Centering Cultural Policy: What to Expect at the 2024 GIA Conference
With Randy Engstrom, Claire Rice, and Tariana Navas-Nieves
In this GIA podcast episode, we hear from guests Randy Engstrom (Third Way Creative), Claire Rice (Arts Alliance Illinois), and Tariana Navas-Nieves (Denver Arts and Venues - City and County of Denver), who delve into the *new* Cultural Policy and Public Practice track at the 2024 GIA Annual Conference in Chicago. They spotlight how arts and cultural grantmakers are advancing equity through coalition building, field assessment of state and local actors, cross-sector practices, and navigating funding policy and advocacy work.
Together, they review the evolution of GIA’s cultural policy efforts, from the “Opportunities at the Intersections: Advancing Racial Equity via Arts and Culture in the Public Sector” report to the Cultural Policy Action Lab, leading up to this year’s conference. Hear what to expect in this year’s sessions. Listen to as we prepare for this year's conference and to learn more about how to get involved in GIA's Cultural Policy Committee this fall.
Recorded on September 23, 2024
To listen to the full episode, click here.
Nadia Elokdah:
Hello everyone and welcome to a podcast by Grantmakers in the Arts, a National Member Association of Private and Public Arts and Culture Funders. My name is Nadia Elokdah, and I'm the Vice President and Director of programs here at GIA. I use she/her pronouns, and I'm located in the Unceded Territories of the Lenape. In this GIA podcast episode, we hear from guests: Claire Rice, Executive Director, Arts Alliance Illinois, and Co-chair, Creative States Coalition: Tariana Navas-Nieves, Deputy Director, Denver Arts and Venues, City and County of Denver, and GIA board chair; and Randy Engstrom, Co-founder and Principal, Third Way Creative, and former longtime GIA board member. We'll be talking today about the GIA Cultural Policy Committee's work, and the track at this year's conference, which we're really excited to feature for the first time this year. Let's get started. Hi everyone, welcome.
Randy Engstrom:
Hello.
Tariana Navas-Nieves:
Hello.
Claire Rice:
Hello.
Nadia Elokdah:
Hi, we're so glad to have you. Thank you for making the time, and to tell us all about what's going on today in your world, and how we're getting ready for the GIA conference, which is a few days away, we're very excited about it. And Randy, as one of the co-designers and leads on GIA's cultural policy work, could you take us through a little bit of an overview? What has our work been to date, and how did we get here?
Randy Engstrom:
Yeah, thanks Nadia, and it's great to be with you all. Excited to see everyone in Chicago. I think that the GIA policy work really started in earnest. It's been a conversation on the board for a long time as GIA's public sector membership has grown over time, and I think that really took a big leap when Jen Cole was commissioned to create the opportunities at the intersection report, which really looked at ways to advance racial justice through cross-sector policy. That report led to a couple of different things happening... Well, a couple of different things happening followed that.
One was Jen and I got to collaborate on the Cultural Policy Action Lab, which was a program co-design also with our colleague Estrella Escalin and eventually with a group of co-designers including both Tariana and Claire, and many other brilliant humans, around how can you advance racial justice through cultural policy, through public policy in the arts throughout the country.
That happened at the same time as the pandemic was really in full force and during that time, the GIA board and staff made a choice to allow public sector members to be members for free, because government was in such a tenuous space. So we saw both a big influx of new members. We had this public programming, this eight-part learning series around the practice holding up different models and different case studies, and we had this interesting permission structure, this inflection point of the pandemic and the summer of racial justice reckoning. So all those things were happening sort of together.
And then by the New York Conference, we got to share the findings of that initial cultural policy action lab. By the following conference in Puerto Rico, we had worked with Claire and David and others to develop a pre-conference that went a little bit deeper, spent a half day really diving into what the contours of the cultural policy work at GIA might be, and sort of landed in this three-legged stool of focus. So one is around field awareness and understanding what all the moving parts of the policy advocacy cultural ecosystem are. The second was around that very specific cross-sector policy focus. And the third was around advocacy, both the emerging advocacy models and also the urgent need to fund more advocacy work across the field. That became the building blocks of what the cultural policy aspires to become in the coming years. And I think a little bit of the framework of how the policy track is imagined to be at this year's conference.
