Artistic Rebuttaling – Using Art to Advocate for the Arts

Guest Contributor: Amy Scheidegger (Director, Artistic Rebuttal Project)

One afternoon in late January 2011, I, an artist from the age of 2, was horribly disturbed by a conversation between a group of brand new college kids on a Philadelphia subway on the way to a theater in which I worked as a prop painter. This what I overheard:

“Art is like, the most worthless degree anyone can get. It’s like having a degree in making shit out of Popsicle sticks and string.”

I’m not naïve. I was raised in the south where the majority of my community (and family) did not embrace art as a career path, but people this young? I thought the youth of America were more appreciative of art has a valid profession, whether an arts degree was involved in that career choice or not. And I do admit that when I heard “art is the most worthless degree anyone can get” I took it to mean “art is worthless,” so maybe those kids on the subway weren’t as misinformed as I jumped to conclude. Artists become artists with a degree or not. But still, their sentiments really angered me, and as an arts advocate with two degrees in the field, (a BFA in Painting and a Masters in Arts Administration) I knew I had to do something rather than just wallow in my disappointment. It is widely acknowledged that artists do not get the respect they deserve, degree or not, but what artists and what their art accomplishes is too important to let conversations like this one be ignored.

I took to the internet where professionals of the visual, performing, musical and written word persuasion, arts administrators and appreciators were contacted and hundreds joined together to make their own visually rendered statements about the importance of the arts. Statements range from where art is hiding that the non-artist does not see, statistics about how much money arts and culture contribute to the economy and what art-making does for human development. The end product of collecting all these images were full color books showcasing everyone’s rebuttal to the “arts is worthless” debate as well as their personal love for the arts.

The Artistic Rebuttal Project is grassroots arts advocacy at its best: Artists and art lovers coming together to creatively fight for their livelihoods. Since creative people are trained, either professionally or have trained themselves, to see both the beauty and the faults (but mostly the beauty) in the things that they and others observe and create, I have found them to be among the most trusting, honest, brave, and compassionate people I have ever known. The city of Philadelphia felt the same way, as evidenced by Leadership Philadelphia’s Creative Connector initiative in 2011. I was honored to have been chosen by my peers as one of Philadelphia’s top 76 Creative Connectors, a group characterized as entrepreneurial professionals who serve as civic hubs of trust who use art, culture and design to build community and economic vitality all while purposely flying under the radar. In 2011, we published a Pennsylvania edition, to take down to Art Advocacy Day in DC, a national and a children’s edition.

After a very successful first year and 200+ rebuttals collected from ages 5 to 65, our second year imposed a theme: Art is an Instinct. Artists of all trades and levels of expertise often feel an inward impulse to create. I know I have, ever since I first picked up a crayon at the age of two – and promptly drew all over my parents’ walls and keepsakes. Creative people feel a sense of accomplishment, a very personal reward, from this impulse to do, make, and perform. When this creation is shared, others are often moved and rewarded in ways that are hard to articulate. Born from this internal drive, a work of art has the potential to affect a countless number of people in an immeasurable amount of ways. In 2012, we published another Pennsylvania edition for Arts Advocacy Day, with a forward from Julie Hawkins, a Philadelphia arts advocate and fellow Creative Connector; as well as a national edition, with a forward by Kymia Nawabi, winner of Bravo TV’s “The Next Great Artist, Season 2.”

We are now in our third year and a lot has changed. We learned (the hard way) from our second year that the time-suck involved with fundraising in order to publish a small run of books was shifting focus off our main mission: advocating for the arts and artists. We also learned that asking for rebuttals in the form of .jpegs and .pdfs, in order to be printed, was restrictive to those artists who can’t put what they love about their discipline into those formats, or even into words at all. So we’re now transitioning to advocating for arts and artists digitally, in whatever share-able format a person deems fitting to them, in order to better fulfill our mission, accommodate a wider range of artistic expression and grow our audiences.

We also determined that the reasons why the project started, to combat the negative perception of an art degree and artists in general, and the reasons why the project is still functioning today are quite different - based simply on what people involved with the project are actually doing on the project’s behalf.

