WHAT DO WORKING PERFORMERS IN THE WASHINGTON, DC AREA KNOW: DESCRIBING ARTS ADVOCACY & COMMUNITY By Nathaniel Russ, Jr. Submitted to the Faculty ofthe College of Arts and Sciences of American University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts In Dean of the College of Arts & Sciences ~)u._~el \1. 20\\J Date 2010 American University Washington, D.C. 20016 AMERICAN UNIVERSITY liBRARY q(od- f.. UMI Number: 1487350 All rights reserved INFORMATION TO ALL USERS The quality of this reproduction is dependent upon the quality of the copy submitted. In the unlikely event that the author did not send a complete manuscript and there are missing pages, these will be noted. Also, if material had to be removed, a note will indicate the deletion. UMI .---Dissertation Publishing--..._ UMI 1487350 Copyright 2010 by ProQuest LLC. All rights reserved. This edition of the work is protected against unauthorized copying under Title 17, United States Code. Pro uesr ProQuest LLC 789 East Eisenhower Parkway P.O. Box 1346 Ann Arbor, Ml48106-1346 ©COPYRIGHT by Nathaniel Russ, Jr. 2010 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED WHAT DO WORKING PERFORMERS IN THE WASHINGTON, DC AREA KNOW: DESCRIBING ARTS ADVOCACY & COMMUNITY BY Nathaniel Russ, Jr. ABSTRACT This study examines how professional performers define arts advocacy and community, as a means to create practices and tools to empower them to advocate for themselves. Arts Advocacy adequately addresses the overall concerns of the arts sector and of established organizations. Yet in streamlining the advocacy process, a few major goals have to be selected, while the goals of different and smaller communities of artists receive varying levels of support, depending on the networks set up within each field. By examining the education, training, and work-lifestyle of professional performance artists, and documenting existing beliefs about arts advocacy and community, we can gain an understanding ofhow working performers' professional life affects their civic one. We can also enable individual artists' civic life to better their professional one. In the end, this study will show that empowering artists to self-advocate will give arts advocacy a much needed boost, but that it begins with working artists own beliefs and understanding about community and advocacy. 11 PREFACE In 2006, I attended my first Arts Advocacy Day, as organized by Americans for the Arts. This was required as part of the Capstone class for Dance majors, at the University of Maryland, College Park. I continued to attend Arts Advocacy Day for the following three years, and observed that the main advocates for the arts continued to be arts administrators, while the main body of working artists seemed to be disconnected and unaware of this coordinated effort to advocate for the arts. I wanted to know where the disconnect occurred. I wanted to discover where the point of entry might be. And so in getting to the essence of the conversation I had been having with myself, I came to a starting place. This begins with understanding how working performers defined community and arts advocacy. Arts advocacy works on a policy level, because Americans for the Arts mobilized the community of Arts Administrators. But in order to mobilize communities of artists, we have to understand how they identify their own communities. In order to teach them to advocate for the arts, we have to understand what advocacy means to them. 111 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First, I would like to thank my parents, who have provided unconditional support throughout my higher educational journey; thanks to my mom for supporting my reach for the stars, and thanks to my dad for ingraining the need for a solid foundation to reach from. Thanks to the rest of my family, particularly in the area, for supporting my various endeavors on stage. Second, thanks to my friends who have been there through my roller coaster in and out of school, for the better part of the decade. I suppose it is a little easier when someone goes away, but to those that have stayed by my side, to those that have been an essential part of my community, thank you. Third, thank you to all of my teachers and mentors, particularly Michael Bobbitt, Karen Bradley, Peter DiMuro, & Roberta Gasbarre. Karen, it is because ofyou that I got bit with the advocacy bug. Michael, you have been a big brother both on and off stage; my values as a performer and as an administrator are in large part thanks to you. Karen and Peter, you took what might have been a simple reflection into a plan for action. This thesis will bring about change due to your guidance throughout this process. Thank you. lV TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ......................................................................................... .ii PREFACE ............................................................................................ .iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ........................................................................ iv Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ...................................................................... 1 Statement of the Problem Research Questions Purpose of the Study Importance of the Study Definitions ofTerms Limitations Scope of the Study 2. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE ...................................................9 Arts Advocacy Community Artist Advocacy Summary v 3. METHODOLOGY ................................................................... l3 The Qualitative Perspective Phenomenography Participants Data Collection Analysis of the Data 4. FINDINGS ............................................................................. 19 5. CONCLUSIONS ......................................................................22 Four Major Conclusions Reflections Recommendations for Further Study APPENDIX .......................................................................................... 30 A. IRB APPROVAL B. CONSENTS OF PARTICIPATION C. INTERVIEW PROTOCOL D. NARRATIVE INTERVIEWS BIBLIOGRAPHY ................................................................................. 157 VI CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION Arts advocacy efforts in the past several decades have focused on the support of organizations providing art rather than on addressing the basic needs of artists. The most prominent evidence of this shift, is marked by the National Endowment for the Arts' change in policy to discontinue funding for individual artists in the mid 1990s. As a result, the meaning of Arts Advocacy has evolved and exists along a spectrum bookended between the intrinsic and extrinsic values of art. On a policy level, this has shifted more to the extrinsic end of the spectrum, portraying the arts sector as a means to other ends. Arts advocacy efforts have been very effective in relating the arts sector to important political issues and concerns. I believe that in addressing the service of arts organizations as a tool to assist with broader issues, the argument for arts as an end itself has become secondary. The most recent iteration of the argument for the arts has been the role that arts organizations play in economic stimulus. Arts advocates now in a reactionary role, need to constantly develop a new case of support in order to remain relevant. This way of thinking not only harms the arts by making it the means to another end, rather than an end in itself, but also endangers the livelihoods of the artists that depend on work in this field to support themselves. 1 2 Arts Advocacy has focused on the support of organizations, arts leaders, arts administrators, arts managers, and other arts supporters play the role of arts advocates. This policy level approach to representing the sector on an organizational level is effective to a point. But the bulk of non-administrative working artists, and those in smaller and younger organizations, are not effectively engaged in arts advocacy efforts. Unfortunately, the majority of artists are not even aware of arts advocacy on a local, much less national, level. As a result, most working artists are absent from advocacy efforts for the arts as a whole but also for themselves as individuals. Finding out why artists do not advocate on a grassroots level could help create tools to enable and empower them to effectively speak up for themselves, rather than relying on others to represent them. Statement of the Problem I have observed that Arts Advocacy has become institutionalized to the point that it has become limited by its own prominence. This refers to my observation that artists and arts organizations have come to rely on advocacy groups such as American for the Arts, local arts councils, and other similar organizations, to represent them. This rests on the assumption that artists and arts organizations are aware of those entities, to begin with. As a community of artists, there are only so many issues that are common to all. From my own experience from sitting on a small grants panel at the DC Commission for the Arts & Humanities, I have seen that the needs of a visual artist versus a performing artist are not the same. And even within those, the difference between the space and time 3 demands of a photographer versus a sculptor, or an actor versus a dancer, further limit the issues addressed by arts advocacy, which actually affect all artists. Artist advocacy is often thought of as a subset of arts advocacy, and while the two are related, they ultimately have different primary goals, and therefore different meanings. Arts advocacy ultimately supports arts organizations, as a sector. While this indirectly