News

Collective Impact in Review

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By Suzanne Lynch, Director of Marketing and Development –

To everyone who joined us in Murfreesboro last week, thank you for attending Collective Impact, the 2016 statewide arts conference. You made the conference a real success with your participation, openness and willingness to dive into the material presented. We had over 90 presenters and each session was well attended. We will be sending out a survey soon — please take the time to give us your feedback so we can continue to refine our convening opportunities going forward.

We are so grateful to those who helped and supported us during the week — your assistance was invaluable: Principal Jenny Ortiz and Bradley Academy; Pat Jones and the staff at the Patterson Park Community Center; Jennifer Moody, Assistant City Manager and her team at the City of Murfreesboro; Pam Williams, Cultural Arts Program Coordinator and her team at Cultural Arts Murfreesboro; Barbara Wolke and her team at the Rutherford Convention and Visitors Bureau; Tara MacDougall and the team at the Discovery Center; Patience Long and the team at Center for the Arts; members of the Boro Art Crawl, Tennesseans for the Arts; and Jerry’s Artarama.

To follow is a recap of the conference highlights along with some photos and tweets that were shared. Click here to see more tweets and photos.

Tuesday, June 7

DSC_0023Sparkplug sessions kicked off the conference and offered topics that ranged from social media time management to script writing, grants workshop to understanding arts integration.

Uncle Shuffelo and Haint Hollow Hootenanny delivered a wonderful set of old-time music during dinner. Afterwards, Rich Harwood gave stirring keynote on how we can move away from a path of status quo and toward a path of possibility. He spoke about the idea of turning outward — a fitting statement to kick off the conference theme, Collective Impact.Screenshot 2016-06-13 14.03.56

Wednesday, June 8

DSC_0039Students from Bradley Academy welcomed us with an amazing performance of their recent production of The Lion King. They were truly inspiring. We cannot thank Bradley enough for arranging for all the children to come back to school, get the costumes on and perform as if it was opening night all over again.

Donna Collins was our morning plenary. She spoke about the super hero powers of arts education advocates and invited us to become super heroes.

A very talented guitarist, Ben Hall was our lunchtime guess artist and showcased the thumb-style tradition.

The afternoon tackled arts and community issues. We were very fortunate to have many arts leaders give their time and share their knowledge and experience. We heard about how arts organizations can shape a community from Bill May, Executive Director at Arrowmont; arts as community platforms from Ekundayo Bendele, CEO of Hattiloo Theatre; and how the Cumberland Hispanic Festival celebrates diversity through the arts in rural Tennessee from Alysa and Luis Medina, founding members of the Crossville Para Una Accion Solidaria.

DSC_0172 DSC_0226It was a beautiful night for the Summer Arts Jam. Many locals and conference attendees came down to the civic plaza to watch arts demonstrations, visit with local artists and listen to some great local music. Thank you to everyone who made the night a success.Screenshot 2016-06-13 13.48.38

Thursday, June 9

Dr. Doug Borwick delivered a morning plenary that discussed how to make the arts indispensable. He discussed the idea of how the arts and communities can be equal partners, and establish artists and arts organizations as good neighbors.

A highlight at lunch was the exciting performance by Mariachi Olímpico de Nashville. The crowd was thrilled to see the band split up and call to each other by trumpet or guitar from across the large room.

The afternoon featured Digging Deeper sessions presented by arts leaders that included the likes of Linda Steele, Cherri Coleman, Brandi Self, Kiran Singh Sirah and Shawn Pitts. We concluded the day with arts experiences that gave everyone an opportunity to learn new arts skills and create a piece of work. A favorite was the Aerial Dance session that featured an aerial rig constructed in the Bradley Academy gym.

Thank you to Tennesseans for the Arts who sponsored an evening reception at the Discovery Center and to the Center for hosting us. We enjoyed mingling and listening to the jazz of Elliot McLain, an accomplished pianist.

Friday, June 10

Screenshot 2016-06-13 13.52.42On this final day, we were incredibly lucky to have Dr. Ivonne Chand O’Neal deliver a plenary about flourishing and she spoke about a number of topics on the forefront of arts policy. A group of attendees was over heard to say that her talk alone was worth the price of admission.

Immediately after, we had our endnote by Robert Gipe and Katie Smythe. Gipe was very entertaining as he discussed the trial and tribulations of getting the community-based arts initiative, Higher Ground off the ground. Smythe, accompanied by her student performer LeAnthony Douglas, spoke on how true collective impact involves a series of strategic agreements between a group of organizations.

We hope that Collective Impact has reignited and rejuvenated you in your work, and that you found new solutions to current issues. We would like you to share those thoughts with us so please send us your stories on how you are or are becoming a change agent in your community.