Nadia Elokdah:
Thank you so much, Randy. I know it's so hard to capture years and years of work, but you did that so succinctly and as you said, there are so many folks involved in the stewarding of this work, so we're really grateful to everybody who's participated in the co-design teams, and everyone who's helping GIA move this work forward. Can we take a moment for all of you to do a brief introduction of yourselves and talk a little bit about what your roles have been, whether on the co-design committee or in other ways, and in your own spaces to supporting cultural policy work and advocacy of that as well as why cultural policy is so central to what you're doing?
Tariana Navas-Nieves:
Okay, thank you for having me, and it's great to share this space with this brilliant humans. So Tariana Navas-Nieves, she/her/ella, and I'm joining you all today from Denver, the land of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Peoples. I'm the deputy director for Denver Arts and Venues, City and County of Denver, and I have the honor of being the chair of the board for GIA.
This work has been a long time coming, like you said, it's been three years, but three years of more organized, focused work. These have been conversations that we've had for a very long time, and I think for me it was impactful in a couple of ways. I think it's important not actually to overstate it, which is a space where we could convene. The reality is that there's not such thing as best practices in local art agency work and policy work. So in a way we've all been shaping our journey, often isolated, and this became a space where we could share war stories, and at the same time share lessons learned.
And what we've been working for so long, on what I call there's capital P Policy work, and then there's the practice that Randy talks about a lot is the lowercase policy work, which is really the work we do every day to shape government, to shape policy, to shape systems, and very much to look for a more equitable way to invest in our cities and change the way that we shape our communities. So I think they are the three stool legs that Randy mentioned, but I think at a very practical level, this has been incredibly impactful just for having the opportunity to share and to grow as leaders in our different spaces.
Claire Rice:
My name's Claire Rice, she/her, coming to you from Chicago where we're excited to welcome all of you soon to the GIA Conference, the home of the council of the three Fires, Ojibwe, Odawa, and Potawatomi people.
I come to this policy work, I mean it's certainly my day job. I've come to it from an external lens, right, from an advocacy frame, from an organization that works to push government, hold government accountable, and work with my partners both in local arts agencies like Tariana's here in Illinois, as well as our state arts agency, critical partnerships and very important partnerships for us as we move this work forward.
But I often say that if I am helping to one of the most stable and largest arts creative sector advocacy organizations in the country, which is true, that is a problem because it's not particularly large, doesn't always feel stable, and the infrastructure that supports policy work and advancing policy work from the field, organizing an external and advocacy space is very, very weak across the country.
Through our work with the Creative States Coalition, through our work with national partners, and I think through our work with GIA and the policy committee, really looking to support and strengthen that infrastructure in a lot of different ways. So that's been my voice in this policy journey with GIA. I think GIA has a really important role to play in education for private philanthropy, and the ability and the need for private philanthropy to step up and be even more of a part of supporting both policy and advocacy work and advancement across the field.
Randy Engstrom:
This is Randy Engstrom, he/him pronouns from the land, the Unceded Land of the Duwamish and the Coast Salish people in Seattle, Washington. My interest in this work started when I was the Director of the Office of Arts and Culture for the city of Seattle for nine years. And to Tariana's point, I kept running up against the fact that there's nowhere to go to learn how to do these jobs. There is no sort of place to deepen your practice that's consistent across time and space. There's no place to find sort of a network of care where you can be vulnerable with other folks who work in these pretty isolating positions, and there certainly wasn't very many spaces where that would happen through an explicit values lens.
I think this is not values-neutral work, and so I think that as I joined the board of GIA, I think it was in like 2015, I sort of found my home in terms of thinkers, and practitioners, and GIA's interest in and support for public sector work and public sector practitioners really grew a lot in that time. And so I think it was really a privilege to be able to partner with folks like Tariana, folks like Nadia, folks like Claire, and David Holland, and Roberto Bedoya, and Pam Breaux, I mean so many others over the many years. And then we got to really start formalizing the work in 2019, 2020. And so yeah, it's been really great, and I'm so excited to see where it is now. And that it's, a whole track and a conference, that's really exciting to me.
