For the bulleted strategies, the number in parentheses is indicates the priority of the strategy, from 1 to 4. Brackets contain how many total sub-strategies are identified in the actual document. The following is directly extracted from the strategic plan:
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In 2014, Cultural Planning Group was engaged by the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities to assist with the development of its new strategic plan.
Over a period of one year, Cultural Planning Group led an inclusive process to receive input from stakeholders and the public at large, conducted a comprehensive review of agency practices, and researched best practices from model agencies elsewhere in the United States.
The Plan: Strategies
- GRANT MAKING
- ARTS EDUCATION
- BUILDING COMMUNITY
- POLICY LEADERSHIP
- EQUITY AND ACCESS
- PUBLIC ART
Key Findings
Stakeholders provided remarkably consistent messages to the Commission. They believe that the Commission is filling an essential role, and doing an effective job, as a grantmaker. They also consider it time for the Commission to expand its leadership role as an advocate for cultural development in the District. Stakeholders strongly support and urge Commission to take on a larger, visionary and more proactive leadership role. They describe an arts and culture sector that is large, creatively vital and often overlooked. The field is also beleaguered by the forces of gentrification, increasing social and economic disparity, and the stresses of sustaining a nonprofit organization or an artistic career. These challenges underscore the need for redefining leadership for the agency. It is based on widespread acknowledgment of the leadership platform the Commission possesses. This approach was affirmed in a subsequent Town Hall discussion with stakeholders to share draft strategies.
Where should the Commission direct its leadership? It can leverage partnerships inside and outside District government more strongly with an intentional and transparent strategy to accomplish objectives of recognized value to the community. Objectives include addressing a range of needs for
affordable spaces repeatedly identified in this and other plans. Also, addressing systemic change in K-12 arts education, promoting artists’ entrepreneurial activity, and serving under-served populations in neighborhoods east of the Anacostia River and elsewhere in the District.
Mission and Vision Statements
The Commission’s mission and vision statements were reviewed and revisions
developed that reflect the concepts of this plan.
Our mission is to serve and advance the diverse cultural interests of the residents and workers of the District of Columbia. We believe in the power of the arts, humanities andthe entire creative sector of the economy to enliven and strengthen our communities. We focus our efforts on the nonprofits arts community, individual artists and creativeentrepreneurs, the humanities field, and decision-makers. We provide support through funding, programs that address gaps, and educational opportunities and we provide leadership through policy, innovation initiatives, knowledge and connections.
Vision Statement
The Commission enhances the quality of life and economic well being of DC residents by nurturing DC’s artists and cultural institutions and by fostering the conditions where creative enterprises can prosper.
1. GRANT MAKING
Invest in Excellence and Access to strengthen DC’s creative sector of nonprofits, individual artists and creative businesses.
At the core of the Commission’s work is is grant programs and focus on supporting the vibrant artists and cultural sector in the District of Columbia as part of its unique and thriving creative economy. Encompassed in that sector are the non-profit organizations in arts and humanities who are the primary producers, presenters and suppliers of programs and activities. The numerous grantmaking programs and initiatives account for nearly two thirds of the agency budget and reach into and across all eight wards of the District. Hundreds of nonprofit arts and humanities organizations, individual artists, partner organizations and project partners are recipients of Commission grant funds.
This section of the plan expands those traditional constituencies to include other participants in the broader creative economy. In particular are strategies that build on the District government’s creative economy plans and additional ways in which the Commission can invest to support creative activity. The Commission can play a critical role in marshaling the resources needed to address the question of artist space needs, leveraging relationships inside and outside District government.
The Commission also intends to provide professional development services. With a focus on artists as small businesses, operating to generate a profit from their creative activities, the Commission can provide artists with registration and forms for DCRA and provide workshops on marketing and writing an artistic statement.
Grant programs will continue to be refined to respond effectively to specific issues in the changing arts and humanities sector. In FY 2015 there are 10 distinct grant programs, ranging from general operating support, to arts education, to artist fellowships and a focus East of the River.
Creative Sector Strategies
- Grantmaking [4 total strategies]
- (1) Ensure greater cultural diversity among artists who serve on grant panels.
- Supporting Artists [3 total strategies]
- (2) Create an ongoing program of artists’ engagement in District government, involved as on-call artists to provide design advice for all departments, including general services, public works and transportation.
- (1) Actively recruit professional artists to apply for service on City boards, commissions and other policy-making bodies.
- (2) Invest in professional practices training and workshops that help artists in creative development and professional development. This may be through programs developed directly by DCCAH or through augmenting existing programs by providing resources to partners and programs focused on professional development for artists.
- Creative Economy [3 total strategies]
- (1) Revisit and reassess the recommendations of Creative Capital: The Creative DC Action Agenda and the Creative Economy Strategy Plan to identify specific priorities for action, such as meeting the space needs of artists, providing entrepreneurial training and networking for artists, and providing financial support for entrepreneurial projects.
- (3) Partner with the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs to streamline the permitting process for artists and creative businesses.
- Community Wide Arts Marketing [ 1 strategy]
- Humanities [1 strategy]
- Partnerships [ 2 strategies]
2. ARTS EDUCATION
Promote Systemic Improvement in pre-K – 12 Arts Education
[4 strategies]
3. BUILDING COMMUNITY
Facilitate creative placemaking to address the space needs of the creative sector.
It is important to distinguish placemaking and community development from economic development. Economic development focuses on the standard of living, financial returns and job growth. Community development is more inclusive, centered on place: city and neighborhood. Similarly, the goal of creative placemaking is improving the vibrancy of place, as a means of improving quality of life. The arts can play an essential role in this broader community development agenda. They can promote inclusiveness and a sense of belonging. They can bring diverse peoples together. They can add vibrancy and a sense of specialness to a neighborhood.