Here is what the project does currently:

1.  Promotes Visual Artists Rights (since visual is my area of expertise) and advocates for artists to be better educated about the history of artists (a.k.a. the historical perception of artists) in America
2. Promotes the creative process as a career
3. Creates an outlet for creative people to share their arts experiences
4.  Advocates on behalf of artists and their skill sets, arts education and arts access
5.  Stimulates people to make art

How Others Can Help:

In order to grow the scope of our project, we need new supporters, new rebuttals, new stories about how the arts have improved our lives; just fresh faces and voices to share.

Anyone interested in helping with the effort can come up with their rebuttal and email it to artisticrebuttal@gmail.com. Rebuttals can also be tweeted to @ArtistRebuttal or left on our Facebook Page: Artistic Rebuttal Book Project.

We also want to form meaningful partnerships with both arts-centric folks and organizations that aren’t art focused but promote the use of art in their own missions, so if there is anyone, any organization out there that wants to help us in advocating for the arts/artists, please contact us with ideas through our social media outlets or email.

Rebuttals can be viewed at www.artisticrebuttal.com/apps/blog

For more info about the project, to join our e-mailing list and to donate to the project, visit www.artisticrebuttal.com. Donations assist in informing artists of their rights and printing rebuttals that are mailed to our congressmen in Washington, NC and local/state representatives.

A very special thank you to Amy for telling us about the Artistic Rebuttal Project, and for sharing a preview of some new rebuttals...

Penumbra Foundation

The Penumbra Foundation is a nonprofit, member supported organization dedicated to preserving historical and emulsion based photography, and maintaining its relevance as an artistic and educational tool in the evolving digital age.  It is a workshop based education program devoted to teaching 19th century photographic processes and 20th century emulsion based photography.

Their mission is to be a comprehensive resource for photographers at any level, who want to learn, practice, and research these photographic arts and processes. They also publicize the impact photography has had and continues to have on culture, history, and the arts. Penumbra Foundation's is cultivating a community based organization that will make available their resources to the greater photographic community.

Through their educational programs, Penumbra Foundation aims to broaden the palette of artistic and visual communication tools available to photographers, artists and visual communicators. They teach photography comprehensively, from its invention through the digital age. The foundation's goal is to develop an MFA and certificate programs, offering emulsion based curricula to educational institutions that are dismantling their darkrooms but still understand the importance and necessity of teaching emulsion based photography.

The foundation offers outreach in the form of teaching photography to those in financial need. This is focused on public schools that no longer offer emulsion based photographic programs and an Artist in Residence program. Other community outreach efforts include an artist lecture series and informal meetings to discuss the issues and trends in today's photography industry.

Partners:

• International Center for Photography
• Young Photographers Alliance
• Contemporary Daguerreotypes 
• Photoville NYC

Additionally, The Penumbra Foundation's TinType Portrait Studio allows you to get your own Wet Plate Collodion tintype portrait, (the Polaroid of the 19th Century).

For more information please visit their website.

Artists for a Cause

Creatively Building Better Communities

Artists for a Cause is a Stuart, Florida based, national nonprofit that improves communities by using art as a catalyst to achieve incredible results. The organization was founded in 2009 by countertenor Terry Barber, and received it's nonprofit status in 2010. It creates professional and educational opportunities for visual and performing artists whenever art is being used as a vehicle for community improvement.

Programs:

• Artist Auction Packages: puts professional performance and visual artists to work, generating new sources of revenue and awareness for third party charities. 
• Dance for Food: is a dance performance to feed the hungry where admission cost is nonperishable food donations.
• Therapeutic Music Day: sends the healing power of music into nursing homes, hospitals, assisted living facilities and the prison system.
• A4AC Scholarship Program: provides arts education opportunities for less fortunate children.
• Benefits Concerts: the organization has produced almost 40 performances with almost 40 charities.
• Homeless Choir: performing group comprised of homeless people with the goal of creating sustainability and reintegration into society.

From my research it seems like this newer organization is still in its expansion and growth phase. For this reason I was concerned about featuring it on NA. That being said, I think it's important for potential donors to learn about nonprofits in various stages of their lifecycle. Your support has the power to make a good organization great, good ideas are always worth spreading, and quite honestly some nonprofits need your support more than others. Artists for a Cause may just be finding its way; however it's another great example of how people are using their talent and skills to help create stronger communities.


