Arts Advocate Returns To Cleveland To Launch Assembly For The Arts
Source: Ideastream
Abstract:
Perhaps one of the best-kept secrets of greater Cleveland is the multi-billion dollar impact of arts and culture. A new organization, Assembly for the Arts, debuts next month and is looking to showcase that economic might by bringing local arts groups together to speak with one voice. Assembly will be led by Jeremy Johnson, a former Northeast Ohio resident who’s returning home with some fresh ideas about the power of collaboration.
New Arts Alliance Will Give United Voice To Northeast Ohio’s Arts Community
NEW ARTS ALLIANCE WILL GIVE UNITED VOICE
TO NORTHEAST OHIO’S ARTS COMMUNITY
Arts Leader & Cleveland Native Jeremy Johnson
Selected to Lead “Assembly for the Arts"
PRESS RELEASE
For Immediate Release May 10, 2021
Media Contact: Malissa Bodmann, 216-536-7517
CLEVELAND – An ambitious plan for a new organization built on a collaborative model to serve all of Cleveland’s arts community is set to launch mid-June. After more than a year of planning, leaders have announced the formation of Assembly for the Arts, a nonprofit arts alliance in Greater Cleveland, to provide a unified voice, set regional goals, and represent shared priorities for the creative economy in Northeast Ohio. Jeremy V. Johnson, a Cleveland native and most recently Executive Director of Newark Arts (NJ), has been chosen to lead Assembly for the Arts after a national search.
Assembly for the Arts will be a nonprofit and advocacy organization [501(c)3 and 501(c)4]. Assembly for the Arts will focus on an ambitious advocacy and cultural policy agenda; racial equity initiatives; informed and focused research; cooperative marketing that elevates the region; a diverse portfolio of membership services; and capacity building for nonprofits, artists and creative businesses. The new organization will be governed by a volunteer board with a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion. At least 50% of board members will be women or non-binary people and at least 40% will be BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color).
For more than a year, community partners Cuyahoga Arts & Culture, Arts Cleveland, and the Arts and Culture Action Committee, with support from the Cleveland Foundation and the George Gund Foundation, have led the planning for a new organization that would serve the entire creative sector: artists, nonprofits and creative businesses.
Cuyahoga Arts & Culture will remain a separate entity focused on funding nonprofits – an independent political subdivision of the State of Ohio with grantmaking authority – and will have representation on the Assembly for the Arts board.
After nearly 20 years in service of Cuyahoga County’s creative economy, Arts Cleveland will cease operations concurrent with the launch of the new alliance, as will the Arts and Culture Action Committee. The current Arts Cleveland staff will support Assembly for the Arts’ operations.
Johnson, a native Clevelander who grew up in Hough and Glenville and attended University School, is known to be a powerful convener, effective collaborator and an extremely gifted fundraiser. Most recently, he has served as the Executive Director of Newark Arts. Over the course of his nearly five years there, he has tripled both the fundraising and staff size of the organization, transforming it into a vibrant force for change in the Newark community. Johnson raised the national profile of Newark, now ranked among America’s top ten arts vibrant communities by the National Center for Arts Research.
“After nearly 20 years in New Jersey, I’m excited to return home to Cleveland to lead this new organization,” Johnson said. “Assembly for the Arts will be one voice, representative of the diversity of our region, that lifts up the arts in Northeast Ohio. Though this effort builds on decades of work, there has never been a greater need to support artists, nonprofits and creative businesses in Northeast Ohio as we begin recovery from the pandemic and seek a stronger future for the entire sector. My vision for Assembly for the Arts is that it will advocate for artists and arts organizations, shape transformational policies, and prioritize racial equity in the movement to lift our community through the power of arts and culture.”
Chinenye Nkemere, a member of the Assembly for the Arts Planning Committee and Board, said Johnson’s experience as a convener and collaborator will be important for Assembly for the Arts’ work. “Assembly has an ambitious agenda to be equitable, inclusive and represent all voices in our community. It will require listening and seeking out and bringing together divergent points of view,” Nkemere said. “We look forward to having Jeremy lead this work to create a more racially equitable and active arts community.”
Jill Paulsen, Executive Director of Cuyahoga Arts & Culture, said the new organization comes at a critical time for the sector. “The pandemic has been devastating on the creative economy in Cuyahoga County, and it has exposed how much our community counts on arts and culture for quality of life and as an economic engine. By working together, we can do so much more – just as we demonstrated when we united to secure $4.5-million in CARES Act relief for the arts and culture sector. As we look for new sources of funding, Assembly will provide the structure for a new level of collaboration and shared commitment to a vision for our arts sector. I’m excited to have a new partner in this vital work,” she said.
