by Patricia Frischer
I was at a meeting
recently and the chairman was absent. When asked for a progress report on an
upcoming event from one of the staff, the response was that they were waiting
for direction from the chairman. He was told that was not necessary and that he
has the committee permission to design and implement the project himself. This
galvanized him into action and within 24 hours the event was more or less
organized and being promoted.
The staff member was fully
capable before this empowerment. He had all the skills necessary to complete
the task although the rest of the staff made positive and encouraging
suggestions. So what held him back from moving forward? I believe it was a lack of belief in self,
coupled with the daily interruptions that draw our attention away from a task
that might be more important than we realize. In other words, this event needed
to have a priority in his mind and he needed to bring his considerable skills
to this task, decisions he had to make
himself.
We can all find ourselves
in this position at various times in our lives. But I think right now, it is
particularly important to make decision on a personal level about how we can
move our community forward. Yes, we need to all work together, but each of us
has to make a decision about how we can individually lead an effort. I would
love to see people taking initiative and coming forward with ideas that we can
all support and promote. I believe there is a leader in each and everyone of
us.
So now I make a call to
empower everyone in the arts community to lead a project that support public
art policies and helps to increase the awareness of the value of art. Small or
large, a single effort or a partnership, I want you to feel that you can make a
difference and, in fact, it is only with your own advocacy for the arts, that we
will survive at a time when arts funding might be increasingly under attack.
March 20–21, 2017 is Arts Advocacy Day and we are celebrating it with a
banner on the home page of SDVAN. Each year arts advocates from across the country
convene in Washington, DC for the annual Arts Advocacy Day, This effort brings together a broad cross section of America's cultural and
civic organizations, along with more than 500 grassroots advocates from across
the country, to underscore the importance of developing strong public policies
and appropriating increased public funding for the arts.