Nadia Elokdah:
We love being responsive to the field. So thank you so much for bringing this so central and especially carrying it, stewarding it through the COVID times. Excited to gather folks in this way across the conference. Randy, previously you mentioned these three buckets that have come out of this three years of work with the cultural policy committee finding its shape. You named field awareness and support, cross-sector practice, and advocacy investment in cultural policy. Do you want to talk a little bit about each of these briefly, and then we can talk about where they will show up in the conference?
Randy Engstrom:
Sure, and I'm happy, I mean I think actually using the sessions is a great way to explain it because I think one conversation that the board had for many years was, what is the right role for GIA to play as a relatively small organization with a large membership, it's national service organization, but given all the attendant needs that exist in the field, and there are many, what's the one that GIA is best positioned to play, and could be most impactful at offering?
And in order to do that, you have to really understand what is happening in the field. And I think, much like Tariana's point about no best practices, there's really limited and inconsistent information about the hundreds and thousands of local arts agencies at the local and county level. The states are a little more organized thanks to the great work of NASAA, but I think there's still so much we don't know, and we're still trying to figure out what the best way forward is, particularly coming out of the pandemic.
As you mentioned Nadia, sort of everything is different now. So whatever we knew before is only marginally useful as we try to advance public policy and cultural policy in the future. The session that I am helping to organize is called Conduits and Catalysts, a national study on local arts agencies. It was proposed by the National Endowment for the Arts, and it's really centered in the research they've been doing with II-M for the last year or two.
And they really took to heart lack of clear information about what is happening at the local level across the country from rural to urban, from coastal to Midwest, from south to north. And to their credit, I think they've taken great time and great care to adjudicate those questions. And so the panel will be the folks from II-M and the folks from the NEA, who obviously have been really close to this work. As well as Tracy Knuckles from Bloomberg who was both an advisor to the design of the research, and also holds the position as a funder, one of the many that GIA counts as a member, and I think... So that perspective is really interesting.
And then also Sally Dix who's the chair of what was the US Urban Arts Federation, and what is now going to be the Urban Arts Coalition, an independent network following its close cousin Creative States Coalition. From the practitioner perspective, as someone who runs a local arts agency in Des Moines, Iowa, what does this work look like, and what is the impact on her practice? And so I'll be moderating that conversation across those folks. But I think that's a good example of GIA holding a container wherein we can say this is what we understand the context of the field to be at this moment. And from that, I think the membership, the committee, the board can decide where it makes sense to put GIA's time and effort in the coming months and years.
Nadia Elokdah:
Thank you so much, Randy. I really appreciate that overview. To have folks, I think working together from these various places in one space is really exciting, because we don't get to all convene like that very often. So I think that'll be a really catalyzing moment.
And Tariana, your session that you're representing here is a particularly of interest, not only because it's talking about cross-sector practice, something we've been really trying to hone in on as a part of the cultural policy committee work, but also because it's stemming from the White House Summit that we saw earlier this year, a really exciting moment in the NEA's legacy. So could you talk about a little bit about that White House Summit and how culture has been at the center of cross-sector policy work, and any updates that we might hear about in terms of the local level at your session?
Tariana Navas-Nieves:
No, absolutely. My session is Culture at the Intersections of State and Local Policies. And like you said, it was inspired by the NEA's Healing, Bridging, and Thriving Summit earlier this year, the beginning of the year. We are excited to come together to talk about ways in which arts and culture have become a very much part of state and municipal efforts to build community health and vibrant cities from a legislative perspective in terms of changing laws, but also at the practical day-to-day space where I think one of the most challenging things when you are a local or agency within your city, is often that inter-agency work.
You're always fighting to have a seat at the table when you're talking about health and environment, community planning, transportation infrastructure. And I think it really depends on who your leader is to make that a natural connection, arts and culture being at the center rather than being kind of the cherry on top or a nice-to-have, but not a critical space to develop strategy and to make investment decisions at a city level.
So in this session, I'm excited that we'll have a number of different perspectives talking about how have we brought arts and culture at the intersection working in other city efforts to actually change the face of the, not just the cultural landscape, but of a thriving city. Whether it is from a connection to public health, to a connection to revitalizing downtown, which is a nationwide challenge, to connecting it to, how do we elevate and strategize for the sector the idea of cultural planning, and in my mind is what is the new face of cultural planning, so that it actually drives policy and systems change.
