Americans for the Arts Updates: Convention Edition–June 2017
A program of the Private Sector Network at Americans for the Arts
 
All Things Convention!
Hello everyone! For those of you joining Americans for the Arts’ 2017 Annual Convention in San Francisco from June 16-18, there are two arts and business panels that may be of interest to you. We hope you’ll attend them both! You can view the full schedule here, and we encourage you to download the Americans for the Arts Events app, powered by Guidebook, for your phone or tablet.
 
Saturday, June 17 from 1:15pm–2:30pm
In the heart of the tech community, it feels appropriate to wonder what these giant, new companies think of the arts and creativity. Come learn more about messaging your work for an audience that has a fundamentally different way of thinking about the arts than traditional corporate supporters. This session addresses issues of advocacy, capacity, community development, engagement, fundraising, private sector engagement, public value, and research.
 
Presenters:
Wendi Norris: Owner of Gallery Wendi Norris
Drew Bennett: Director, Arts in Residence Program at Facebook
Emily Peck: Vice President of Private Sector Initiatives at Americans for the Arts
 
Saturday, June 17 from 3:00pm–4:15pm
When it comes to diversity in hiring, internal policies, and leadership styles and structures, the arts sometimes have a lot to learn from the corporate space. In this session, hear from corporate diversity officers about their best practices in hiring and inclusion, broadening the leadership pipeline, engaging employees around inclusion in the workplace, ongoing diversity training, facing challenges, and what they think the arts can learn from corporate diversity practices.
 
Presenters:
Floyd Green: Vice President, Community Relations and Urban Marketing at Aetna, Inc.
Ruha Devanesan: Manger, Global Diversity & Inclusion at Symantec Corp.
Michael Muñoz: Diversity Business Partner at Google
 
There are numerous other concurrent sessions happening throughout the conference, and the following may be of interest to private sector-focused individuals:
 
·         Arts and Politics in the Trump Era on Friday, June 16 from 2:30 – 4:00pm: What can we expect? Hear the best guesses of AFTA's political experts, and discuss how our energy should be deployed.
·         Lightning Round: Research Round-Up on Friday, June 16 from 2:30 – 4:00pm: The annual tradition continues with lightning-fast research summaries from some of the best new research of the year! 
·         Meet (and Ask) the NEA on Friday, June 16 from 3:20 – 4:00pm: The annual tradition continues with this great opportunity to meet and ask questions of the core NEA staff who work with and support LAAs and other local service work.
·         The State of Cultural Equity in the Arts on Friday, June 16 from 4:30 – 6:00pm: The arts community is grappling with cultural equity--catch up on the latest efforts and challenges in this session. 
·         The Future of Community Investment and the LAA on Saturday, June 17 from 1:15 – 2:30pm: LAAs must look beyond grantmaking to creative community investment to be relevant to the full creative spectrum, but what does that mean? Explore options and hear about exemplar programs to take back home.
 
Dr. Guillermina Gonzalez Receives the Michael Newton Award
The Michael Newton Award recognizes an individual for his or her innovation in developing arts and business partnerships for the arts and/or long-term achievement in effective and creative techniques to engage the private sector. Dr. Guillermina Gonzalez is a multicultural professional with experience in the United States, Mexico, and Europe as an executive in both the corporate and the nonprofit sectors. Dr. Gonzalez was appointed Delaware Arts Alliance (DAA)’s first executive director in January 2010. Through her work, DAA helped double the state arts budget since 2014, making Delaware third in the nation in state arts funding. DAA has quadrupled its individual membership and increased its institutional support, while doubling its funding base in three years. Dr. Gonzalez has also expanded DAA’s outreach by making social media part of the organization’s effort. Dr. Gonazalez is a member of Americans for the Arts. Dr. Gonzalez recently authored an op-ed with Delaware Online about the profound need for national arts funding for both the business and arts sectors, as well as the communities in which they live. All of the 2017 Americans for the Arts Annual Awardees will be give their awards in a ceremony during the Friday afternoon keynote.
 
2017 BCA Survey of Business Support for the Arts Webcast
The latest BCA Survey of Business Support for the Arts, Business Contributions to the Arts: 2017 Edition, looks at trends in support for the arts from small, midsize, and large US businesses. For the first time since 1969, Americans for the Arts has teamed up with The Conference Board to conduct the survey. In a June 26webcast at 3pm EST, the two partners will discuss brand new data that covers a range of topics, including trends in arts funding past and present, how arts fuels employee engagement, which companies are more inclined to support the arts and why, and measurement and impact. Learn more.
 
pARTnership Movement Success Stories
Check out our newest Success Stories on the pARTnership Movement:

·         Halekulani: a hotel’s employee enrichment program in paradise

·         Dogfish Head Craft Brewery: fully integrating art into work culture and product

·         Badger Meter: a champion for STEAM and innovation

 
From ARTSblog
The Arts & Business Council of New York’s spring panel and networking reception brought together cross-sector experts to discuss how the arts and intentionally-designed spaces can build competitive advantage and address core retention, engagement, and creativity challenges in the workplace. The panel discussion and networking reception explored the ways in which the arts community rises to meet the needs of businesses, while strengthening the arts ecosystem. Read more.
 
More
Want more stories and links? Sign up for BCA Noteworthy.
 
Have updates you’d like to share with the field? Feel free to email them to the United Arts Fund, Private Sector Network, or Business Volunteers for the Arts® listservs, or email meto include them in the next news roundup.