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Session #8
Finding Common Ground
April 14, 2011 at Sony Pictures Entertainment

Arts Ambassador: Jan Williamson, executive director of 18^th Street Arts Center

This culminating conversation featured Claire Peeps, executive director of The Durfee Foundation and Elisa Callow, the organizer and facilitator of Imaginative Commons. The event highlighted ideas and questions that had emerged from the series and provided a space for imaginative brainstorming on eight major regional goals: education, going green, health, housing, jobs creation, mass transit, public safety and the creative economy. Participants joined field and arts experts to seed new concepts about how the arts can support each goal and how each goal can support the arts. With an eye for what arts leaders and their peers from other sectors can take back to their organizations and communities, the culminating event was an opportunity to look at the work of the arts community from a new vantage point, practice hybrid thinking and seek new partners.

Biographies of speakers and field experts who facilitated conversations:

• Education - Sofia Klatzker, senior manager, Arts for All for the Los Angeles County Arts Commission and Kamella Tate, consultant
• Going Green - Jonathan Parfrey, director of Green LA and Emily Hopkins, executive director for Side Street Projects
• Health - Beatriz Maria Solís, director, Healthy Communities (South Region), The California Endowment and Jenny Krusoe, consultant
• Housing - Beth Steckler, former policy director at Livable Places and Jan Williamson, executive director for 18th Street Art Center
• Jobs Creation - Fran Inman, senior vice president at Majestic Realty Co. and Terence McFarland, executive director for LA Stage Alliance
• Mass Transit - Denny Zane, executive director of Move LA and Maya Emsden, deputy executive officer of Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority (Metro)
• Public Safety - Brenda Shockley, president of Community Builds and Daniel Jesús French, community mobilizer for MacArthur Park/Westlake for World Vision
• Creative Economy - Aileen Adams, deputy mayor for strategic partnerships for the City of Los Angeles and Karen Mack, executive director of LA Commons

Resources

Arts for LA is a nonprofit arts advocacy organization that developed a policy framework to build awareness, increase empowerment and enable quick action around three major issue areas: Arts Education, Cultural Economy and Civic Engagement.

Art and Transportation - How can the arts support the “livability principles” of the Federal Partnership for Sustainable Communities, a joint project of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Department of Transportation (DOT) and Housing and Urban Development (HUD)?  Check out Wendy Feuer’s ArtsBlog on The Art in Transportation for ideas and inspiration, including an art in transportation project.

Collective Impact is a timely article, published in the Stanford Social Innovation Review (Winter 2011), about how large-scale social change requires broad cross-sector coordination. Check out the Collective Impact Conference Web site for additional resources, including presentations and videos.