The ArtsWave Impact Flip

City Beat's Jane Durrell presents the recent repackaging of the Fine Arts Fund into ArtsWave. In the middle of their capital campaign, the City Beat story provides a short history of the organization and the impetus for its recent rebranding.

Their new broader mission to financially support more and larger institutions outside of Cincinnati, a lack of support for the work of individual artists (Durrell quotes me on this point), and populism are some concerns of potential as well as past supporters of the Fine Arts Fund. The argument for continued support is the organizations newly defined mission to support art's impact on the community. Of course this is not the same thing as supporting the arts.

As you read the story, take the time to watch the 2 videos included. They provide perhaps the best illustration of the new ArtsWave marketing strategy: grant recipients singing the praises of ArtsWave.

With ArtsWave refocusing towards impact, the arts organizations and artists are left supporting ArtsWave.

There's the flip....it's your coin.

UC Can Support the Arts By Making a Pledge to CCM

As ArtsWave celebrates this first Sampler weekend and marks the first million raised, the Enquirer reports the College Conservatory of Music (CCM) at the University of Cincinnati is facing debt that may prove debilitating to their status as an elite institution.

While this weekend may be the official launch of the ArtsWave capital campaign, the fundraising push began at least a week ago with an email blast to UC staff, faculty, and administrators. Dean Robert Probst from DAAP and Dr. Thomas Boat of UC Physicians are both UC Campaign Co-Chairs urging the entire University of Cincinnati community to donate to ArtsWave with a list of incentives.

In their work to support ArtsWave they argue,

"A thriving arts sector makes for a better place to live, work and raise a family. That’s why the University of Cincinnati proudly participates in ArtsWave’s Annual Community Campaign (formerly known as the Fine Arts Fund). Music, dance, theatre, museums, festivals, and more – create lively neighborhoods and revitalized communities, attracting residents and businesses. They also bring people from across the area together to share meaningful experiences."

With its students and faculty, programming, and the Preparatory Department, CCM can make the same argument but with a further, more international reach than ArtsWave.

Perhaps the University of Cincinnati should refocus its fundraising efforts to benefit CCM. As part of the university community, faculty, staff, students and administrators already have a vested interest in the Conservatory. What's more, UC, CCM and the Preparatory Department students are already lending themselves to ArtsWave during their capital campaign.

UC support of the the arts should be a pledge to their own CCM.

ArtsWave Should Be Having this Discussion

As they launch their capital campaign, ArtsWave is continuing to hone its mission and defining its future funding guidelines. They should be considering artists grants. As they've told me recently, they are not in the business of competitive grants for individual artists. But during a brown bag lunch, Ms. Mary McCullough-Hudson suggested that such grants may be something for ArtsWave to look at in the future.

Art in America has a good story on funding of individual artists. The article presents the challenges of setting up guidelines for such grants as well as some solutions.

As the article notes, when the NEA killed artists' grants in 1994, it pulled significant financial support and recognition of our artists. But the story neglects to point out though is that yanking was a powerful gesture to the art world that funding artists is simply not a worthy effort.

ArtsWave should reconsider its cue from the NEA and work to establish artist grants with the community support they hope to gain in the coming weeks during the Sampler.

Want to Create a "Ripple?" Cut Out the Middle Man.

ArtsWave is launching their capital campaign by allowing Macy's to sponsor six weekend days of art activities and events throughout Cincinnati and surrounding communities. Promoting parties, plays, talks, concerts, and even an online game (?!), ArtsWave hopes to raise at least $11 million.

ArtsWave introduced a new name and a new and larger mission that includes supporting arts and cultural institutions based on impact. However, they are not sure yet how this $11 million will be dispersed. This year they plan to determine the new funding criteria before NEXT year.

So where will your money go?

If you want it to go to the arts, simply become a member of an arts organization of your choice or purchase art from local artists. Use the Arts Sampler to help determine which neighborhood arts organization you wish to support and fill out a membership form before you leave.

But 20 Years Ago, Cincinnati Invested in Art's Dialog

The past couple of weeks have proven to be a challenge as I try to engage the local art community in some of the biggest news in the arts this season. I've spent this time trying to understand why despite "our vibrant art community," no one in Greater Cincinnati wants to participate in this discussion. As stressed in my previous post, the CAC has enjoyed a history of supporting the arts and artists through bold exhibitions and conversations. Yet today they fail to join other museums in standing up against censorship.

I know Cincinnati is conservative. Though I also know of many local artists and art patrons who are not. So why is it that everyone in Cincinnati seems to be shying away from this debate? A recent blog post on ArtsWave seems to shed light on the silence. "Everyone Wants to Live in a Special Place" is about finding and adopting the best message that will attract support for the arts. ArtsWave in fact criticizes discussions that include challenging topics like censorship in the arts saying:

"Reporters and bloggers love to shine a spotlight on fights like the one that erupted in recent days over a privately-funded exhibit at the publicly-funded Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. And opponents of broad support for the arts know they can undermine that support by tagging art as elitist for the few. We’ve seen it happen time and again.

Debates like this make even our friends and supporters leery of publicly backing the arts -- whether with money or advocacy."

