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LEADERSHIP STRATEGIES and TOOLS | Session 2 | Authentic Leadership

Session 2 | Wednesday, May 27
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Leadership Principles

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Reference Materials
Turning Point Program Tool Kit
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Leadership Presence Questionnaire Screen

NOTES from "Bread, Water & Art" Workshop

This workshop hosted by Roxbury Arts Group was a regional discussion about surviving during tough economic times.  Attendees were from the western Catskills, including  Delaware, Otsego, Schoharie and western Ulster and Sullivan Counties.  They represented local arts councils and multiart centers, performing arts spaces (one brand new, others, well-established), artist cooperatives, and writers’ groups.

I.  INTRODUCTIONS:  Facilitator Kent Brown asked participants to introduce themselves and include one strength and one challenge of their organizations.   Both the stated strengths and the challenges acknowledge the depressed economy, as well as the realities and benefits of serving rural regions and audiences. 

Comments generally broke down into categories, as listed below.  Under each category, the various statements are indicated starting with a - (dash)  

Strengths:

• Boards & Volunteers:  - recent board development with consultant resulted in clarified board roles - young & enthusiastic board - committed board & volunteers - business-minded board

• Staff:  -mature, sophisticated & dedicated - we take what we do seriously, but not ourselves (humor); still love coming to work

• Community:  -community has passion for the arts and supports programs - audiences trust and want us to challenge them - small communities are strong in support of the arts, with loyal funding - 2nd home community supportive

• Organizational History:  -as a new organization, we have lots of interest and expectations - been in business/space for 34 years, have solid reputation & loyal supporters 

• Space: -great building (new artists’ cooperative) on Main Street, becoming a center of art & community gathering & events; cooperation with local businesses benefits the downtown - cheap real estate allows us to create visibility for artists in rural areas - not having a space leads to good collaborations with other community venues  -working with other groups/businesses leads to cross promotion.

• Technology -  expands our audiences & supporters

Challenges:

• Board & Volunteers & Staff:  - full time jobs at half pay - job reductions, yet large service region - difficulty finding funding for general operating support - staff & board limiting vision - we’ve done too much with too little, and are now expected to keep the same pace (resistance to change) - new board members have enthusiasm, but don’t yet connect costs of our programs and services to financial reality - volunteer organizations also having trouble keeping up with demands - motivating volunteers - competition for volunteer time 

• Community: - we need to communicate our value as well as our need - reach out to broaden audiences, members & supporters - communities unfamiliar with artist galleries; need to bring them in, get them involved - build new/younger audiences & volunteers - convincing community we’ll still be here to serve them in 2 years - uniting and assuring a community that has lost all their arts venues over past decades 

• Organizational History - new venture (artist cooperative) has high level of community interest and activity, but no developed board, paid staff - new performing arts center has challenge of programming for a 600 - seat facility - 

• Space:  - one performing arts center has been in same remote location for many years; facility has little flexibility, requires time & travel committment from audiences - growing competition from other similar spaces 

• Technology:  maintaining & expanding use of technology; limited broadband access

2.  REDUCING OPERATING COSTS 

• left large facility, now in small office and using public venues for programs and exploring collaborative programs; result - reduced overhead and salaries

• revisited last year’s budget with eye toward future cuts

• staff volunteered to cut hours

• renegotiated rent & propane bills

• rescheduled open hours to align with downtown’s usual business hours; results - less hours but more people served

• started a corporate sponsorship program with local bank on cultural calendar

• planning to concentrate our energy & funds on strategic planning for the future

• link with downtown businesses for cross promotion and collaborative events that benefit all

• work with, renegotiate with landlord

• ask for deals from vendors

• get involved with regional organization that offers group utilities (oil, electricity) bulk buying plan.

• collaborate with other organizations and businesses on programming

• shop around for health insurance

• group buying for office supplies

• cut back on reception costs

• barter for services (need care in matching values for IRS purposes) 

• cut back on exhibition announcements costs by moving people over to email list and website (postal cost savings); use sharpdots.com for reduced and speedy announcement production. 

