Schedule
Americans for the Arts Annual Convention
June 11-13, 2005
Austin, Texas

Newcomer Orientation
Welcome to the Americans for the Arts convention! Meet other first-time attendees and learn tips and tricks to getting the most out of your convention experience.
Presenters: Ramona Baker, Principal, Ramona Baker and Associates, Indianapolis, IN; and Leslie A. Ito, Executive Director, Visual Communications, Los Angeles, CA

Opening Keynote Luncheon with Malcolm Gladwell—
author of The Tipping Point and Blink.
Features a performance by Ruthie Foster.

Malcolm Gladwell will be available briefly for book signing after this session in the Bookstore in Salon C, 4th Floor.

Concurrent Leadership Design Sessions:

• Strategy-Building Workshop
  Linking the Three Ms: Media, Message, Maximize
  This workshop will focus on dialogue-sharing experiences and demonstrating best practices for media management. The projects represented will explore effective relationships with broadcast and print media outlets using public service announcements and collaborative marketing strategies. The initiatives are a collage of productive interactions with international, national, and local media outlets.
  Presenters: Peggy Amsterdam, President, Greater Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, Philadelphia, PA; Bill FitzGibbons, Executive Director, Blue Star Contemporary Art Center, San Antonio, TX; Alvin A. Henry, Arts Administrator, Oakland, CA; Jill McGuire, Executive Director, St. Louis Regional Arts Commission, St. Louis, MO; and Felix Padron, Executive Director, City of San Antonio Office of Cultural Affairs, San Antonio, TX
• Strategy-Building Workshop
  The Arts Advocate’s Toolbox
  Are you trying to strengthen your case for more arts funding and favorable cultural policies? Join this lively session to learn about the latest arts research, visibility, and advocacy tools—how to use them and how to customize them to your service area. 
  Presenters: Randy I. Cohen, Vice President, Research and Information, Americans for the Arts, Washington, DC; and George Tzougros, Executive Director, Wisconsin Arts Board, Madison, WI
• Facilitated Dialogue
  Making $ents from Your Regional Marketing and Cultural Tourism Programs
  How can you dial earned income goals into your cultural tourism campaigns? Come hear about innovative, collaborative, regional marketing campaigns in Los Angeles and North Carolina, then ask the speakers about your own campaign ideas in this causal dialogue session.
  Presenters: Linda Chiavaroli, Director of Communications, Los Angeles County Arts Commission, Los Angeles, CA; Lisbeth Evans, Secretary, North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources, Raleigh, NC; and Julie Peeler, Vice President of Arts and Business Programs, Americans for the Arts, Tarpon Springs, FL
• Animating Democracy Session
  The Holocaust and Humanity Project—How Ballet Austin Shined a LIGHT on Bigotry and Tolerance
  Learn what happened this spring when a dance theater project by choreographer Stephen Mills was at the center of a unique Holocaust education partnership designed to focus Austin’s attention on issues of the Holocaust. Ballet Austin, The University of Texas at Austin, and the Holocaust Museum of Houston collaborated with the Austin Independent School District, the City of Austin, and others to create a mix of art, education, and public dialogue that asked citizens to consider personal and civic responsibilities when confronted with acts of bigotry and hate. Explore the possibilities and challenges for large cultural institutions in a midsized city to engage the community in arts-based civic dialogue.
  Presenters: Brent Hasty, Doctoral Candidate, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX; Stephen Mills, Artist Director, Ballet Austin, Austin TX; Cookie Ruiz, Executive Director, Ballet Austin, Austin TX; and Dr. Mary Lee Webeck, Assistant Professor, Department of Curriculum and Instruction, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, TX
• Innovator Interview with Moy Eng
  Meet Moy Eng, Program Director of the Performing Arts Program at The William and Flora Hewlett Foundation, and learn about her perspective on funding the arts in America.
  Interviewer: Abel Lopez, Associate Producing Director, GALA Hispanic Theatre, Washington, DC

Mobilization: The Americans for the Arts Annual Report by Robert L. Lynch, President and CEO
Features a performance by Kacy Crowley.

Opening Night Celebration: Art Car Parade and Reception at La Peña, Mexic-Arte Museum, Arthouse, and the Austin Museum of Art
Features performances by Wayanay Inka, Valor Latino, Las Alteñas, B-Boy City, Viva Trio, Steve James, and Adam Ahrens.

After Words Lounge
After a full day of convention activities, meet your colleagues at the After Words Lounge for an opportunity to end your evening with late-night fun. Bring your musical instrument and jam with friends—old and new! The lounge will feature complimentary snacks, sodas, beer and wine, and a cash bar.

Early Bird Peer Group Round Tables
Meet with your peers in a series of breakfast roundtables grouped by the categories below. This is a great chance to discuss your successes and challenges with people who share your interests!

