Guest Post by Rebecca Krause: How Can Artists Inspire Service in Community?

Photo by Wally G

Note from Beth:  If you've been a long-time reader of this blog, you know that I was trained as a classical musician (flute), then later worked in nonprofit arts organizations in marketing, fundraising, and eventually was an executive director of a small chamber orchestra before working as a consultant with many organizations and agencies, including the National Endowment for the Arts.  I worked for the New York Foundation for the Arts for 12 years on a range of arts and technology programs, including a network for artists called Arts Wire. I was on the phone with staff at NYFA when the planes struck the towers, not too far from their building.  There were artists who had studio spaces in the buildings - lives were lost as well as complete life's work.

Last week I had the pleasure of sitting in on a conference call with folks from the National Endowment for the Arts (Yosi Sergant) , The White House Office of Public Engagement (Buffy Wicks)  and the United We Serve team (Nel Abernathy) among many others.  The call was hosted by Michael Skolnik, Political Director to Russell Simmons and Editor for the politics section of GlobalGrind.

I just saw a super post here about the call from JD Lasica who writes frequently for socialbrite.

The topic was the role that artists can play in shaping communities with particular focus on plans for 9/11, a new National Day of Service and Remembrance. The idea is to find ways that artists can help spread the message of service and also highlight the service work that artists already perform in communities nationwide.

United We Serve

The United We Serve (UWS) project began June 22 and runs through September 11.  The hope is to encourage people to volunteer in their local communities, not just for a day, but in a sustained, collaborative and focused effort to promote service as a way of life for all Americans. The challenge is to translate participation in electoral politics into engagement with governing.  UWS sees service as a way to do this. The United We Serve project is a way to see what’s going on in our local community and connect with  local non-profits, local city officials, women’s groups, unions, you name it.  The key is sustained relationships to deal with issues. Nel Abernathy talked about using many of the same tools that were used in the presidential campaign, noting that when asked and you give people tools, they will participate. Now UWS is asking people to do what they are doing, but more effectively, and at the same time to recognize that what they are doing is not isolated but part of a larger community. The focus of the project was narrowed down to four main issues people are facing:

1. Healthcare
2. Energy and Environment
3. Education
4. Community renewal

Artists Role

Because artists are often thought leaders and help direct people to “what’s cool and what’s not”, they have a unique opportunity to help support this project. One of the goals of the group is to create a stronger community among artists, continuing to do things we are passionate about, and encourage people to participate at the local level.

The arts community is so powerful in telling stories. Art grabs people who don’t necessarily read the local paper. Do what we do.

In the same way that the Obama political campaign was successful by providing tools and letting people do their own thing, The UWS campaign is asking people to do the same thing. “We do our local thing, but in a national context”.

Three Things Artists Can Do

1. Look at serve.gov
   1. Look for projects to do
   2. Post your projects
   3. Tell stories
2. Document
   1. Take photos
   2. Take videos
   3. Post blogs
   4. “This is a community that knows how to make a stink”
   5. Encourage others to get engaged
3. Pick something from one of the 4 key areas and bring your artistic creativity and utilities to the table.

Some Ideas

Thomas Bates from Rock the Vote, talked about an example project with Cody Hudson in Chicago focusing on the environment.  They are engaging young people to collect ‘garbage’, and create something of a community monument of public art out of the found materials.

I think it would be great for the Mighty United Artists to find a way to showcase the art that everyone is doing that relates to this.  A new section on the serve.gov site???

Want more information?

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Rebecca Krause-Hardie is a trainer, consultant, project manager, and partner in AudienceWorks, helping organizations use new media effectively. This post was originally posted on her blog.

Comments

[Sheena T Abraham]

The great thing is that you don't even have to be called an "artist" to execute the three things mentioned above. In the democratization of media, we can all be artists perpetuating a message as long we're armed with photos, videos and our blogs.

[Scarlett Swerdlow]

Thanks, Rebecca and Beth, for drawing attention to this issue. Readers can also check out this Americans for the Arts website http://serve.artsusa.org/ for more information.

Scarlett Swerdlow
Arts Alliance Illinois
[email protected]

[Emily Harney]

Nice post Rebecca! MAPP is just starting a conversation with United We Serve, hoping to highlight the work of beloved artist Sekou Sundiata, and the continuing drive of the America Project Working Group to use Sekou's methodology to inspire an investigation of critical citizenship through the arts. Soon we'll be releasing a DVD documentary and Teaching Methodology Guide about The America Project-- we'll keep you posted! More here:http://www.mappinternational.org/artists/view/46/

Cheers!

[Contemporary Artists Anna Meenaghan]

Great article, could not have enjoyed it more. I try to do the same thing by running an interactive website where artists and art enthusiasts alike have a meeting point.