Let me get this straight, ArtsWave is accusing art writers of undermining support for the arts?

Boldness in the arts including debates like this one have proven that support increases for the arts. In fact, despite the notion that uncomfortable debates damage support for the arts, the CAC continues to tap the Mapplethorpe controversy 20 years later.

To those of you who read my blog, you know this last point is what frustrates me most about the silence. So I finally looked to see what the atmosphere was really like here 20 years ago? In 1990, Cincinnati Magazine wrote an excellent review on the legal and artistic ramifications of the Mapplethorpe debate called Mapplethorpe: The Aftershock.

The cover story presents an incredibly dynamic discussion between community leaders both for and against censorship of the exhibition, and how this event was shaped by and shapes Greater Cincinnati. The details and perspectives included in the story are very interesting and I encourage you to read it. Reading it will give you an idea of the kind of comprehensive discussions you could find in the local mainstream (even conservative) media 20 years ago.

Unfortunately, the conversation is one we in Cincinnati seem to be afraid to have today. Even in this time of social networking when conversations should be occurring frequently and debates permitting insight provided by various voices, Cincinnati's art communities are silent to the crimes of censorship for which they once fought so hard.

Has ArtsWave's work to find the strongest message to support the local arts effectively held any arts discussion in 2010 hostage?

What Does the NPG Really Learn from the CAC?

A little over 20 years after Dennis Barrie and the Contemporary Arts Center was acquitted of the charge of pandering obscenity with the Robert Mapplethorpe exhibit, our own John Boehner with Eric Cantor has successfully threatened the National Portrait Gallery into removing a work by David Wojnarowicz from its Hide/Seek exhibition. But this is not all. Boehner is seeking to remove the whole show, which the Smithsonian describes as "the first major exhibition to focus on sexual difference in the making of modern American portraiture."

With its acquittal in 1990, the CAC has rightfully taken pride in its place in American art history. With Barrie as director it refused to bow to the pressure of Jesse Helms and Citizens for Community Values. So why, 20 years later, are we witnessing such weakness at the Smithsonian? And if the CAC did effectively draw a line in the sand against art censorship, how does Greater Cincinnati's golden boy Boehner come out on top? Should the CAC step up to defend or condemn the NPG?

Citizens for Community Values, founded in 1983, believes they did not lose the Mapplethorpe battle. Citizens quite accurately noted the case proved "that not everything is protected by the first amendment." While the CAC was acquitted, the message was clear, Citizens for Community Values continues to watch them. This message was made much louder when the Cincinnati Institute of Fine Arts, now ArtsWave, temporarily cut their funding in the midst of the uproar. Now the ArtsWave and CAC walk hand in hand as they develop programming for the CAC and fundraising opportunities for ArtsWave, while tagging themselves with Mapplethorpe's name at every marketing turn of their respective campaigns.

For at least the last couple of years, controversy and entertainment have been the adopted exhibition strategy at the CAC. At the cost of art history, constructive dialogue, and education, the CAC and ArtsWave see Mapplethorpe as a marketing tool. (The upcoming Keith Haring 1978-1982 looks to be a perfect storm.) It should be no surprise then John Boehner, backed by Citizens for Community Values, feels he is on the right side of this debate. Like the Mapplethorpe show in 1990, Hide/Seek has become a noisemaker for politicians.

Unfortunately recent news indicates that along with the the CAC, the NPG has not learned in the last 20 years how to stand up for artists. Rather than holding in trust American art, these institutions have shamefully allowed others to interpret art for their own political or monetary gains.

Not a Wave But a Trickle

The focus of the new expanded mission of ArtsWave (formerly the Fine Arts Fund) is not the arts, but a vibrant community or impact. This is what ArtsWave President & CEO, Mary McCullough-Hudson told a handful of us who attended the first of a series of brown-bag lunches.

During this meeting we heard a little bit about the history of the Fine Arts Fund and the recent marketing research that led to their re-branding. (I speak about this here and here and here). While I maintain my criticism of their outsourcing of marketing research and the embarrassingly sloppy re-branding of the Fine Arts Fund, my immediate concern is their expanded mission.

Expanding their mission to include arts and culture will make money available to all non-profit cultural institutions. Ms. McCullough-Hudson stressed the support of the "Big Eight" (Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati Opera, Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Taft Museum of Art, Cincinnati Ballet, Contemporary Art Center, Playhouse in the Park, and the May Festival) will not weaken. ArtsWave will also continue to support the growing number of smaller arts organizations throughout Greater Cincinnati. Though she did say the mission towards impact would now allow the Cincinnati Zoo and Botanical Garden and Cincinnati Museum Center to seek funding support from ArtsWave.

I will let (and hope) others ask how access to this new funding source will affect the passage of future taxes to support these two organizations. As I mentioned recently, my concern is for the artists. Perhaps more accurately, for art.

I attended the meeting to ask the one question, "Does this new expanded mission include artists grants?" The answer, "no."