• Federal Legislative Update: NEA and the Department of Education
• Animating Democracy
• Arts Education
• Cultural Diversity
• Emerging Leaders
• Grantmaking
• Public Art
• Raising Dollars from the Public Sector
• Rural and Small Communities
• State Arts Action Network (by invitation only)
• State Community Development Coordinators

Concurrent Leadership Design Experiences:

• Strategy-Building Workshop
  Local Arts Agencies: Creating Opportunity in Challenging Economic Times—The Final Year
  For the third and final year, Americans for the Arts has asked Bill Keens of Wolf, Keens & Company to conduct research on the state of the local arts agency (LAA) field during what have been challenging economic times for many. Mr. Keens will present his findings and lead a discussion with guests and colleagues about the current state of the field and the strategies LAAs are implementing to improve their communities through the arts. 
  Presenter: Bill Keens, President, Wolf, Keens & Company, Falls Church, VA
• Strategy-Building Workshop
  From the Ground Up: Building an Infrastructure for Arts Education
  Explore how local arts agencies and organizations can work collaboratively and effectively with school districts to reinstate arts education into the fabric of public schools. The session will highlight Texas-based efforts to unite practitioners, school administrators, policymakers, parents, and concerned citizens about the importance of building a local arts education policy infrastructure.
  Presenters: Giselle Antoni, Executive Director, Big Thought, A Learning Partnership, Dallas, TX; D. Jack Davis, Ph.D., Professor of Art and Director of the North Texas Institute for Educators on the Visual Arts, School of Visual Arts, University of North Texas, Denton, TX; Sara C. Lawrence, Institute Director, ArtsSmart Institute for Learning, Texarkana Regional Arts and Humanities Council, Inc., Texarkana, TX; Victoria Spangler, Ph.D., Executive Director of Young Audiences, Abilene Cultural Affairs Council, Abilene, TX; and Larry Sullivan, Ph.D., Superintendent of Schools, Texarkana Independent School District, Texarkana, TX
• Facilitated Dialogue
  Strategies for Building a Philanthropic Community
  This discussion-based session will enable participants to share their challenges and successes for engaging community members in charitable giving to the arts. Hear from experts about the strategies you can adopt for encouraging the individuals, foundations, and corporations that reside and work in your community to operate with an overall belief that contributing to the arts improves the livability of your city and neighborhoods. Share effective approaches for appealing to emerging, diverse, and ongoing individual contributors, as well as the corporations and foundations that are committed to improving your community.
  Presenters: Eric Friedenwald-Fishman, Creative Director/President, Metropolitan Group, Portland, OR; John Killacky, Program Officer for Arts and Culture, San Francisco Foundation, San Francisco, CA; and Mary McCullough-Hudson, President and CEO, Fine Arts Fund, Cincinnati, OH
• Animating Democracy Session
  Traces of the Trade—The Legacy of Northern Slavery and Film-Based Dialogue on Race and Privilege
  In Traces of the Trade, documentary filmmaker Katrina Browne, a descendant of the largest slave-trading family in early America, films her family's journey along the Triangle Trade route, exploring themes of race, white privilege, and individual and collective responsibility. Participants will view and share responses to selected scenes and discuss how Traces in particular, and art in general, can be used to inspire dialogue in their own communities.
  Presenters: Keila DePoorter, DeWolf Family Descendant, Louisville, CO; Harold Fields, Race Dialogue Facilitator and Participant in Traces of the Trade Filmed Dialogue, Denver, CO; and Pam Korza, Animating Democracy Project Co-Director, Americans for the Arts, Washington, DC
• Innovator Interview with Donald Byrd
  Meet Donald Byrd, Artistic Director/Choreographer for Spectrum Dance Theater, and hear about his nearly 30 years of experience working in the dance community.
  Interviewer: Abel Lopez, Associate Producing Director, GALA Hispanic Theatre, Washington, DC

Annual Awards Luncheon
Join us in celebrating Milwaukee, WI as the host city of the Americans for the Arts 2006 Annual Convention. Following lunch with friends and colleagues, enjoy the presentations of the 2005 Selina Roberts Ottum Award and 2005 Michael Newton Award.
Features a performance by ELISION Saxophone Quartet.

Austin ARTventures
Experience what makes Austin one of the most creative cities in America. Participation in each tour is limited and preregistration is required.
ARTventures will be kicked off with a performance by Mariachi Garibay.

Emerging Leader Reception at Shoal Creek Saloon
Sponsored by the Master of Arts in Arts Administration Program at Goucher College
Mix and mingle with fellow emerging arts leaders. Appetizers will be provided, beer and wine are available at the cash bar, and there will be time and room for plenty of networking and good old-fashioned fun. After the reception, venture out along Lamar Boulevard or enjoy dinner at the Saloon.

