundations or not are completely
18:53
reliant in some ways on public support and that public
18:58
support gets leveraged.
18:59
I was on a program the other day and a caller called in and
19:04
mentioned that his organization got a $5,000 grant from the National Endowment
19:09
for the Arts that then they were able to leverage to $65,000 worth of
19:13
volunteer support.
19:16
So the arts are punching well above their weight in terms of what that public
19:20
investment also means. So it's important, right?
19:25
And these small arts organizations are important to their
19:29
communities and important to folks.
19:31
So we need to continue to dedicate ourselves to making sure that they're
19:36
able to do the work that they're doing.
19:38
The way that you can speak and share so much about that importance --
19:43
it's also helpful for those of us who maybe know it intrinsically or certainly
19:47
believe in it by what we've committed our careers or our lives to be,
19:52
but hearing from you and having some of those really straightforward ways of
19:56
speaking to folks who might not be as engaged on it, I think,
19:59
is so helpful in its own form of empowerment in a moment where we want to kind
20:03
of create this broader network of advocacy that maybe isn't that
20:08
capital A advocacy that folks think about when they think about DC.
20:13
And that --
20:13
the power of networks is something that I know you have deep roots and belief in
20:19
the power of, as you said,
20:20
kind of this togetherness and community being a match
20:25
with art making and culture.
20:27
How are you looking at mobilizing the broader cultural community who
20:32
wants to fight back, who wants to stand up and stand together,
20:35
but might not have the tools or the words or
20:39
understand how to create a path forward to do that?
20:44
Well, I mean, it's going to take all of us doing the thing that we can do,
20:48
and the thing that we can do with intention,
20:51
and there are a lot of really smart people that are trying to figure this out
20:55
and being in the room and having the ability to really think
21:00
about some important strategy around this is, again, inspiring.
21:05
And I'm hopeful in terms of what we're going to be able to achieve.
21:08
Never let a sort of good crisis go to waste.
21:12
We need to make some things happen. In some ways,
21:15
it's just a very sort of local action like support your local organizations,
21:20
go to the theater, hang out in museums, invest in your local artists.
21:25
The most important thing is community and the thing that we all do,
21:28
which is to make art, right?
21:30
And staying engaged and educated in the process and things that are happening
21:35
in Washington and participating in this sort of democratic process is also
21:40
something to be encouraged.
21:41
Thank you. Yes, I couldn't agree more with that.
21:45
The act of going to a local show or being at a
21:50
museum or finding ways to support these spaces and places where
21:55
artists are in their safe community,
21:58
that's also an act of finding joy.
22:00
And I think this notion of joy as resistance feels
22:05
very important right now, and particularly as you said in community.
22:10
So echo, support, co-sign,
22:13
whatever we want to say about what you were saying.
22:16
I mean, you get something out of it too. It's a mutually beneficial thing.
22:19
So have at it. Right?
22:21
Exactly, exactly. Historically,
22:25
arts funding has had bipartisan support and there have been
22:29
coalitions across political spectrums every generation that
22:33
recognize the value of culture. In this moment, which --
22:39
we hear every five seconds how it's a moment where everyone's the most divided
22:43
they've ever been.
22:44
But I'm hopeful that there might still be ways to build coalition.
22:50
So what do you think that looks like in practice right now?
22:54
Well, I think the reality of it is that anything that has to do with the federal
22:59
government in this moment that we want to get across requires coalition across
23:04
the aisle. So that's the reality. And if we're trying to get things done,
23:09
then we're going to need to figure out a way to do things together.
23:12
And there still is very strong bipartisan
23:17
support for the arts. It is something that we all believe in.
23:21
One of the public opinion studies that Americans for the Arts did a couple years
23:25
ago revealed that nearly 80% of Americans believe that the arts are
23:29
personally important to them. So this is something that we all hold onto,
23:34
and I think it's very difficult sometimes in this moment to believe that there's
23:39
something that we can find common ground on,
23:41
but I think holding onto those is also going to be important in terms of finding
23:46
a way forward.
23:47
I agree with that.
23:49
I think it's important to keep saying that though and to keep hearing.
23:53
So as Americans for the Arts is doing such a great job of talking about some of
23:56
the key economic impacts of the arts and culture on society,
24:00
could you just share some of those great figures?
24:04
Well, okay.
24:05
I always give economic impact numbers with a little bit of a caveat because
24:09
they're hard for some people.
24:12
So total economic impact is about
24:15
$1.2 trillion, 5.6 million jobs,
24:20
contributes 4% to the GDP,
24:23
which is larger than transportation and larger than construction, it's major.
24:28
But I think the economic impact numbers,
24:30
I use them as a sort of sense of scale because not a lot of us are getting up
24:35
and going to arts jobs because we're trying to contribute to the GDP,
24:39
but the fact is that there's power in these numbers and the sort of
24:44
scale of how we operate within the sort of economic system
24:49
is important to sort of recognize and also to recognize
24:53
obviously that in something that is this important, when it's not healthy,
24:58
there are consequences to that. There are human, social,
25:01
economic consequences.
