Agenda

I.             Introduction and Forum Rules (Richard May)
 
II.            Arts’ Introduction (2 minute time limit)
A.            Literature – John Pipkin, Writers League of Texas Executive Director
B.            Visual Arts – Bill Keese, Austin Visual Arts Association President
C.            Performance Arts – Latifah Taormina, Austin Circle of Theaters Executive Director
D.            Film/Video – Rebecca Campbell, Austin Film Society Chair
E.            Music – Brad Stein, Austin Music Commission Chair
 
III.             Candidates’ Opening Remarks (1 minute time limit – alphabetical order by Place)
 
CANDIDATE - PLACE 1
Allen Demling
Lee Leffingwell
Jason Meeker

CANDIDATE - PLACE 3
Jennifer Kim
Randi Shade
Ken Weiss
 
CANDIDATE - PLACE 4
Robin Cravey
Cid Galindo
Laura Morrison
Samuel Osemene
 
 
IV.            Moderator Q&A – There will be three questions posed to the candidates. We will rotate candidates’ response order with each question. Each response will be limited to two minutes. (Richard May)
 
V.            Candidates Closing Statements (1 minute each)

CULTURAL CONTRACTS ARE DUE MAY 1, 2008
Vincent Kitch and Cultural Arts Division want all potential applicants to know the due date for applications for arts funding for FY 2008-2009. Forms can be downloaded on Cultural Arts Division website.

ONLINE ARTS MANAGEMENT CLASSES FOR ACOT MEMBERS BEGIN
Posted January 25, 2008:
This offer comes via our exciting partnership with Fractured Atlas Open Arts Network which gives full FA membership privileges to all ACoT members. Forgot your ACoT member log-in? Give us a call.

From Adam Huttler, director of Fractured Atlas Open Arts Network:
"My undergraduate degree is in theatre. For the most part, my time in college was spent rolling around on the floor and exhaling on a hum. This did a lovely job of teaching me how to "project" to the rafters, but it taught me virtually nothing about how to actually make a living in the theatre industry. The closest we came was a mini-semester on auditioning. Nothing on how to start a theatre company, nothing about fundraising or marketing or budgeting or any of the myriad other skills that real working artists need to have these days.

The truth is that this experience is far more common than not. Unless you specifically pursue a degree in arts administration (or do what I eventually did and get an MBA) it is assumed that craft and aesthetics are enough. The arts industry today is sadly full of artists who are running businesses - either by choice or by default - but have essentially zero training in how to do that.

With this mammoth need in mind, I am pleased to announce the launch of Fractured U. For the last year we've been quietly putting together an online curriculum in arts management aimed squarely at artists who are working outside the mainstream establishment and trying to make things happen on their own terms. The initial roster of classes provides introductions to fundraising, marketing, and professional identity. The course list is short for the moment, but we'll be expanding it steadily over time.

Fractured U. is free and open to the public, although you'll need to be a Fractured Atlas member to participate in discussion forums or take quizzes.

Since this is a brand new service - and one that I hope will someday be a big part of what we do - I'm eager for any and all feedback. So give it a whirl and tell us what you think!"

You can take a look at the courses here: http://courses.fracturedatlas.org

Also, just to let you know, we are constantly upgrading our Liability Insurance programs. We currently offer: Annual Liability Insurance, Event Insurance, D&O Insurance, Film Production/Equipment Insurance, Public Art Insurance, and Worker's Comp Insurance. We will soon launch (in the next few weeks): E&O Insurance, Volunteer Accident Insurance, Teaching Artist Insurance, and Studio Rental Insurance. Please continue to check our website and inform your members of these programs -- the rates and plans are incredible and, in most cases, are specifically designed for Fractured Atlas members (ie, no one else has access to these plans/pricing).