Ms. McCullough tried unconvincingly to suggested ArtsWave may make grants available to artists in the future, but right now they must work to define organizational impact. After additional discussion about the concern of the lack of direct artist support, Ms. Margie Waller, ArtsWave Vice President of Strategic Communications and Research, went on to explain many of our local artists do in fact receive money from ArtsWave as they are hired by supported arts organizations. Further, many of our local artists start their own art organizations ArtsWave continues to support.

Borrowing from their water imagery, I accused Ms. McCullough and Ms. Waller of employing trickle-down economics.

Funding impact is simply a way to be sure the largest organizations get the biggest piece of the pie. But more troubling is ArtsWave unapologetic lack of support for the individual artist. Yes, many of our artists have started wonderful arts organizations throughout Greater Cincinnati that truly impact our communities. With no competitive artists grants, this is the only way our local artists have been able to get any support from ArtsWave. ArtsWave is not supporting artists doing art, but by doing the work of ArtsWave; heading art organizations that will bring capital into the city.

There are always a number of interesting and important conversations artists in and outside of Greater Cincinnati in which artists are engaged. Without competitive artist grants, there is little to no path for our artists to participate in these arts discussions. Of course this is a horrible situation for our local artists. This also harms any claim Cincinnati can make in the art world. And this situation is not healthy for arts in general.

Earlier this week, Rocco Landesman, Chairman of the National Endowment of the Arts visited Cincinnati. During this visit, he witness the work of the ArtsWave and now points to this funding machine as a national model!

As much as it claims in their calls for donations, ArtsWave does not support the arts. It uses the arts to celebrate the city. These are two very different things. I have no problem with the recognition of the arts as an important or even the most important factor of a healthy and vibrant community. Hell, I'm the biggest cheerleader. But riding the ArtsWave capital campaign on the backs of artists as administrators kills the arts.

If ArtsWave is being presented as a national model, their expanded mission, must be challenged. Those of you who honestly support the arts in Cincinnati as well as throughout the country and want artists to be able to do art, contact Ms. Mary McCullough-Hudson and demand ArtsWave develop competitive grants that are awarded directly to artists for their art work.

ArtsWave as a national model will have a damaging impact on the arts in the United State if artists face losing access to competitive grants. Contact ArtsWave and tell them you support the arts by supporting the artists.

Will We See Artists Grants?

Rocco Landesman, Chairman of the National Endowment for the Arts visited Cincinnati this week.

Landesman said Over-the-Rhine was an example of what the NEA would like to see happen elsewhere. He had never visited the neighborhood on previous trips in Cincinnati because of its reputation for drugs and violent crime, but art galleries, theaters and other arts organizations have helped transform it, he said.

"This really is Exhibit A of what we're going to be talking about in the next three years at the NEA, how art and artists can transform a place and make it a completely different place," Landesman said. "The arts can revitalize neighborhoods, and boy, is this a great example."

Perhaps with such recognition of the artist's role in our communities, ArtsWave will finally develop artists grants as part of their new and expanded mission.

I Guess Everyone's Catching the Wave!

Yesterday I criticized the Fine Arts Fund for changing their name to ArtsWave. However, it seems as though many people like it.

After surfing (ahem!) the internet looking for the new ArtsWave website, I found two other arts organizations with the same or similar name: ArtsWave in New York and Norfolk ArtsWave in Connecticut. Both are relatively young arts organizations, with very similar goals towards supporting the arts.

In New York, ArtsWave, which stands for Arts in Warwarsing and the Village of Ellenville, began its 501c3 process in February of 2008. This is the same month they unveiled their logo design by competition winner, Chuck Davidson.

The Norfolk ArtsWave website states:

"In that Plan a well-researched and clearly-articulated commitment was made to economic development based on Norfolk’s cultural roots. (my emphasis, of course) Norfolk ArtsWave!, which is the result of intense collaboration among townspeople, businesses and organizations, brings this very good strategy to life in a very good way."

Cincinnati's ArtsWave spent $150,000 for this "new" brand.

While I still argue an outside marketing firm cannot possibly do a good job of rebranding Cincinnati's history of arts support, I did expect at the very least New York's Resnicow Schroeder Associates to dip its toes in the water before branding the Fine Arts Fund with a name already used by groups in their own neighborhood.

Water, Water Everywhere.....

Earlier this month, I wrote about my latest concerns with the Fine Arts Fund's decision to hire outside artists to rebrand their organization. My criticism rests on the obvious problem of collecting donations in the name of supporting local artists and failing to pay a local marketing firm to redesign their brand.

Yesterday, the Fine Arts Fund unveiled their outsourced effort with this.

Since this unveiling, I've been trying to imagine the long-time Fine Arts Fund donor proudly announce, "I belong to the ArtsWave." or "I give to the ArtsWave."

hmmm....

It sounds and looks like the Fine Arts Fund has has been swept up in their own water imagery with the now tired old "ripple effect" they've been touting for 3 or 4 years, and much over played Splash Dance video (you can find it yourself).

I guess we cannot expect a marketing firm from NYC to know Cincinnati's history of support for the arts and the identity of our arts donors. But the President and CEO, Mary McCullough-Hudson should.

Join me as I watch the real ripple effect of ArtsWave.