Kelly Falcone-Hall, a member of the Arts Cleveland board and President and CEO of the Western Reserve Historical Society, noted that the formation of Assembly for the Arts builds on Cleveland’s legacy of innovative support for arts and culture. Arts Cleveland led the efforts to secure public support for arts and culture more than 15 years ago. “The creative economy, inclusive of nonprofits, artists, and for-profit arts enterprises, is a significant economic driver in greater Cleveland, having an annual economic impact of $9.1 billion, which includes 62,500 jobs and $3.3 billion in labor income. We need to support everyone from the smallest to the largest organizations if this sector is to thrive. Building on the work of Arts Cleveland, Assembly is well positioned to support individuals and organizations of all sizes, no matter if they are starting out or are well established,” she said.
Fred Bidwell, chair of the Arts and Culture Action Committee, which will fold into Assembly for the Arts along with Arts Cleveland, said having the sector unified in its advocacy efforts will allow the region to maintain the strong and diverse arts and culture offerings that are a hallmark of the region. “We can accomplish so much more by working together to move our sector forward,” Bidwell said. “We are grateful to the support of the Cleveland Foundation and Gund Foundation to support the planning work that helped us deliver on our vision of a truly new way of transforming Greater Cleveland’s arts community.”
About Assembly for the Arts
Assembly for the Arts is a 501(c)3 nonprofit and 501(c)4 advocacy organization with a focus on advocacy and cultural policy, racial equity initiatives, research, marketing that elevates the region, and services for nonprofits, artists, and creative businesses. It is governed by a volunteer board with a strong commitment to diversity and inclusion. More than 50% of Assembly for the Arts board members are women or non-binary people and more than 40% are BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color). For more than a year, community partners Cuyahoga Arts & Culture, Arts Cleveland, and the Arts and Culture Action Committee, with support from the Cleveland Foundation and the George Gund Foundation, have led the planning for a new organization to serve the entire creative sector. Learn more at assemblycle.org.
REVS Cleveland / Akron
Reopen Every Venue Safely – Cleveland Akron
Guidelines and best practices for live music venues in Cleveland/Akron as part of the national Reopen Every Venue Safely (REVS) campaign.
With COVID-19 came the shutdown of many businesses. While most places reopened late spring/early summer, live music venues remained closed. In the midst of COVID-19, live music venues have often been called the first to close and the last to open due to the many concerns around the safety of live music. To work towards reopening local live music venues safely, in May, Cleveland/Akron got involved in the Reopen Every Every Venue Safely (REVS) initiative launched by Music Cities Together. This initiative is focused on helping venues open as safely and as soon as possible by providing best practices and guidelines. The best practices and guidelines you will read below were built from meetings and discussions between Arts Cleveland and local music venue owners and directors, musicians, and public health professionals.
Data Brief - Dance in Cleveland
Dance In CLE
Cleveland’s dance industry, including both creative and non-creative jobs increased to 302 jobs in 2015. The industry analysis is made up of dance companies and promoters as well as fine arts schools.
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Rethinking Accessibility in Cleveland’s Arts and Culture. 2019.
In 2014, Arts Cleveland began a productive partnership with Art Possible Ohio (APO) and Services for Independent Living (SIL) and began to understand the gap in access for people with disabilities throughout the arts and culture sector.
Fast forward to January 2019, Arts Cleveland received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to execute on a research initiative focused on arts and culture accessibility for people with disabilities in the greater Cleveland region. In close communication with APO and SIL, Arts Cleveland led an assessment of the regional state of access to the arts. Through this research, we explored the Cuyahoga County landscape of arts and culture access and worked to identify and define barriers among individuals with varying abilities.
Inside the Margins
A Cleveland Literature Industry Study
Inside the Margins: A Cleveland Literature Industry Study was commissioned by Arts Cleveland—formerly the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture—and is the result of research conducted and analyzed by the Center for Economic Development at the Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs at Cleveland State University (CSU). The report on the Cleveland Literature Sector is the fourth in a series of studies that explores the various artistic disciplines in Cuyahoga County.
For the study, the CSU research team acquired the Quarterly Census of Employment and Wages data for Cuyahoga County from 2005 to 2015, and used the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics’ Standard Occupation Classification definitions. The team also gathered quantitative and qualitative data by conducting an online Survey of Literary Artists, one-on-one interviews and a focus group. The purpose of the data and their analysis is to provide a sense of the local sector’s advantages, challenges and economic impact.
Access the full report by CSU on their website.