You can check out all of our liability insurance programs here:

http://www.fracturedatlas.org/site/liability

CITY OF AUSTIN SMALL BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAM OFFERS A VARIETY OF PROGRAMS, WORKSHOPS, CLASSES THAT CAN BENEFIT ARTS GROUPS.
Vincent Kitch invites you to check out their schedule of offerings: http://www.ci.austin.tx.us/sbdp/

(posted Jan 19, 2008)

		Become a part of CREATE AUSTIN - Austin's cultural planning process!
www.cityofaustin.org/culturalplan

AMERICANS FOR THE ARTS (AFTA) ANNOUNCES THAT FUTURIST ANDREW ZOLLI WILL BE KEYNOTE SPEAKER AT 2008 ANNUAL AFTA CONVENTION

A young, brilliant, globally connected leader of the next generation of futurists, Andrew Zolli, will be the Keynote Speaker at the Americans for the Arts 2008 Annual Convention in Philadelphia, June 20-22 2008. In his speech, Zolli will outline trends that will shape the future of all of our organizations. Zolli has a gift for seeing the strategic opportunities that emerge at the intersections of brands and demographics, creativity and innovation, design and technology. He has been the futurist-in-residence for American Demographics magazine, Popular Science, National Geographic, and National Public Radio's Marketplace. He is also the editor of The Catalog of Tomorrow. The Americans for the Arts 2008 Annual Convention will take place at the Sheraton Philadelphia City Center. The preview registration deadline is February 1. To find out more about the events and sessions at this year's convention, visit the website—and save by registering today.

NATIONAL ARTS ADVOCACY DAY IS MARCH 31. SPECIAL LECTURE BY DANIEL PINK. MORE INFO ON AFTA'S ARTS ADVOCACY SITE.

GOOD NEWS ON THE ARTS EDUCATION FRONT
(in Connecticut, but hey, it's a start. Reported in AFTA's Cultural Policy Listserv. It's free, so sign up. Full of good stuff.)
Milner Students Will Be Exposed To 'Core Knowledge'
Hartford Courant (CT), 1/22/2008
"It will be back to basics — math and art and literature and science and other stuff every child should know — when Milner Elementary, the city's lowest performing school, transforms into a Core Knowledge school next year. . . . Core Knowledge schools seek to foster a love of learning through engaging students with literature and poetry. And lessons are planned around the goal of teaching students to be culturally literate."
http://www.courant.com/news/education/hc-coreknow0120.artjan22,0,1989336.story

MORE NEWS ON WHAT'S HAPPEING IN AUSTIN'S ARTS COMMUNITY ON OUR OTHER SITE: NOWPLAYINGAUSTIN.COM. Check it out now. Visit the home page and scroll down. Ta Da!

CPANDA RESOURCE ON CULTURAL POLICY
Cultural Policy & the Arts National Data Archive (CPANDA) is proud to release a new feature for cultural policy researchers -- a Citation Index of empirical literature on the arts and culture sector. The Citation Index is an on-line, searchable bibliographic database of selected monographs, serials, reports, papers, proceedings, articles and books relevant to arts and cultural policy studies. Many of the publications cited in the Citation Index report on research that was based on data available through CPANDA. In such cases, the citation includes a direct link to the relevant data set(s) in the Archive. Start exploring the Citation Index at http://www.cpanda.org/search/bibSearch.html

CPANDA, the Cultural Policy & the Arts National Data Archive, is an interactive digital archive of data on the arts and cultural policy in the U.S. available for research and statistical analysis, with data on artists, arts and cultural organizations, audiences, and support for arts and culture — and a great resource for all of us (—ed.) (2/06)

And according to a parallel report from Cpanda :
http://www.cpanda.org/arts-culture-facts/audiences/rta03ArtFocus.html

What is the Focus of Arts-and-Culture Content in Newspapers?
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According to Reporting the Arts II, a study of U.S. newspaper content conducted by the National Arts Journalism Program in October 2003, movies and music are the arts-and-culture disciplines that receive the most journalistic attention, both in terms of the "newshole" (the column inches of newspaper space that have not been reserved for paid advertisements) and the quantity of articles printed. Across 20 daily newspapers examined, articles about movies accounted for 22% of the arts-and-culture newshole and 23% of the arts-and-culture articles printed. Music articles were 20% of the arts-and-culture newshole and 23% of the articles printed.

The journalistic attention a topic receives does not necessarily reflect a topic’s overall prominence in newspapers, though. In addition to printing articles, such as movie reviews, newspapers devote significant space to listings' the "when and where" aspects of arts-and-culture. Listings accounted for close to half (45%) of the arts-and-culture newshole among the twenty newspapers examined in Reporting the Arts II.