The District has a number of tools and resources it can utilize to support creative placemaking. The District has access to a number of vacant and underutilized buildings, including schools that are no longer needed. The District has funding to support capital improvements. The District is in a position to negotiate with private developers to include the amenities that will support placemaking, including such elements as affordable artist/creatives live-work spaces. It has the potential to provide financial and other incentives to make these things happen, particularly if the various District departments combine their resources. The Commission already has a program to provide cultural facility grants of up to $100,000. These grants could be used to provide matching dollars for nonprofit capital campaigns related to creative placemaking (arts facilities, arts elements of public spaces), as well as to incentivize for-profit developments with support for arts and cultural uses.
Placemaking Strategies [ 7 total strategies]
- (1) Set a goal to construct up to 1,000 live-work spaces for artists and other creative professionals within the next five years, working with the Housing Trust Fund, nonprofit developers such as Artspace, Inc., and with private developers and utilizing such facilities as surplus schools.
- (4) Develop a clearinghouse of affordable living and working spaces for artists in the District, including maintaining an inventory of vacant City-owned facilities that might be converted to artist spaces (studio, performance, workshop, rehearsal) on a temporary or permanent basis.
- (4) Explore the potential for creation of artist co-working and maker spaces, similar to the co-working spaces that have been established for tech start-ups.
- (3) Conduct a comprehensive review of City zoning and permitting regulations to eliminate regulatory barriers to live-work, home studios, home studio sales and other artmaking activities.
- (2) Identify opportunities for arts assets in private development projects, especially in underserved neighborhoods, providing a creative center of gravity for the neighborhood.
- (1) Consider a program of “creative pop-up spaces,” dedicating a vacant land and buildings for the purpose of facilitating and funding artists and cultural groups to activate the spaces on a temporary basis.
4. POLICY LEADERSHIP
Provide cultural policy leadership.
Creation of a “policy shop” within the Commission, with a broader mandate, could establish the agency’s leadership in activating the full resources of the District government and selected partner entities to address critical issues pertaining to arts and cultural development in the District. On an annual basis, the Commission could identify one or more critical issues to which it turns its attention. Convening of stakeholders would assist in defining the issues, followed by facilitating action by District departments and partner agencies.
Several of the issues that have emerged would be appropriate initial areas for exploration:
- Artist space issues and the cost of real estate
- Creative placemaking and neighborhood revitalization
- Equity in the distribution of funding and resources
- Development of creative economy initiatives
[I decided to not include the two strategies identified because of their indirect impact on artists, in the holistic nature of the positions and their responsibilities, but thought it worth including the summary of the strategy nonetheless.]
5. EQUITY AND ACCESS
Foster greater equity and access
It is important to note that the creative industries often provide a means for artists from outside the mainstream to develop a career and to “assure their own equity” outside the nonprofit model. Hip hop and guerrilla artists are among many artists who often pursue their work in the commercial pop culture market, perhaps within a freelance career that includes work with community organizations and schools. The implication for the Commission is that by facilitating artists’ creative economy initiatives, it can foster equity simply by enabling the entrepreneurial activities of diverse artists.
Equity and Access Strategies [ 3 total strategies]
- (3) Identify creative economy initiatives that support the entrepreneurial activities of diverse artists, such as an incubator in Ward 7 or 8 that could include a recording studio, business training for artists, youth programming/mentoring, etc.
6. PUBLIC ART
[1 strategy]
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That's the extent of the extracted text.
Let’s recap. Here are the individual strategies in order of priority:
Priority 1
- Actively recruit professional artists to apply for service on City boards, commissions and other policy-making bodies.
- Consider a program of “creative pop-up spaces,” dedicating a vacant land and buildings for the purpose of facilitating and funding artists and cultural groups to activate the spaces on a temporary basis.
- Ensure greater cultural diversity among artists who serve on grant panels.
- Revisit and reassess the recommendations of Creative Capital: The Creative DC Action Agenda and the Creative Economy Strategy Plan to identify specific priorities for action, such as meeting the space needs of artists, providing entrepreneurial training and networking for artists, and providing financial support for entrepreneurial projects.
- Set a goal to construct up to 1,000 live-work spaces for artists and other creative professionals within the next five years, working with the Housing Trust Fund, nonprofit developers such as Artspace, Inc., and with private developers and utilizing such facilities as surplus schools.
Priority 2
- Create an ongoing program of artists’ engagement in District government, involved as on-call artists to provide design advice for all departments, including general services, public works and transportation.
- Identify opportunities for arts assets in private development projects, especially in underserved neighborhoods, providing a creative center of gravity for the neighborhood.
- Invest in professional practices training and workshops that help artists in creative development and professional development. This may be through programs developed directly by DCCAH or through augmenting existing programs by providing resources to partners and programs focused on professional development for artists.
Priority 3
- Conduct a comprehensive review of City zoning and permitting regulations to eliminate regulatory barriers to live-work, home studios, home studio sales and other artmaking activities.
- Identify creative economy initiatives that support the entrepreneurial activities of diverse artists, such as an incubator in Ward 7 or 8 that could include a recording studio, business training for artists, youth programming/mentoring, etc.
- Partner with the Department of Consumer and Regulatory Affairs to streamline the permitting process for artists and creative businesses.
Priority 4
- Develop a clearinghouse of affordable living and working spaces for artists in the District, including maintaining an inventory of vacant City-owned facilities that might be converted to artist spaces (studio, performance, workshop, rehearsal) on a temporary or permanent basis.
- Explore the potential for creation of artist co-working and maker spaces, similar to the co-working spaces that have been established for tech start-ups.
That's it for now. Would love to hear what your questions, thoughts, suggestions, etc., so please leave a comment.
- JR
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