Nadia Elokdah:
A tall order, but I know that there are some really great folks joining from different local municipalities to dive into the details, so I think it'll be so rich.
Tariana Navas-Nieves:
All will be moderated by the amazing Pam Breaux, President and CEO of the National Assembly of State Art Agencies, or NASAA, and she played a part in the NEA Summit. And then you'll have very unique perspectives from first Michael Bobbitt, he's the Executive Director of the Massachusetts Cultural Council, speak about statewide arts prescription solution, which there's so much we can learn at a local level from the work that he has done.
And then dear friend Marc Folk, President and CEO of the Arts Commission of Greater Toledo in Ohio, who has been very busy with redevelopment in Toledo, the riverfront redevelopment that connects not just two or three but seven neighborhoods, and it's really been driven by residents coming together and their cultural planning work. So a lot of different perspectives to share at the session.
Nadia Elokdah:
Thank you so much, Tariana. And Claire, last but not least certainly, on this last bucket that we've talked about advocacy and investment in cultural policy, we know that the work that Randy and Tariana are talking about cannot happen in a vacuum, we also know it can't happen without investment. So can you talk a little bit about the work that your session will uncover in terms of funding advocacy within, across and outside of the public sector, and also the kind of infrastructure that is needed to do so?
Claire Rice:
Really looking forward to this topic. I think it's going to be, along with all of these sessions, a really, really rich conversation. So the title of the session is The Case for Supportive Policy and Advocacy, Advancing Cultural Policy and Advocacy to Disrupt Unjust Systems. As I said before, I think the infrastructure to support policy and advocacy work is so critically important. And I've heard a lot from funders over the years, various GIA members about the challenges that they face when they look to support policy and advocacy boards that don't understand it, legal hurdles, nervousness around words like lobbying. I think there's a lot of understandable hesitation in the funding space around these topics and issues. And this panel that Randy and David Holland and I have organized is really hoping to unpack that and demystify it, especially for folks who are maybe newer to the space, but even established folks who've encountered their own hurdles in this journey.
So we've got David moderating the conversation and then he'll be joined by a number of different funders who have their own journeys in funding this work. On the private side, Margo from Sellerbach who's relatively newer to the space, so she's got an interesting story around, again, those hurdles and kind of the convincing journey, and the internal journey within the foundation that she needed to take to get this work on the radar of her local family foundation in California.
Ted Russell, who's been doing this work under the Rainin Foundation umbrella for some time, but then has now forged his own path to support advocacy work, specifically centering artists and workers in an entirely new way, which is really exciting. His journey is an interesting one, and I know he'll talk about that, both sort of the internal frame of that within Rainin, and then also a new model that he's working on.
And then San San Wong from Barr Foundation who has been funding this work for a very long time and in lots of different ways. I think there's also, it's a really important conversation talking about different levels of government that one tries to influence through the policy levers, right? We talked a lot about local, but state and federal are in the mix here too. And San's been doing work in all of those spaces in one way or another over her career.
And then we also have Lisa Montez from Builders Vision and Good Chaos. She's the legal counsel there, so is really going to be able to speak to some of those potential legal challenges, but really how to surmount them, how to navigate them, and how to get around those so that we can get the investment where it needs to go in this incredibly important policy and advocacy space.
Nadia Elokdah:
Before we wrap up, because there's more to come besides this track at the conference, obviously this has been a springboard for more, but maybe you could each sort of speak a bit about how this work is important to your work, and perhaps the work that GIA is hoping to participate in as a good partner for the days ahead. What comes next?
Randy Engstrom:
Well, I'll just say that part of the reason I left my role at the city in 2021 was because I was really interested in a larger conversation about policy and systems change, both because I think the moment calls for that kind of urgency, and it offers that kind of opportunity. There's never been an inflection point as dramatic as the one that we find ourselves in now, at least not in my lifetime, in the sort of arts and culture public policy space. And so I think the opportunity, the ceiling is so high, I think the NEA is convening was a great example of that. I think all the emerging grassroots models that Claire mentioned earlier as an example of that, the NEA leaning in on its data in the session we're talking about.