For more information please visit, Artists for a Cause.

Philadelphia Mural Arts Program

Today's feature focuses on the power of the arts in community building and healing. Philadelphia's Mural Arts Program (MAP) is a public art program that works in partnership with communities, grassroots organizations, city agencies, prisons, and schools. Though focused on serving the Philadelphia area, the organization's work has drawn national attention for its use of the mural to help prevent crime and rehabilitate those convicted of crimes, all while beautifying city neighborhoods. MAP is one of the largest public arts initiatives of its kind in the United States.

MAP's mission is "to engage in art education and community public art collaborations, and to increase public access to art." Their goals are to:

• Develop sustainable partnerships with community organizations in order to create murals that reflect the community's culture, history, and vision.
• Catalyze community development, neighborhood activism, and civic pride.
• Foster youth development through experiential art education and mentorships with professional artists.
• Support artists and artisans in sharing their talent and experience with youth and communities in Philadelphia.
• Use the power of art and the mural design process as tools for community engagement, blight remediation, beautification, demonstration of civic pride, and prevention and rehabilitation of crime.

MAP creates over 100 community murals per year. To date the organization has educated of 20,000 under served youths and produced over 2,800 murals. 

Their programming provides free, quality art education programs to at-risk youth, and programs in restorative justice serving youth and adult offenders in local prisons and rehabilitation centers. Using the restorative power of the arts to break the cycle of crime and violence. 

More recently MAP has gone "off the wall" to include Special Projects. These projects include Gateway projects, public sculptures, art along major commercial corridors, and a range of other creative projects designed to transform the city and its residents through art.

For more information on MAP's programs, articles on their work, and how you can get involved please visit MAP's website.

Somos Children's Village

Today's organization is working towards a significant goal- building a village for abandoned and orphaned children in Guatemala.

The Somos Project is creating Children's Village, housing 49 children, in seven homes with seven foster mothers raising the household of children. These children will not be adopted out. The homes are meant to be long-term,  creating a permanent foster family. The Village will focus on education, leadership, and the arts, with the children attending the local community school.

Beyond the seven homes, the Village will also have buildings for activities, guest rooms, art and music workshops, a library, administrative space, a larger playground and soccer field. The Village will be eco-sustainable, with alternative power, rain water capture, grey water recycling, solar energy, and organic gardens and orchards.  

The Village is working with the local Guatemalan community. Children's Village will be managed by the Village Director, who is a local Guatemalan. More local Guatemalans will be employed in various areas of the Village.

I urge you to visit the site. It's filled with detailed information about every aspect of the project. There is a very clear mission, and very clear plan how to achieve that mission. This is a wonderful project to provide a loving home and happy life for children whose young lives have already experience a great deal of sadness. For more information about Project Somos' progress or how you can get involved please visit their site.

Dave Eggers

Today's nonprofit tidbit focuses on philanthropist, advocate, and author, Dave Eggers. 

Eggers is a pretty busy guy, he's a novelist, launched an independent publishing house, which publishes books, a quarterly journal (McSweeney's), and a monthly magazine (The Believer), and spends his free time founding non-profits. 

826 Valencia  is a nonprofit organization founded in 2002 by Dave Eggers and Ninive Calegari. Their mission is to help students ages 6 to 18 develop their writing skills and help teachers get their students excited about writing and the literary arts. This is achieved through one-on-one tutoring, field trips, in-school programs and workshops- for free. Since it's founding, 826 has expanded to seven locations known collectively as 826 National.

Once Upon a School developed from Dave Eggers TED Prize wish, this website collects the stories of private citizens who are engaged in their communities by helping their local public schools. Not only can site visitors submit stories, but it also helps match donors with school projects. "The site helps you find a creative way of supporting local public school."

Voice of Witness  is a nonprofit oral history book series, which "seeks to illuminate human rights crises by humanizing the victims.  By allowing them to tell their stories, we seek to engender greater understanding." It's aim is "engaging readers of all levels- from high school to college students to policy makers."

I urge you to visit Dave Eggers' page at Ted  and learn more about his work. It's a great opportunity to hear more about Dave Eggers' work in his own words. More importantly, I urge to check out these organizations.