Arts Advocacy Day (April 1) is an annual event that attracts representatives of cultural, civic and grassroots arts organizations from across America to our city in order to lobby Congress for more federal arts funding and arts-friendly legislation. At the local level, DC Advocates for the Arts and the DC Commission on the Arts and Humanities organize small teams to promote similar issues among DC councilmembers. The commission also requested that concerned citizens attend the DC Council’s budget oversight hearings on March 3 and April 24 to support increased funding for its grant programs and public art initiatives.

The collaborative will participate in Arts Advocacy Day meetings with city officials, but the organization’s advocacy efforts are a year-round job. The need for cultural spaces and funding for arts programming tops the list of Ward 7 arts priorities. “We are suffering because we’re all lobbying for the same tiny spaces,” says Arts Collaborative Acting Executive Director Wanda Aikens. “What we really need are new spaces and bigger spaces.”

Collaborative members have partnered with public and private developers to ensure that new projects reflect local culture and use local talent.

• The collaborative has joined forces with other community organizations to ensure that whoever wins the contract to redevelop the Strand Theatre is responsive to the economic and cultural needs of local residents and community artists.
• City Interests, the development firm that will renovate the East River Park shopping center, recently accepted a proposal from the collaborative to upgrade nearby city planter boxes using local artists and community youth.
• When a local advisory neighborhood commission complained that the I-295 bridge mural did not accurately depict Nannie Helen Burroughs, the collaborative surveyed over 300 residents to find out what kinds of projects the community would support.

In the long run, the Arts Collaborative is working to create an arts district in Ward 7 that will house support services, opportunities for collaboration, live/work spaces, creative supply stores, and venues where artists of all disciplines can market and produce their work. Aikens points out that our community is full of social entrepreneurs—painters, craft artists, creative skills teachers, photographers, videographers, writers, publishers, clothing designers, musicians and producers—who never get off the ground because they lack money, support and partners. “Businesses need to partner with people who have creative minds to develop services that invite a different type of consumer to come into the area and bring in money that will support even more creative ventures,” she says.

Aikens is troubled by the lack of widespread participation from residents when public and private organizations seek community input. “You have to be present to have input at the table, and I think the first level of it should be through local meetings and the advisory neighborhood commissions,” she states. Gertrude Saleh, Ward 7’s arts commissioner, encourages residents and community organizations to take the next step by inviting elected officials to their arts programs and by presenting information during meetings of the DC Council and other public agencies. “The general public and public agencies watching the Council hearings on the local TV will hear about these events and will attend an event, performance or activity themselves,” she says. “This way, they would become more aware of the value of arts to our community.”

Chris Lopiano of City Interests suggests that private developers are not opposed to input from community artists. “I think most developers want to build good-looking projects, regardless of location. Art certainly contributes to that goal.” However, he reminds advocates that they “must demonstrate how the inclusion of the arts will improve the project, not just aesthetically but economically as well.”

For those who meet with nonprofit agencies, a positive attitude, patience, persistence and willingness to learn are critical. “Resources are available, but people have to take the appropriate steps and have follow-through skills to make themselves a success,” says Masresha Tadesse, communication director for the Humanities Council of Washington, DC. The Humanities Council, DC Commission, and many other organizations offer technical assistance workshops to help newcomers wade through paperwork and application processes, and of course, the Arts Collaborative is always willing to mentor first-time artists and arts advocates.

Senator Barack Obama’s historic presidential campaign has caused many to believe that positive change is possible. However, true and lasting change is not the result of marking a ballot. It requires a commitment to communicating ideas to elected officials, monitoring how they use their influence, and organizing with other residents to improve local communities.

In that regard, all of us can be arts advocates. We can write a letter to our elected officials, attend community input meetings, volunteer a few hours for a local arts organization or nominate one for an award, encourage a talented friend to take a class or apply for a grant, or simply show up to a community event and enjoy the talent that is right here in our own backyard.