25:03
So I think those sort of statistics are really important in sort of
25:07
painting the picture of how significant arts and culture actually is in this
25:11
country.
25:13
I really,
25:14
really appreciate how you frame that and the way that you are looking about it
25:18
in terms of the scale of the impact,
25:20
because something that I frankly struggle with a lot is sometimes I worry when I
25:24
see organizations that talk a little too much about arts as a means of economic
25:28
impact,
25:30
that we are consciously missing the much broader
25:34
story as you talked about and how that affects healthy communities,
25:38
how that affects actual health and wellbeing,
25:41
and also the joy factor, the quality of life factor, all of that.
25:45
So I love your framing about this, about:
25:48
you need it for sense of scale, as a table setting measure,
25:53
and sometimes there are going to be more relevant economic impact numbers to
25:56
call out. And I certainly encourage everyone to know those numbers,
26:00
and I'm going to go memorize what you just told me, but I also --
26:06
it's a hard thing sometimes to think about the arts as a whole thing and not
26:09
just trying to boil it down to the language of capitalism because it's there.
26:14
So thank you for that. I don't know if that's something you struggle with.
26:17
Totally. And sometimes when we put out economic impact numbers,
26:22
there's the argument on the other side that this isn't the argument we should be
26:26
making. It just, it's a fact.
26:28
There are lots of facts about why the arts are important.
26:33
You can pick 'em.
26:34
We got something for every question in terms of how it helps promote
26:39
education, how it helps promote health, economic development,
26:43
how it's beneficial to people that are aging,
26:46
to brain development. I mean, every statistic that you could possibly think.
26:51
There's no downside, right? So it takes a lot of different arguments,
26:56
but I think the economic impact one is just one of those things that we
27:01
can point to.
27:03
So you touched on this a little bit before,
27:05
but just to put a finer point on something just very practical,
27:09
the majority of listeners are arts administrators or artists or
27:14
educators in the culture space or just arts lovers.
27:17
What is something someone can do this week that will make a difference,
27:22
something that is an effective action for an individual to take?
27:27
Gosh, I mean call your elected officials.
27:31
Tell 'em the arts are important and that they're personally important to you,
27:34
and remind them of the connection that your community has to these
27:39
organizations and to these people that do the work. So that's one thing.
27:44
If you're an arts worker,
27:45
then just continue to do your job in the way that you do.
27:48
Continue to show up and do the work.
27:51
I think we know that these times are stressful and challenging for all of us,
27:56
but find inspiration and hope in your communities and with one
28:00
another, and I think we'll find a way to get through this.
28:04
That's right.
28:05
And thank you to everyone out there who is an arts administrator right now,
28:09
and we can probably link resources about finding your congress person or finding
28:13
scripts for reaching out. We can link that in the resources for the episode.
28:18
How do you keep yourself grounded right now?
28:20
How do you maintain a level of resilience that you need going into this
28:24
conversation every day?
28:26
Well, I've been traveling a lot, which is great. I mean,
28:29
it's primarily for work, but I tend to try to tack on
28:36
an extra day to sightsee or to sort of take care of myself and try to
28:41
focus. So that's been great. Seeing the country has been, I think,
28:44
really restorative. But as you get older,
28:49
you learn to sort of prioritize self-care and doing all of those things and
28:53
taking time to take care of one's body and sort of mind and spirit.
28:57
So I try to make time for that and spend time with friends and loved
29:02
ones and just real basic stuff. Also going to see art is always fun.
29:06
It's interesting. I'm sure you can appreciate,
29:09
but you say art a million times a day and --
29:13
It starts to lose all meaning at a certain point.
29:16
But when I can just go into a museum and not be there for any
29:21
particular official purpose and just be there to absorb the
29:26
art... I was in New York this past weekend and hung out at the Met,
29:29
and it was glorious. Also, just the non-work art moments are also great.
29:35
I do feel like as I've gotten older,
29:37
I've consciously or unconsciously just made a point that whenever I'm
29:41
traveling,
29:42
I'm going to want to see a show or go to a concert in that city and just catch
29:47
the vibe, if you will.
29:49
That's the best way to catch the vibe, right?
29:50
It's so freeing to have it be kind of outside of the constraints of the job.
29:55
Do you have one place you visited recently that you'd never been before that
30:00
really struck you?
30:01
Oh, I just got back from Santa Fe, New Mexico. I had never been there before.
30:06
Also, just a quick plug that AFTACON next year will be in
30:10
New Mexico in Albuquerque,
30:12
so it was nice to just sort of get a little bit of a sense for the state,
30:17
but that was the first time that I'd been to Santa Fe.
30:19
I got to see a lot of really cool galleries.
30:22
I went to the museums there and that was a completely new landscape for
30:27
me. Went to the opera,
30:29
which is a gorgeous outdoor experience. So that was great.
30:34
Yeah, that's -- the opera there is a bucket list item for me for sure.