After Words Lounge
After a full day of convention activities, meet your colleagues at the After Words Lounge for an opportunity to end your evening with late-night fun. Bring your musical instrument and jam with friends—old and new! The lounge will feature complimentary snacks, sodas, beer and wine, and a cash bar.

Early Bird Peer Group Round Tables
Meet with your peers in a series of breakfast roundtables grouped by the categories below. This is a great chance to delve into your successes and challenges with people who share your interests!

• Federal Legislative Update: Nonprofit Tax Reform
• Arts Education
• Cultural Diversity and Emerging Leaders Joint Session
• Folk Arts
• Grantmaking
• Raising Dollars from the Private Sector
• Rural and Small Communities
• State Arts Action Network (by invitation only)
• State Community Development Coordinators

Concurrent Leadership Design Experiences:

• Strategy-Building Workshop
  Local and State Arts Advocacy and Ballot Initiatives—Tools for Launching a Successful Public Advocacy Campaign
  Learn how local and statewide advocacy efforts have helped build support for legislation and ballot initiatives and have resulted in many victories for the arts. Hear from speakers on their visibility campaigns and strategies to build a base of support for funding the arts.
  Presenters: Jay Dick, Director of State Arts Policy, Americans for the Arts, Washington, DC; Joan Israelite, President and CEO, The Arts Council of Metropolitan Kansas City, Kansas City, MO; Anne Katz, Executive Director, Arts Wisconsin, Madison, WI; Denise Montgomery, Executive Director, Denver Office of Cultural Affairs, Denver, CO; Sheila Smith, Executive Director, Minnesota Citizens for the Arts, Saint Paul, MN; and Michael Spring, Director, Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, Miami, FL
• Strategy-Building Workshop
  Technological Innovations—Increasing Engagement, Revenues, and Support
  How can the lessons of blogging, the Howard Dean campaign, www.moveon.org, and www.meetup.com be applied to the arts? Agency CEOs and decision-makers will learn how online technologies can propel organizations to unparalleled success. There has been a fundamental shift in the ways nonprofits, advocacy groups, and businesses purpose technologies to increase participation, sell products, engage customers, and increase income. The arts are far behind. This session will reverse that trend by describing clear, cost-effective steps to take immediate advantage of these tools.
  Presenters: Matthew Saunders, Senior Director of Technology, Western States Arts Federation (WESTAF), Denver, CO; Sara Schnadt, Information and Web Development Specialist, City of Chicago, Department of Cultural Affairs, Chicago, IL; Robert Stuart, Senior Vice President, Strategic Relations, @DVOCACY, INC, Philadelphia, PA; and Gerald Yoshitomi, Lead Consultant, Information and Social Network Strategies, Leveraging Investments in Creativity (LINC), Port Hueneme, CA
• Facilitated Dialogue
  Social Capital Formation and Community Regeneration Through the Arts
  Participants in this session will explore the role of the arts in social capital formation and discuss methods that artists, arts administrators, and policymakers can use to enhance and evaluate the positive impact of the arts on social capital, thereby strengthening their efforts to make the case for the arts. This session, led by a team from the Center for Creative Community Development (C3D), will allow participants to learn the principles and vocabulary of social capital, analyze social capital-building strategies at work in C3D’s case study sites and in the participants’ own arts communities, discuss social capital research findings and methodologies emerging from C3D and elsewhere, and brainstorm on ways to better integrate social capital formation strategies into local arts policy.
  Presenters: Blair Benjamin, Director of Fundraising and Commercial Development for MASS MoCA, and Associate Director, Center for Creative Community Development, North Adams, MA; Juana Guzman, Vice President, Mexican Fine Arts Center Museum, Chicago, IL; and Stephen Sheppard, Director, Center for Creative Community Development, North Adams, MA
• Animating Democracy Session
  Civic Engagement Through Art— How Local Arts Agencies Can Animate Democracy
  Animating Democracy fosters civic dialogue and engagement through arts and culture. In this session, see video clips of projects and hear about valuable lessons learned from Animating Democracy's first phase as well as what's ahead. Discuss with co-directors and peers how LAAs might themselves mount or support other cultural groups in arts-based civic engagement in their communities.
  Presenters: Pam Korza and Barbara Schaffer Bacon, Animating Democracy Project Co- Directors, Americans for the Arts, Washington, DC; Robert Bush, Vice President of Planning, Arts and Science Council of Charlotte/Mecklenburg, Inc., Charlotte, NC; and Melanie Fernandez, Director, Community and Education Programmes, Harbourfront Centre, Toronto, ON
• Innovator Series Interview with Ben Cameron
  Meet Ben Cameron, Executive Director of Theatre Communications Group, and learn about his view of trends on the arts in America.
  Interviewer: Abel Lopez, Associate Producing Director, GALA Hispanic Theatre, Washington, DC