At Its Very Best
At Its Very Best is a commissioned short documentary by local artist, Donald Black Jr. Interviews begin to illustrate the impact of violence and what the arts can do in the lives of those affected by trauma. In partnership with Arts Cleveland, he interviews youth, educators, healthcare providers and public safety experts.
After the 13-minute video was released in December of 2018, Black spoke on his experience creating the video and invited a conversation. Scroll down to watch the full video.
A woman in the audience recalled drawing quite a bit when she was growing up. The arts, she said, kept her and her friends, many of whom lived under the poverty line, out of trouble. As an adult, she was working with a group of kids who were labeled "troubled" or "bad." They were given paintbrushes and asked to paint a mural for a daycare center. She had her doubts that the project would be taken seriously, but something amazing happened. To her surprise, these kids, some from gangs, others from rough areas, and all from different backgrounds worked together on this project with a camaraderie she hadn't seen from them before.
It was a great example of what we are trying to say with the video. While editing the documentary, Black, who was himself defined by his art-making, was continuously listening for something to hit on a very personal level. What stood out, and ultimately became the title, was something said by Toni Starinsky late in the video. She was Black's photography teacher in high school who he describes as "a white person who has really been in the mud.” In her interview, she says, “If arts does anything, it should teach thinking, empathy, and give children hope. That’s what it does at its very best.” Throughout his life, art acted as the counterbalance to what violence did to Black. He didn’t realize at the time that he was healing himself with art because it was happening in a very subconscious way. But the longer he has created art, the more he has realized its impact on his life. “For Starinsky to say that at its very best, art can heal some simple ails, that’s what this is all about.”
As an adult and successful artist, Black wants to be in the neighborhood where he grew up for precisely this reason. He was being pulled in other directions including his life in New York and neighborhoods throughout Cleveland he called “white bubbles,” but he was committed to being present in his own community.
As a kid, Black grew up on the southeast side of Cleveland. From 7th grade on, he had to ride the RTA from his neighborhood to Cleveland School of the Arts, where he was a student. “There was a huge divide between what was going on where I was living and what was happening where I was going.” Black wants to make the community where he grew up a place for people visit to see artwork, and a place for black kids growing up in urban communities to see and experience artwork. His now owns a building on Kinsman. It allows him to be there when people want him, especially young people.
About his murals in the neighborhood that stand roughly 20 or 30 feet tall, Black adds that he wants his little cousin to feel as big and tall as those murals they see themselves in. “Kids say, 'That’s me in the mural.' There are lots of young people showing up,” and he and the art are there when they need him.
Elevating The Influence of Arts and Culture
A Cleveland Playbook
A history, of the tactics that contributed to successes in the Cleveland, Ohio, area to realize the fuller potential of arts and culture. You’ll also see call-out material with more concrete, universal lessons to help you apply those tactics in a variety of settings. 2018.
As a result of CPAC’s work:
- Tax money has been directed for arts and culture
- Facilities have been built or renovated
- Governments have become involved
- Creative businesses have merged or collaborated
- Innovative cross sector partnerships have emerged
Through CPAC’s process outlined in the playbook, organizations and communities anywhere can see what worked in Northeast Ohio and what did not. Any one of the strategies in this playbook could be beneficial, depending on a community’s vision and current situation. It is our hope that our story can provide other organizations with insight into how they might strengthen their own arts and culture sectors and thus their whole communities.
Spiral-bound print copies available by request.
Staging Cleveland
Staging Cleveland takes an in-depth look at the role greater Cleveland’s theater industries play in the regional economy. 2017.
The concentration of high-quality theaters and playwrights in the Cleveland region helps to make it a mid-sized city that has a disproportionally high level of national recognition. This is just one of the competitive advantages of Cleveland theater found in “Staging Cleveland: A Theater Industry Study.” The study shares the economic impact and ecosystem of Cuyahoga County’s theater industry.
Culture Pulse 2017
Culture Pulse
Examines financial trends, such as income and expenses, as well as participation, human resource and space trends. It also compares Cuyahoga County trends with national trends and is informed by a set of three focus groups. Dive deeper into the trends and health of arts and culture as a local asset by viewing both the visually dynamic report, and the full set of data tables. 2017.
Cuyahoga County’s nonprofit arts and cultural sector thrives along many dimensions. Throughout our discussions with local arts and cultural nonprofit leaders, we heard a common thread: Cuyahoga County’s arts ecosystem benefits from arts and cultural organizations’ being open to collaborating, the high number of free arts and cultural offerings, and generous public funding. Community members attend small festivals, tour large museums, and take art classes. Artists ranging from local painters to writers to dancers to designers live, work, and share their craft in Northeast Ohio. Creativity is in the water.