30:37
Yeah, it's pretty spectacular.
30:40
So beyond what's happening today, tomorrow, next week,
30:44
as you're looking at Americans for the Arts with a longer tail,
30:49
how do you want to transform the organization and what an
30:53
advocacy organization like Americans for the Arts can mean to the
30:58
landscape?
30:59
I really think that having the ability now --
31:02
I've been in local spaces and then having the ability to look at what's
31:07
happening at the national level.
31:08
There's a lot of room for growth and for coordination
31:13
and for really understanding how to
31:18
build a national infrastructure for the arts that sort of
31:23
stitches together local and state and sort of regional infrastructure just to
31:28
make sure that we're thinking about this
31:32
entirely and that there's a network of shared resource and information
31:37
just to make sure that we're continuing to push forward.
31:40
And what that looks like in terms of program and practice I think is still
31:44
evolving.
31:45
And I'm hoping also that the agency maintains
31:50
some flexibility because as things emerge,
31:53
you need to be able to adapt and always be able to sort of step in and take on
31:57
new work as new work becomes important. So yeah,
32:02
I mean repositioning the organization as a thought partner,
32:06
a policy leader, an advocate for sure,
32:09
but also just an infrastructure builder,
32:12
thinking not only where infrastructure exists in this country,
32:15
but where infrastructure doesn't exist and how we continue to support the growth
32:19
of those kinds of things. And just a collaborator and
32:24
partner. And I don't think that --
32:26
AFTA is not looking to lead in every situation,
32:29
and some situations we're supporting from behind.
32:32
And I think that's also important for us to be able to recognize where we are
32:37
in a unique position to lead and where there are other folks that are in a
32:41
better position to do that. So it's really, really all on the table, but
32:47
I think there's so much,
32:48
but there's also some real clear spaces I think that we could be helpful.
32:53
That all makes so much sense to me,
32:55
and I just once again love how you are centering collaboration
33:00
and community above all else and how we can all come together as we move
33:05
the industry forward and through this moment. Well,
33:08
we have reached the quickfire culture section of the episode.
33:13
So what is one piece of culture that you're currently obsessing over?
33:20
So I was in New York this past weekend with my mom for her birthday,
33:24
and we went to the Met. We also went to go see Purpose. It's so good.
33:29
You saw it?
33:30
Yes. It's so good.
33:31
Yes. Okay, so we're both obsessed.
33:33
It's excellent and it has a cool Chicago origin story.
33:38
So I actually saw it at Steppenwolf,
33:41
so I saw it the first time it was ever done for a public audience.
33:45
So to see the evolution of it and to see people obviously that I know
33:51
on stage and to see the reception that it's gotten, I think,
33:55
with the Tony and everything has been really wonderful. And so,
33:58
took my parents to see it and they were over the moon.
34:02
So obsessed with Purpose.
34:04
That is a fabulous obsession. That is a great one.
34:08
I hope that regional theaters around the country will be able to bring that when
34:13
the Broadway run's over. Okay. If you could go back in time,
34:17
what's one performance, exhibit,
34:20
or event that you would want to be present at?
34:24
That's hard. Maybe -- this is probably the answer that everybody gives.
34:28
I don't know if it's that interesting, but like, Woodstock, maybe?
34:32
No one has said that yet.
34:33
Really?
34:34
I know. We've gotten a lot of very niche answers.
34:37
I'll say Woodstock is the ultimate, I think.
34:39
Yeah, I mean, I think that's probably it.
34:44
That's fantastic. A little more practically here.
34:48
What is one free resource in any field that you think everyone should check out?
34:54
Well, I'm going to give a plug for a free resource that we have, if that's okay.
34:58
We have an Arts Impact Explorer resource that's available on our website
35:03
that basically measures arts integration across I think
35:07
80 different topics.
35:10
So if you're looking for an example of how art intersects with housing,
35:14
you can click on the link and it will give you some actual case study
35:19
representatives of projects that are happening in other cities around the
35:22
country.
35:23
So I think that's an excellent resource and I'm just giving a plug for that.
35:28
Yeah, absolutely. We'll link that in the show notes too.
35:31
And then our last question is your CI to Eye moment.
35:35
If you could broadcast one message to executive directors, leadership teams,
35:39
staff, and boards of thousands of arts organizations right now,
35:44
what would that message be?
35:48
Thank you for your work. Thank you for your work.
35:53
And that's really at the heart of it all. Thank you. That's beautiful.
35:57
Thank you. Well, Erin Harkey,
36:00
thank you for joining us on CI to Eye.
36:03
We are with you and we are with Americans for the Arts,
36:06
and thank you and your teams for helping us all be of the most service to this
36:11
amazing community.
36:12
I am with you too, so thanks so much.
36:27
Thank you for listening to CI to Eye with Monica Holt.
36:30
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36:32
please take a moment to rate us or leave a review.
36:35
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36:46
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36:50
This episode was edited and produced by Karen McConarty and co-written by
36:55
Karen McConarty and myself, Monica Holt.
36:58
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