• independent contractors vs. employees (needs research)

3.  FUNDING STRATEGIES FOR RURAL ARTS ORGANIZATIONS

• Catskill Art Society offers a month-long silent auction of donated art work, which is exhibited in their space for a month.  Artists receive 25% of selling price.  At concluding event, auctioned services (for example, loft use in New York City) are picked from a “Treasure Tree” on a first-come basis. CAS plan to explore cmarket to run their silent auction online for duration as well.  A Cmarket silent auction could be explored as well by collaborating groups of a region.

• Space rental for receptions/parties

• Art in Common - arts programming from 4-7 every Saturday night during the winter; gets free food and spirits in exchange for promotion; promotion is weekly press releases.

• Membership discounts with local businesses

• go after NEA, NYSCA and Mid-Atlantic Arts Foundation stimulus funds; some arts councils have applied to redistribute stimulus funds.

3.  NEXT STEPS:

• build regional cross promotion efforts to promote economic value of the arts; link websites.

• continue arts advocacy efforts on state and local level; communicate rural arts needs to NYSCA.

• want hearing at NEA on need/value/ importance of funding rural arts organizations and programs. NYS ARTS can take this message to the NEA, and see if other regions of the state want to add their imput.  In this region, Mark Eamer, Kathleen Frascatore, and Susan Kenny volunteered to be a task force to outline their position;  Martha will check with other regions and through the Rurals Gathering at the September Arts Summit, and help develop an upstate position paper for the NEA.

Martha

 

Getting the Word Out!! Response to Dear Kathryn!

Dear Kathryn,  Welcome to Ask Pat!!!!  I would love to be sitting across the table talking to you again.  Great that you're  making the move towards an arts center doing workshops and classes, and I am impressed that you've been doing paid advertising! What is the space like that you have now?  I remember so many times that my organizations and other organizations didn't have the wherewithall to place paid ads and this experience informs to some of my suggestions many of which I'm sure you thought of.  Utilize your stakeholders to get the word out; your board, your volunteers.  Get information out to the schools PTAs and to the libraries.  Do PSAs for public television and public radio.  They are required to give back a certain amount to the community.  Send email blasts out to your members and perhaps most importantly utilize the current students and if they are children their parents.  Nothing is better advertising than positive word of mouth.   As a parent you know that programs or places with good reputations grow like topsy.  Use testimonials and start the word of mouth game. 
All that positive spin and excitement will translate into enrollment.  Knowing you I'm sure you surveyed the community and assessed the niche you could fill. Everyone likes value added.   Make sure that your programs fill a slot unavailable...times; days of the week etc at other comparable places.  Hope this helps.  Feel free to explore this with me further in a subsequent post.  Hope the family is well...we can chat about that offline.  You can reach me on Twitter or [email protected] for the non-professional catch up.

NOTES from Regional Collaborations/Resource Sharing Workshop

“ Regional Collaborations/Resource Sharing” Rural Workshop

April 30, 2009; hosted by Community Arts Partnership of Tompkins County.

Panelists:  Brett Bossard, Executive Director of CAP; Kathryn Hollinger, Executive Director of Genesee Valley Council on the Arts; Ginnie Lupi, Executive Director of The ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes and Randi Hewit, President of the Community Foundation of Elmira-Corning and the Finger Lakes.  Robin Schwartz, Program Director at CAP acted as moderator and panelist.

Randi opened with a description of her community foundation which has been around 40 years and holds assets of $35 million.  Unlike a lot of community foundations, they do not hold a lot of “donor advised” funds, which gives them great flexibility in supporting projects and organizations important to the communities they serve.  Requests are reviewed by categories (including the arts, environment, education, and capital projects) each year on a case-by-case basis, and yearly awards can range from $150 to one million dollars.

Ginnie describe the many services and programs the ARTS Council of the Southern Finger Lakes uses to serve artists, cultural organizations and the general public in their 3-5 county region.  This year, they redistributed nearly $100,000 in grants, including $30,000 to artists.  Working collaboratively with Randi’s foundation, they also now offer grants up to $500 for community-based arts activities, which has 3 separate application deadlines per year.  This program is called QuickArts: the foundation supports it with $9,000 per year, and the arts council handles the processing, including a community-based panel selected to reflect the applications.

