Five Things Arts Organizations Can Do Right Now

to stand up for Civic Care amidst Federal Funding cuts

Last week, I wrote this:

I (alongside many others) recently had National Endowment for the Arts funds rescinded from an organization/project of mine. The story I personally want to tell, in response, is not about how the arts are being decimated, nor about free speech, nor cultural expression. I want to tell the story of how artists are walking alongside and in solidarity with public health workers and educators and park employees and mental health providers and scientists and civil rights lawyers and advocates across America whose fields are being dismantled not just to aggregate power, not just to consolidate control, not just to squash dissent, but to destroy the notion that Civic Care is a part of our government's contract with its people...and to panic us into erupting field by field, industry by industry, rather than looking across rooms, networks and geographies to see millions of people and institutions being shuttered/hobbled/shamed who all share a common set of beliefs with us- public good is a worthy purpose, creativity is a human need, and care is at the heart of any society that names justice, liberty, freedom or greatness as a central concern.

This week, I’ve been thinking, alongside so many of you, about what theaters and all arts organizations can do.

1) Narrate your story as an attack on Civic Care:

Connect the story of your struggle to the struggle of others in your community, and talk about what that larger struggle means to residents of your place. Learn with some specificity about what’s happening to schools, and public health departments and behavioral health workers- how many jobs are being lost? How many people in your place now have less access to services? How many programs and clinics and resources are shutting down, and what does that mean to your neighbors? Never talk about what’s happening to your organization, to artists, without talking about those losses and impacts in the same breath. Describe the hits to the arts as part of an assault on civic care, not just as an attack on the arts.

2) Convene Coalitions;

Do you have a room in which people can gather? Invite staff and stakeholders from education, health, conservation, local government and non-profits, to join you in conversation. Make space to share stories; invite local officials to listen; invite journalists to cover; talk about what’s happening, and seek intersections- this is happening to all of us, there’s a story here, and our community is feeling it, but perhaps not noticing the simultaneous, cross-sector cost. How can we most clearly narrate together what we all do and care about, and how do we articulate the loss to our community as we are collectively, purposefully demonized and marginalized as fields and workers? Gather and plan for ways to show up together, rhetorically and in public contexts, in support of Civic Care.

3) Produce solidarity;

You already create and host events. You produce shows, exhibits, concerts, readings. Now, produce opportunities for solidarity. Produce panels. Produce public conversations. Produce moments for your audiences and the stakeholders of other affected fields to gather not just to rally or protest, but to listen and strategize. Have Civic Care festivals. Have lunchtime chats. Have virtual readings of testimonies from local residents impacted by what’s going on. Start a podcast called Civic Care, and interview people across your community and draw attention, over and over, to how losses in the local arts ecosystem are directly related to losses being felt across your community because all the attacks are coordinated in an effort to strip not just creativity from our lives, but our dignity and our sense of collective responsibility for the well-being of each person, adult and child.

4) Center/Support youth

This is a rough time to be a young person. Between a sense of chaotic, disruptive change to resources and services you or your family might routinely access, and a polarized political environment offering few models of cooperative leadership and successful problem-solving, things can seem bleak. Host young people. Invite them in to join workshops and listening sessions and gatherings. Engage teaching artists to design and lead experiences that make space for creative activity. I spent the last 8 months on and off the road with a show about behavioral health in mostly rural communities that included workshops with hundreds of high school students. Everywhere we went, we led 90-minute sessions that invited students to imagine a world where they had what they needed to feel healthy and welcome; out of these 90 minute workshops, these students co-created beautiful collective statements that communities now use to set goals for community care. Invite young people in; help them to imagine and offer visions for how we can think about civic care every day in the places we share. Let them lead.

5) Build Trust

Between the Loneliness Epidemic that our most recent Surgeon general declared as a public health crisis, and a political environment that nationalizes nearly every local conversation, social connection is difficult right now. Conversations are charged, and trust- in each other, and in local institutions- is at an all-time low. And yet, to tackle big challenges and rebuild an electorate that considers placing leaders in office who value civic care, nourishing relationships across difference will be crucial. I’m not suggesting- agree to disagree with the neighbor who would deny personhood to you or another neighbor. I am saying- there are many, many people who are not entirely clear on what policies affect whom and in what ways. The conversations needed to invite more people into a collective story of civic care only happen through listening and shared experiences. Consider dedicating some energy and activity towards opportunities for people to be together in low-stakes, joyful shared experiences. Find ways to engage not just audiences, but participants. Look at how local civic organizations and national bridge-building movements gather people. Consider social connection an artform in itself, one that benefits from the rigor and creativity you bring to every aesthetic event you create, curate and produce.

Is this your work…?

None of this, perhaps, is how you see your primary mission. But we are in a moment of profound battle around the notion of responsibility- whose responsibility is it to care for whom? You have always believed that the arts are necessary ingredients of a healthy community, whether you have used that language explicitly or not. We now know, through data and research, that it’s true. And yet, along with other care fields and organizations and individuals, we are being cast as unnecessary beyond our ability to thrive in open economic markets. A collective obligation to care for all signals a type of contract between government and citizen that our current Federal administration does not want to uphold; it’s a threat to the type of economy and values it seeks to place at the center of American life.

Now is a time for artists and arts organizations to stand shoulder to shoulder with other fields and disciplines that produce care in our communities. Using our resources and creativity, let’s remind those around us, near and far- Civic Care matters, and you don’t want to live in a place where it doesn’t.