Convenor: Elie
Participants: Sadie, Elie, Patricia, Maggie, Michelle
Who populates and prioritizes? Dedicated staff, open source with moderation, self determined
Audience (community) can’t get 2 plus events at the same time but might be interested in both/ all
Common in other cities/communities
Challenges: Underlying hurdles to cooperation current structures don’t listen
- Brand/location management by PCTI excludes BIPOC voices
Education (Intent vs. Impact)
- Funds not allocated to art
- Arts in competition w/ sports
- Missing nuance in representation of African art
Calendar allows politicians, educators, artist to plan
- Field trips provide access to community events
- Mutual supports
- Youth participation
- Reduce competition for funding opportunities
Calendar not “owned” by funders creating competition for spots on the calendar
Big dream to connect efforts again not “owned” by foundations
Layered calendars
- Arts BIPOC
- Arts big orgs
- Arts school
- Steelers
- Church
- Instrucstion
- Private group lessons
- City/County
Fuller representation/more complete
Working education opportunities into grants
Income from PPS
- Spread across funding cycles
- Works with joint market efforts
Complementary not competitive programs especially for kids
Spread opportunities across the city
Reciprocal space usage
- Extra funding for participation
- City/county owned facilities
- Recreational centers
- Organization facilities
- Some programming provided in alt. communities
- Public housing rotation outside of county
Why is there no community calendar in PGH?
All of the energy is scattered all over.
Pgh Cultural Trust has central energy but you get what you get, what they want they get
Only for little corner downtown
They have a calendar for Pgh but only for white groups generally
Not representative of BIPO communities
Funding being reduced for arts and music, due to rising other costs.
Funding for sport remains intact
Art is the sacrificial lamb
For African immigrants, their self esteem is taught through their arts, culture and music. Kente cloth means nothing to someone from east Africa, the culture needs to reflect the community, need to acknowledge the differences between African cultures
Funds are not allocated fairly because it is based on the local taxes so some schools lose more arts money than others
Field trips provide access to community places and events and cultures, a community calendar provides a way that those field trips can be coordinated
Allows mayor, artists, everyone to be able to coordinated a schedule
Artists can then support each other and not conflict, expose greater audiences to the various arts
Can have talk backs, teachable moments that can then be taken back to schools
We all think we are fighting over the same $10 but we are not because there is other money in other places that we are not going after and a community calendar could help
Calendar needs to be owned by the arts community, not a foundation
Black arts need to dream big, need to be a groundswell, need to work together to propose a big dream to present to a funder
It doesn’t happen tomorrow, what are the steps to get to the big dream?
Artists willing to go out into the schools after the production after inviting them to a production
Couple together a matinee educational program funded by a grant and then then do an evening program with the same artist, saves money
Need to include churches, schools, football, everything and the funding cycle on the community calendar
Promotion, marketing and a calendar all need to work in tandem
Take ownership of the calendar and promote the next three events on the calendar, support each other, cohesive group, sends a message if we promote each other
Kids should not feel that there is a competition on where they go for after school programs, this is already breaking the community
How do we figure out a way not to compete with each other?
Make sure that we offer things in different places/different areas. Maybe using a shared space. Reciprocal arrangement where kids can experience different exposure from multiple artists
City has plenty of recreation space that is not being utilized
Artist of that community gives continuity
Collaborations between providers
Can be difficult to get people here to cross rivers
Public transportation is an issue here
Value to having community exposure and connections but we need to broaden our horizons and broaden their exposure
Programs can go into buildings that are often only used in the morning, or maybe the evening
Collaborate with artists have their own space that they can share with other arts or orgs that provide different services, give them exposure on the community calendar
If we can offer these things to kids in their communities, then the kids find out they have abilities that they may not have even known
How do we begin to offer opportunities across the city to show funders there is demand and that it is feasible for artists to collaborate not compete
Move outside of Allegheny County
Where do we begin? Space to share
Share admi personnel such as graphic designers or PR folks
Who would populate the calendar?
Who would ensure we don’t have open day?
Community calendar allows artists and arts orgs to ensure the conflicts and empty days are kept to a minimum
Coordinated arts not competing arts
We welcome your feedback on this topic.