Concurrent Leadership Design Experiences:

• Strategy-Building Workshop
  Artist as Citizen: Partnering for Creative Communities
  How can artists play a leadership role in illuminating and advancing the public agenda? How can artists and public agencies work together? What role does each play? How can visiting artists work most effectively with artists in the host community and other collaborators? How are these projects realized through process? How do you describe and measure success? These questions and others will be addressed by artists whose professional experiences have involved these issues.
  Presenters: Ann Daly, Consultant, Ann Daly Arts Consulting, Austin, TX; Liz Lerman, Founding Artistic Director, Liz Lerman Dance Exchange, Takoma Park, MD; Samuel Miller, President, Leveraging Investments in Creativity (LINC), Boston, MA; and Paul Bonin-Rodriguez, Artist, San Antonio, TX
• Strategy-Building Workshop
  Engaging Communities Through Folk Arts
  This session draws from local arts organizations’ successful folk arts initiatives to explore how to involve new constituencies, bring together cultural groups to plan and participate in programs, and maintain relationships with a community's various social, generational, and economic groups. Dialogue will address the challenge of who speaks for a community, and how to collaborate with diverse groups in presenting their arts and traditions authentically in a variety of formats. Participants and presenters will brainstorm fresh approaches for presenting community-based arts, foregrounding previously unheard community voices and perspectives, and engaging new partners in the ongoing activities of community arts organizations.
  Presenters: Robert Baron, Folk Arts Program Director, New York State Council on the Arts, New York, NY; Paddy Bowman, Coordinator, National Network for Folk Arts in Education, Alexandria, VA; Deborah Boykin, Tribal Archivist, Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, Philadelphia, MS; Mary Briggs, Director of Cultural Development, Arlington County Cultural Affairs Division, Arlington, VA; Eduardo Diaz, Founder, International Accordion Festival, San Antonio, TX; Jose Flores Peregrino, Artist, Cedar Creek, TX; Juan Tejeda, Artist, San Antonio, TX; and Kay Turner, Folk Arts Director, The Brooklyn Arts Council, Brooklyn, NY
• Animating Democracy Session
  Creativity Connection: Arts-Based Corporate Training
  Arts-based training is taking the corporate world by storm. In communities across America, businesses are focused on acquiring the skills and tools they need to tap into the creativity of their workers and unleash the creative potential of their organizations, and in recent years, dozens of Fortune 500 corporations and countless smaller companies have discovered that arts-based training can help. Learn why—and how—global financial institutions study the inner workings of musical ensembles, law firms routinely partner with improvisational theater companies, and industrial manufacturers are hiring poets in record numbers in this unique look at a phenomenon that is transforming the landscape of corporate America.
  Presenters: Harvey Seifter, Director, Creativity Connection, Program of the Arts & Business Council of Americans for the Arts, New York, NY; Bob Steed, Managing Director, Performance Plus, Inc., White Plains, NY; and Richard Stock, Associate Professor, Chemical Engineering, The Cooper Union for the Advancement of Science and Art, New York, NY
• Innovator Series Interview with Louis Black
  Meet Louis Black, co-founder of South by Southwest (SXSW) and the Austin Chronicle, and learn about his perspective on the development and impact of the SXSW Festival on the city of Austin.
  Interviewer: Abel Lopez, Associate Producing Director, GALA Hispanic Theatre, Washington, DC

Americans for the Arts Action Fund Reception Fundraiser
The Americans for the Arts Action Fund is the 501(c)(4) advocacy arm of Americans for the Arts. The Arts Action Fund was created to spearhead a national movement to educate and engage citizens in legislative and other public advocacy in support of the arts and arts education at the federal, state, and local levels. This reception fundraiser is an opportunity to recruit new members to join our enhanced advocacy efforts, and for existing members to contribute to the Arts Action Fund’s new political action committee. This is one of the most effective ways to influence arts policy and help elect pro-arts candidates to federal office.  Contributions to the Americans for the Arts Action Fund or its Arts Action Fund PAC are not tax deductible as a charitable donation for federal income tax purposes. Not paid for by Americans for the Arts or any government entity.
Minimum membership contribution: $20

Closing Event at the Broken Spoke
Voted “Best Country Dance Hall in the Nation” by Entertainment magazine, the Broken Spoke has a musical history that dates back to Bob Wills and The Texas Playboys. The night will include a true Texas dinner, and you’ll hear from real country musicians and have yourself a big ole Texas time. Hey, even the Queen of England’s entourage stopped by to get a feel for true Texas Honky-Tonk.
Features a performance by Hey Bale!

After Words Lounge
On this final night of the convention, relax with friends and share your memories of Austin. Bring your musical instrument and jam with friends—old and new! The lounge will feature complimentary snacks, sodas, beer and wine, and a cash bar.