Over at Barry’s Blog, there is the beginnings of a very interesting six-week long discussion about the direction of the NEA. The discussion is being promoted by WESTAF: “WESTAF, the Western States Arts Federation, is a nonprofit arts service organization dedicated to the creative advancement and preservation of the arts. Based in Denver, Colorado, WESTAF fulfills its mission to strengthen the financial, organizational and policy infrastructure of the arts by providing innovative programs and services to artists and arts organizations in the West and nationwide.” Barry H, who runs the blog, has brought together an amazing group of people to discuss the future of the NEA. Here are the progra details:
WEEK #1 – September 15 – 18 Former NEA perspectives:
The first week launch of the discussion will feature participants who have previously worked at the Endowment, along with a couple of national leaders who have long standing relationships with the agency. The focus of this first week’s discussion will be on the agency’s organization, culture, priorities and initiatives so as to set the context for subsequent week’s discussions.
PARTICIPANTS:
Olive Mosier – Director, Arts & Culture Program, William Penn Foundation; former Deputy Director NEA.
Diane Mataraza – Independent Consultant; former Director Local Partnership, NEA
Tony Chauveaux – Deputy Director the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library; former Deputy Director, NEA
Peter Hero – Vice-President, California Institute of Technology, former member National Council on the Arts, former Executive Director Silicon Valley Foundation
Steven Tepper – Associate Director Curb Center for Art, Enterprise & Public Policy, Vanderbilt UniversityWEEK #2 – September 22 – 26 National arts leaders perspectives
The second week will feature national arts organization leadership, including the various sub-sector discipline and interest areas (e.g., the presenting community, state arts agencies, theater, dance, music, and visual arts etc) and will focus on the needs of the field, whether or not the Endowment is meeting those needs and how the agency might better address those needs.
PARTICIPANTS:Bob Lynch – President & CEO Americans for the Arts
Jonathan Katz – Executive Director, National Association of State Arts Agencies
Patrick Overton – Director, Front Porch Institute
Sandra Gibson – Executive Director, Association for Performing Arts Presenters
Anne Katz – Executive Director Arts Wisconsin, Immediate Past Chair, State Arts Action Network
Don Adams – Cultural Policy Analyst
*new – Brad Erickson – Executive Director, Theater Bay Area
*new – Celeste DeWald – Executive Director, California Association of Museums.
WEEK # 3 – September 29 – October 2 Funders – public & private – perspectives
The third week will feature the funding community — major foundations together with state, regional and local arts agencies (and the relationship of those agencies with the Endowment) and will focus on the economic climate, the limits and opportunities for funding strategies and how an ecosystem for collaboration and cooperation with the Endowment might be structured in the future
PARTICIPANTS:
Ben Cameron – Program Director for the Arts, Doris Duke Foundation
Daniel Windham – Director of Arts, The Wallace Foundation
Janet Brown – Executive Director, Grantmakers in the Arts
Moy Eng – Program Officer, Performing Arts, Hewlett Foundation
John McGuirk – Program Officer – Arts, Irvine Foundation
Frances Phillips – Program Director, Arts & The Creative Work Fund, Haas Foundation
John Killacky – Program Officer, Arts, The San Francisco Foundation
Victoria Hamilton – Executive Director, San Diego Office of Arts & Culture
Laura Zucker – Executive Director, Los Angeles County Arts Commission; Director of the Masters in Arts Administration program at Claremont Graduate University
Loie Fecteau – Executive Director, New Mexico ArtsWEEK # 4 – October 6 – 9 Arts Education leaders, Academia, Emerging Leaders, and Consultant perspectives
The fourth week will include select national nonprofit arts consultants, emerging young arts leaders from the field, academic representatives from universities offering degree in arts administration programs, and arts education leaders and explore those perspectives.
PARTICIPANTS:
Andrew Taylor – Director BOLZ CENTER for Arts Administration / UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN – MADISON SCHOOL OF
BUSINESS; author of The ARTFUL MANAGER blog. Invitation pending
Jodi Beznoska – Communications Director Walton Arts Center
Ian Moss – Blogger Createquity.com
Shannon Daut – Deputy Director, WESTAF
Neil Archer Roan – Independent Consultant
Doug McLennan – Founder / Publisher ARTS JOURNAL
Cora Mirikitani – Director Center for Cultural Innovation
Hollis Headrick – Founding Executive Director, The Center for Arts Education, New York, New York; Program Director Arts in Education New York State Council on the Arts
Steven Lavine – President, California Institute of the Arts
WEEK # 5 – October 13 – 16 Private Sector / Stakeholder perspectivesThe fifth week will include business, trade and corporate representatives from the private sector entertainment and high tech industries, and focus on the possible intersections between these potential stakeholders and our sector, how the Endowment might facilitate those relationships, and the policy implications of those intersections.
Kristen Madsen – Senior Vice-President – The Grammy Foundation
Terri Clark – Executive Director, The Television Academy of Arts & Sciences Foundation
Cary Sherman – President RIAA (Record Industry Association of America)
Mary Luehrsen – Director of Public Affairs & Government Relations, NAMM (National Association of Music Manufacturers)We have invited representatives from companies such as Google, You Tube, Twitter, Facebook and others from the high tech industries. Full list of confirmed participants soon.
WEEK # 6 – October 20 – 23 Artists perspectiveThe sixth week will include artists – new and established – from various disciplines and geographic areas around the country and focus on the relationship between working artists and the Endowment.
We have invited a dozen artists to participate. Full list of confirmed participants soon.
Of particular note is the presence of Steven Tepper of the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy at 
Vanderbilt in Week #1 (his essays in Engaging Art are powerful, and promote a populist arts orientation with which I am in great sympathy), and Patrick Overton of the Front Porch Institute in Week #2. Patrick has been a leader in the area of rural arts for many years, and is the author of the outstanding book
Rebuilding the Front Porch of America: Essays on thr Arts of Community Making.
I am flattered to say I have been invited to be part of the panel in Week #4. So you might want to keep up with the discussion, and comment as you do. Let’s get a conversation going. If you read my open letter to Rocco Landesman, and agreed with it even somewhat, this conversation is the obvious next step for advancing these ideas.
Does anyone else find that the endless text “discussion” is an impossible way to engage? Any good ideas are buried in thousands upon thousands of words on Barry’s blog. It seems like interviews rotely transcribed are a poor way to communicate. And if it’s written, then perhaps its simply too conversational. These folks are brilliant but they need a good editor if they want to get any points across.
Karl — Unfortunately, the way this is being facilitated leads to this structure. It really isn’t a discussion, rather each participant is given a list of questions to which they must respond, and then follow-up questions at the same time. Consequently, it is more like interlinked monologues than dialogue. And a lot of it, alas, smacks of grant-speak. I’ll try to be more lively, but I can’t guarantee brevity!