Ginnie stated it’s important to let your community foundation know what you do!  She and Randi have developed a relationship built on trust and mutual respect that works well to serve the people and the arts in their region.  They are embarking on a new exciting collaboration called “Transportation from Tragedy.” The 40th anniversary of the Hurricane Agnes flood disrupting and destroying communities throughout the Southern Tier is coming up in 2012;  it will also be the 40th anniversaries for both the founding of the arts council and the foundation.  The collaboration will bring StoryCore to the Elmira/Corning areas to record memories and comments on how these communities were changed by the flood; in addition, people can record their memories through an 800 number and on a blog. All of the stories gathered will be reproduced in a documentary for release in 2012. There will be related exhibitions, a folklife component and effort to connect this huge event and shared experience to young people.  The whole concept will celebrate how these communities handled a disaster and came back stronger!  To follow the progress of this collaboration, check out the Special Projects section on the arts council’s website: 

http://www.earts.org

Kathryn Hollinger gave some background information on Genesee Valley Council on the Arts; it was founded 41 years ago and provides arts support and services to Livingston County, except they serve 4 area counties with an arts and education program and grants for individual artists.  They have always had a close relationship with their county administration; for the last 30 years, the county provided free rent, utilities and maintenance for GVCA, and since 1977 has been designated the arts organization of Livingston County.  Their location is pretty unique; they are housed on the Livingston County Campus, which sits on a hill above the town of Mount Morris; the campus was built during the 1930s as a TB sanitarium, and encompasses a number of buildings which include a hospital and original apartments for doctors, etc; - one of which has been the longtime home for GVCA - all in a park setting.  The facilities included a collection of 240 commissioned paintings through the WPA which were stored in the bowels of the hospital building when the sanitarium closed down. With county support and a special grant through NYS ARTS (NEA funds), GVCA “unearthed” these paintings and used outside consultants to catalogue, and research provenance and condition.

From this start, GVCA and Livingston County have begun to build this resouce into a visitor attraction.  In the process, the county turned over the entire building to GVCA and even redesigned the new spaces to GVCA’s specifications.  Four months ago, GVCA opened their new space, which now includes the New Deal Gallery (exhibiting 40 of the paintings at one time) plus a separate gallery that shows the work of area artists; a class room, a community meeting room, gift shop and a study center for WPA art.

GVCA has a staff of three, and the process and new facility and collection has added new layers of administrative work.  County tourism is promoting the New Deal Gallery, and already GVCA has been getting lots of calls. The county is now looking to GVCA to help them redevelop a 1930’s theater in Mount Morris.  To restore the paintings, GVCA has started an “Adopt a Painting” project and is exploring ways to work with nearby SUNY Geneseo.  The ultimate goal is to have an arts/community center is full use.  While building the WPA paintings into a collaborative resource has brought additional work and new collaborative opportunities, when asked if she would do the same thing again, Kathryn’s response is “yes.”  Kathryn also suggested that if government- owned space is available in your community, you should ask about using it for the arts.

Community Arts Partnership (CAP) emerged in 1991 to serve Tompkins County and Ithaca as the local arts council.  They offer a number of services and programs for cultural organizations and artists of the county - many developed through collaborations.  Brett Bossard explained Ticket Center Ithaca as a centralized 24/7 phone, walkup, and online box office service for theaters and presenters in the region.  Tickets can be purchased at their downtown headquarters, (which includes the downtown Visitor Information Center managed in cooperation with the Convention & Visitors Bureau) - and also at locations on the Cornell and Ithaca College campuses and at the Hangar Theater.  Tickets for many events are also available through IthacaEvents.com. - an online cultural event calendar for Tompkins County operated by CAP.  Area motels, B&Bs and tourism centers can print out the daily cultural events for their guests.  The combined service is a wonderful example of common need/shared resources:  all area presenters cooperate in this pooling of an 8,000 name database and electronic marketing campaign which also provides statistics on ticket sales and customers and necessary paperwork for the client theaters.  Because it’s computerized, it doesn’t overtax CAP’s small full time staff of two; the cost of running it is about $140,000 per year, and customers pay $1 a ticket toward this service.   

