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Reflections on NASAA Assembly 2016

By Suzanne Lynch, Director of Marketing and Development –

wildswan
Wild Swan Theatre

Attending the National Assembly for Statewide Arts Agencies (NASAA) Assembly 2016 in Grand Rapids, Michigan last week offered participants a closer look at the landscape of arts agencies across the country, and how NASAA and the NEA are working for all of us.

I was thrilled to be asked by Sue Struve from NASAA to co-facilitate the PIO Peer Session with Vermont Arts Communications and Outreach Manager Kira Bacon. These sessions are highly valued as they offer the opportunity to meet peers from across the US — 14 communications and public information officers attended the session and we had a great conversation about the new directions we were taking with our communication outreach.

My favorite session of the week however was held at the Kendall College of Art and Design. Former Director of Innovation Lab @OPM Stephanie Wade presented Design Thinking for State Government. She shared how this growing field of human-centered design can increase the impact of programs, collaborations and procedures. With an engaging hands-on activity, Stephanie demonstrated how we could unlock challenging problems and deliver fresh solutions. If you haven’t heard of Design Thinking before, find out more — it was truly eye opening.

Other highlights for me included a briefing session how to present compelling data to shape policy decisions and a workshop on creating military partnerships. NEA Chairman Jane Chu and National Council on the Arts member, Aaron Dworkin delivered an excellent keynote address. Chairman Chu spoke about her Creativity Connects initiative and Dworkin spoke about the importance of public arts in support of a diverse American democracy. The address also included an amazing performance by young piano virtuoso, Naomi Yamaguchi who made her Carnegie Hall debut at the age of seven (see video below).

The assembly presented several excellent performances that really added a level of excitement and deeper appreciation for why the arts are so important. The assembly kicked off with performance by Kinetic Affect, a storytelling duo with wit followed by a moving performance by the Mosaic Youth Theatre of Detroit. The Lansing Unionized Vaudeville Spectacle (LUVS) who performed a gypsy-jazz-meets-Americana musical variety show provided the evening reception.

The keynote performance on Friday was by Kai Kight (see video below). Through his distinctive blend of personal storytelling and music, he invited us to stop playing the notes already written, and create our own. Finally at the endnote, the Wild Swan Theatre, nationally known for its audience accessibility programs, performed an adaptation of Rosie the Riveter (see video below). The piece with original music and all female cast honors the lives of women who filled the jobs left empty by men who were called to serve during WWII.

Together all of these amazing artists may have left the most lasting impression. They, along with the millions of other working and part-time working artists in the US, deserve the very best we can do to help them to continue pursuing their art for the benefit of us all.

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