Author: Payson, Ann

Publication Year: 1972

Media Type: Report

Summary:

In the past year, the question asked most frequently and most pointedly of the arts advocate/planner for Cedar-Riverside has been, Just what are you, and what do you do, anyway? Assumptions (initial) were fascinating: sometimes hostile, frequently absurd. It has taken a year to begin to define the role, although definition postdated acting the role. There is no pat answer: all I can say is that an arts advocate/planner in this particular situation has meant being: Gadfly, organizer, diplomat, coordinator, community advocate, lobbyist, crying towel, information source, dreamer, prodder, hardnosed practicalist, planner, businessperson, politician, teacher, human resource, mediator, sounding-board, promoter, supporter, sympathetic listener, leader, learner, activist, facilitator, thorn-in-the-side, ideaist and, above all - Machiavellian.

Abstract:

In the past year, the question asked most frequently and most pointedly of the arts advocate/planner for Cedar-Riverside has been, Just what are you, and what do you do, anyway? Assumptions (initial) were fascinating: sometimes hostile, frequently absurd. It has taken a year to begin to define the role, although definition postdated acting the role. There is no pat answer: all I can say is that an arts advocate/planner in this particular situation has meant being: Gadfly, organizer, diplomat, coordinator, community advocate, lobbyist, crying towel, information source, dreamer, prodder, hardnosed practicalist, planner, businessperson, politician, teacher, human resource, mediator, sounding-board, promoter, supporter, sympathetic listener, leader, learner, activist, facilitator, thorn-in-the-side, ideaist and, above all - Machiavellian.

Perhaps the following will help to illuminate what it's all about - a complex situation, but one that can perhaps shed some light on some even more complex issues concerning the arts in our time.

It should be pointed out at the start that it was through the initiative of the developers, Gloria Segal and Keith Heller, that application was made to the National Endowment for the Arts advocate/planner position. The commitment to fostering arts activity in the new town area includes years of substantial subsidy to arts groups, rehabilitation expenses, and many other forms of support. When it became apparent that maintaining, relocating, and costly supporting the arts over the entire development period was an enormous and costly problem, they determined to explore ways in which their belief in the value of the arts could somehow become recognized as a necessary ingredient of a total planned community.

CONTENTS
Forward.

Chapter 1. Introductory.

A. Background.
B. The planning context: Metropolitan profile.
C. Cedar-Riverside's role in the Metropolitan context.

Chapter 2. The present situation: some pp. 8-16 problems, some challenges.

1. Economics and spaces.
2. Internal survival.
3. Other needs.
4. The message for the new town.

Chapter 3. Is there a way?

1. Meeting space needs.
2. Providing subsidies.
3. Making arts organizations stronger.
4. The arts as an integral part of society.

Chapter 4. Some general observations on arts planning.

Appendix: The role of an arts planner.

Arts & Intersections:

Categories: Advocacy