Ticket Center Ithaca is probably the best known and used of CAP services, but they also offer a number of grants programs; in 2008, CAP distributed $235,000 in grants to artists and cultural organizations.  A notable collaboration is the Arts and Cultural Stabilization Program with funds provided through the room occupancy tax fund to stabilized and develop arts & cultural tourism assets of the county. They also organize the Greater Ithaca Art Trail, a self-guided tour of working artists studios throughout the county;  provide technical assistance and stewardship services for small and developing nonprofits; offer a Ithaca Artists’ Market in the summer and Holiday Artists’ Market, and provide arts-in-education Local Capacity Building grants designed to assist schools in developing and implementing visual and performing arts residencies into the core curriculum.  CAP also sponsors STARR - the Southern Tier Arts in Education Roundatable that offers quarterly workshops in the arts for teachers in 8 counties. 

Robin Schwartz talked about a brand new collaboration between CAP and Ithaca College’s Linden Center for Creative Aging.  The objective is to provide Tompkins County not-for-profits with funds to support and assess creative arts activities involving older adults.  The Center provided $10,000; CAP publicized and managed the new grants program. In the first year, the program supported 6 local organization toward the creation of art by older adults, including a series of free memoir writing workships for seniors at Juniper Manor, a senior housing project; free painting classes at Lifelong Community Center, and a Role Playing Training Series (theater training) at Suicide Prevention and Crises Services.

After the panel presentations, a sheet on “Collaboration/Resource Sharing Considerations” was handed out.  In effect, it suggests the importance of exploring through ongoing communication, mutual monitoring and evaluation the shared needs and goals of working together.  In the process mutual trust and respect develops.  Discussion followed - relevant comments are below:

• When 2 similar organizations collaborate, it’s harder (inherent competition); it’s easier to work with organizations that have different missions.

• the use of social networking tools came up as an excellent way to reach out, communicate and listen to your community.  Tools mentioned included:  Facebook (brings people to your website and you can integrate a FB site on your website - also promote guest blogs); Mail Chimp (like Constant Contact);theworkingrelationship  (a platform that promotes engagement between the public and artists in the support and creation of comtemporary art collaborations in Central and Southern Tier New York State); theswitchboards.wordpress.com (a forum for artists in the Ithaca area).

• Collaborations are the trend now; but how do you sustain your organization through them and the present economy?

• (In response to above question) Core planning is key, and is a process that you plan as a template. For success, you don’t collaborate on one event; you develop it as a repeatable, sellable package.

• There was general consensus that it would be good to hold a follow -up workshop in Binghamton or Ithaca on the question of sustaining through collaborations and exploring a sustainable template for collaborations.

Martha

Collaborations: Successes and Horror Stories

Martha brings up a subject that has always intrigued me.  In life there is no question that working together and conserving resources is a sane route to go, but with arts organizations does it really work?  Are we driven to collaborate because funders want and demand it?  What happens with the actual dollars?  Are they split equally between the partners?  What about the workload?  Does each group do their fair share, or is one group "lifting the water" resentfully while other groups seize the glory and the credit?  Should there be an additional administrative fee to the organization that writes, monitors and administers a grant above and beyond what the partners get? Perhaps as Martha writes, in real life collaborations work best when organizations share a different audience and a different mission.  Is this true?  I have always thought about "block booking" to reduce artist fees, joint publicity and marketing around a common theme or goal, office supply coops and even shared space and staffing make alot of sense.  As in any field of endeavor an open line of communication with a well thought out list of expectations is essential for collaborations to be successful.  I would love to hear from you about what collaborations have worked and what haven't.

Hello All, I'm Pat

I am flattered to be NYSARTS' choice to be the equivalent of Dear Abby/Pat of the Arts Community here in New York State. Whereas in most industries, the rapidly approaching summer is a time for retrenchment our organizations are ripe with activity; festivals, concerts, classes, camps, outdoor art shows.

As we face some of the most challenging economic times in decades the excellent work that is being done in our communities needs to be sustained and supported. Where are the opportunities and what are our resources? Behind the face of challenges there new and different forward progression. Please post your thoughts and questions about fundraising, membership, personnel, boards of directors, summer events. Our Rural organizations through our Listserve have been having interesting conversations which I hope will transfer to this blog.

In addition to this ASK PAT column you may follow me on Twitter if you are so inclined. Twitter is a mini social networking program founded on the basic question of "What are you doing?" I haven't made my mind up about it though...as if?! Many seem to think that twitter is only a cellphone based site. In actuality one controls it on the computer with an option to link a device like a cellphone. I chose not to do that.

I am ready willing and available to moderate any discussion that ensues and look forward to being in touch with friends old and new throughout New York State.

Pat