I also think that if you're interested in systems change, you have to have a policy strategy because it was public policy that created most of the generational inequities that this country has wrestled with from chattel slavery and indigenous genocide to redlining, Chinese Exclusion Act, Japanese internment, up to voting restrictions and unethical banking practices today. Policy choices got us to where we are, and so we have to build better policy tools to mitigate that harm.
And I think culture, as will be evidenced in a lot of these case study examples that you'll see across all these sessions, culture can be the vehicle, the enabling strategy by which we do that. It can be the catalyst, and it can be the source of civic imagination to create better policies and systems for the future of our communities. And I'm just really excited to see where we get in the conference, and where we get afterwards.
Claire Rice:
Yeah, I'll just piggyback on that Randy. I think one I'll say, really excited to have everyone in Chicago. There's a lot of incredible content that really highlights and showcases a lot of great local some policy work and programmatic work across this area, and I hope folks will take advantage of that. We are going have a session that focuses on our Illinois arts council, our state arts agency, and their partnership across governments, kind of like the state version of what's happening at the NEA. So check that out if you have a moment.
I'll also say that it's going to take all of us across the sector engaging in the ways that we can in this policy and advocacy conversation to move the needle. And I... It's no one person or one entity's responsibility, we need all of these different coalitions that we're building. We need local, we need state, we need federal, we need coordination across all of those levels. GIA is a really important connector, and could be extremely helpful switchboard operator in that space to really connect a lot of exciting and much needed both emerging and established work in this field, especially to Randy's point, with the justice frame as a kind of north star.
Tariana Navas-Nieves:
What they said, and... Well, first of all, I could not be more proud to be part of GIA during this moment in time. I mean, I remember many, many years ago when I first had access to GIA and I knew I had found my people. And yet the evolution of bringing more attention to the government sector as a funder and as a critical part of the funding ecosystem partnership with the private side, I think has been just such a lovely evolution, and a much needed evolution.
So for me, this new track, it's reflection of a lot of effort, but also a lot of trust from GIA, and I cannot think of different organization to hold this work. So thank you. And I think as I look at the evolution of this work, I think we are all in it for systems change. And when I look at potentially her legacy every day, I am very aware of the privileged position that I'm in, both from having tentacles into community, having that trust and proximity to community, and at the same time being in a position of decision-making power and access to dollars that can actually change community, that can actually change the sector, and being at the table to hopefully change practices and processes that will make a better government.
This work as a collective, like Claire said, it cannot be us individually for it to be truly transformational. And I do believe that transformational work is possible, but it will take all of us. And I think often this work at GIA or this work at a national level allows us to push further. It serves as cover, but also it serves as a way to push knowing that we are backed by a huge coalition, both of humans, but also a policy coalition, right? That those that are going to be there for us to push forward.
Nadia Elokdah:
Thank you all so much for helping steward this work. Certainly GIA is excited and glad to be part of this team, but I can't overemphasize how much this is a group effort around creating focus, and bringing in different perspectives and thinking about exactly the labor it takes to move these things forward and to do it together is so important.
I think coalition building now more than ever, is so important in the days ahead. Thank you all so much. I want to give a quick moment to say the sessions, the track at the conference is not the end of the cultural policy committee's work, it's the beginning.
The cultural policy committee is taking new shape as we've talked about over these years, we're continuing to evolve it. So to everyone who attends the conference, everyone who's listening, to our GIA members who work in the public sector, please follow along, pay attention to GIA because we'll be sharing an announcement later this fall to express interest in joining committee, and to get your hands in this work, to get involved and help shape the future that we'll be working on together.
So please look out for that. And until then, we will see you all hopefully at the conference in all of these sessions. I want to just say thank you to everyone who listens, thank you to everybody who will be joining us in Chicago, and thank you to each of our guests, Claire, Tariana, Randy, thank you so much for your time here. Thank you for helping shape this work, and for taking on holding all of these sessions at the conference. It'll be really wonderful to get to be in person, and hear about all that's going on. So thank you so much.
Tariana Navas-Nieves:
Thank you.
Randy Engstrom:
Thank you.
Claire Rice:
Looking forward to it. Ordering up some good weather for y'all!
Tariana Navas-Nieves:
Yes.
Claire Rice:
See you in Chicago.
Nadia Elokdah:
Yes, we will accept all of that. And to our listeners, thank you again so much. Please follow GIA for updates about the Cultural Policy Committee, and the call for interest later this fall. Visit our website www.giarts.org, and find us on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram @grantmakersinthearts. Thanks again. See y'all soon.
ABOUT THE SPEAKERS
Randy Engstrom, Co-Founder / Principal of Third Wave Creative, has been a passionate advocate and organizer of cultural and community development for over 20 years. He is currently the Co-Founder and Principal of Third Way Creative, a collaborative consulting studio focused on cultural policy, racial equity, and creative economy. He is also Adjunct Faculty at the Seattle University Arts Leadership Program where he teaches cultural policy and advocacy, and a regular lecturer at the Evan’s School of Governance and Public Policy at the University of Washington. Most recently he served as Director of the Office of Arts and Culture for the City of Seattle from 2012 - 2021. As Director he expanded their investments in grantmaking and Public Art, while establishing new programs and policies in arts education, cultural space affordability, and racial equity. At the City he also led several multi-department sub cabinets, including Affordability and Livability, Youth Opportunity, The Future of Work, and COVID Recovery. He served as Chair of the Seattle Arts Commission in 2011 and was Chair of the Facilities and Economic Development Committee from 2006 to 2010. Before joining the City, he owned and operated Reflex Strategies, a cultural and community based consulting practice. From 2005-2010 Randy was the Founding Director of the Youngstown Cultural Arts Center, a multimedia and multidisciplinary community space that offers youth and community members access to arts, technology, and cultural resources. Prior to Youngstown, Randy spent 3 years as the Founding CEO of Static Factory Media, an artist development organization that owned and operated a record label, bar and performance venue, graphic design house, recording studio, and web development business. In 2009 Randy received the Emerging Leader Award from Americans for the Arts and was one of Puget Sound Business Journal’s 40 Under 40. He is a graduate of the Evergreen State College in Olympia, and he received his Executive Master’s in Public Administration at the University of Washington’s Evans School of Governance and Public Policy.
Tariana Navas-Nieves, Deputy Director for Denver Arts & Venues, City and County of Denver, has 30 years of experience in management, equity and race and social justice work, philanthropy, curatorial practice, translation and interpretation, television, and communications. She oversees the City departments of Public Art, Cultural Programs & Events, Creative Industries, SCFD Tier III (Tax District) funding, Arts Education, and the agency’s numerous cultural investments and grant programs. Navas-Nieves is also on the City’s Equity Leadership Team responsible for the oversight and implementation of the City’s equity platform working with all City agencies and ~13K employees. Navas-Nieves serves on national, regional and local boards including: GIA, Philanthropy Colorado (Chair), Philanthropy Colorado Arts & Culture Funders (Co-Chair), Denver Latino Commission, and the Community ACTS Fund focused on funding to support BIPOC, people with disabilities, LGBTQ+, and other historically marginalized communities. She is co-author of the Re-Tool: Racial Equity in the Panel Process, and created the learning series “How to be an Anti-Racist Organization. A Conversation with Dwinita & Tariana.” With an expertise in Latin American and American Indian art, she has also served in curatorial posts at the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center, Denver Art Museum, Museo de las Americas, and for private collections in the US and Puerto Rico.
Claire Rice is currently the Executive Director of Arts Alliance Illinois, where she champions arts funding, arts-supportive policy change, and the integrated role of creativity across Illinois communities. Previously, Claire was the National Director for the Sustain Arts project at Harvard University, helping arts and cultural leaders better understand their operating environment through data. The project provides meaningful information on arts and cultural activity that addresses critical questions: “Who creates art and culture? Who participates? And how is it funded?” She has also served as the Interim Director of Education and Community Engagement at UMS, a renowned performing arts presenter bringing artists in dance, music, and theater to Ann Arbor, Michigan. There, Ms. Rice worked to build context around and connection to the arts for a wide variety of audiences, through over annual 100 educational and community events. She was selected as an author for the arts leadership book 20 Under 40, published in 2010, and was the associate producer of the Grammy Award-winning concert recording of William Bolcom’s Songs of Innocence and of Experience in 2004. From 1998-2003, she was a management consultant for Accenture, working with Federal and State government clients in Washington DC. Ms. Rice received her BA from The College of William and Mary, and her MPA from the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University.
