The Americans for the Arts Half Century Summit, aka: Bubbles in Baltimore

Candy and Natty Bohs at the Opening Reception of the AftA Half Century Summit.

There’s a 1920s-style, white tuxedoed, big band playing in a room full of art and candy. I’m with my good friend Andrea Sachdeva from the Cloud Foundation drinking too strong/too sweet watermelon flavored cocktails when a woman in sparkles named Zsa Zsa, or Lu Lu, or Tootsie bounces up to me and asks if I would mind coming on stage with her to blow bubbles while she sings her next song.  Sounds like a trippy dream or snippet from a John Waters film, but it’s not—it’s the Opening Reception of the Americans for the Arts Half Century Summit at the American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore, MD.

Somehow women like Zsa Zsa, or Lu Lu, or Tootsie always find me in a crowd.  So when Zsa Zsa, or Lu Lu, or Tootsie pulled my hand from my pink drink, flapped her inhumanly long eye lashes and asked me to join her on stage, I wasn’t entirely surprised.  Baffled, but not surprised.

“Sure,” I replied.

“Great!” she exclaimed with an unexpected squeak followed by a series of giggles.  “But I need two men, one on each side,” she said with a sort of pout. “Do you have a friend?”

“Hold on a minute,” I said.  “I know just the guy.”

Edward Clapp and Dewey Schott blowing bubbles on stage with their new friend at the Opening Reception for the AftA Half Century Summit.

In two minutes I was back with NAMAC’s Dewey Schott—the editor of the recent publication A Closer Look 2010: Leading Creatively. When I grabbed him from across the room, Dewey was drinking a Natty Boh wearing a short sleeve shirt that showed off his tattoos.  I first met Dewey a few months back in San Francisco and have been a fan of him and his work ever since.  I knew right away—if anyone would be up to the task of blowing bubbles for Zsa Zsa, or Lu Lu, or Tootsie, Dewey would be the guy.  And so, for the next five minutes Zsa Zsa, or Lu Lu, or Tootsie gave us the run down on how best to support her during her performance (basically, as long as we didn’t blow bubbles directly into her face, anything else we wanted to do to enliven the performance was fair game). The bandmaster waved his baton, a smarmy rendition of “I Want to Be Loved By You” started to play—and we were on!

And so began the Americans for the Arts Half Century Summit…

It’s events like the AftA conference that remind me just how many committed people there are to the arts in the US, how diverse our sector is—and how important it is for everybody in the field to get together now and then and have a party.  In just the first night alone I spent hours mingling with folks from all over the country, young people and more veteran arts leaders alike.  The AftA conference was like an arts Woodstock for me—everybody seemed to be there.

But the morning after the Opening Reception it was down to business.  The AftA Half Century Summit was officially underway.  The theme of the entire event was “Building a Vibrant Future for the Arts in America.”  Everything about the conference was forward thinking—especially the population of young people in attendance.  In the hallways in between sessions, or at the several social events in the evenings I high-fived arts leaders such as Ebony McKinney from the San Francisco Bay Area Emerging Arts Professionals, Marc Vogl from the Hewlett Foundation (who later received the AftA Emerging Leader Award), 20UNDER40 author Ian David Moss from Fractured Atlas, and my old friend Ebonie Pittman from the Wallace Foundation.

The Future of Leadership Panel. From left to right: Russell Willis Taylor, Edward P. Clapp, Phoebe Eng, Leslie Ito, and Andrew Taylor. Photo by Mara Walker.

I was brought down to Baltimore to moderate the “Visionary Panel” entitled “The Future of Leadership.” My co-panelists included Phoebe Eng, the founder and Creative Director of Creative Counsel; Leslie Ito, the Program Officer of the Arts for the California Community Foundation; Andrew Taylor, the Director of the Bolz Center for Arts Administration at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and; Russell Willis Taylor, the President and CEO of National Arts Strategies.

Russell was first to arrive and immediately engaged me in conversation about her recent interest in the television series Glee.  As Andrew walked in, she came up with a plan to suggest to Andrew that we had all agreed to begin the panel by singing a 1980s power ballad.  After Andrew said his hellos Russell presented the idea and the rest of us all nodded in agreement.  Andrew seemed cool with it, and for a moment, I considered this as a way to actually kick off the discussion.  The tone was set for our session—never mind moderate, I did all I could just to keep up with the wit of my co-panelists!

That being said, our conversation got down to business as soon as it started.  A big point of discussion, largely brought up by Phoebe Eng, was the idea of flattening hierarchies of arts organizations for greater impact.  Other topics of discussion included the plurality of talents and professional interests of younger arts leaders, the idea of developing arts organizations with attainable mission statements, and the little discussed topic of working with board members to instill institutional change.

I noticed lots of faces in the crowd of about 100, but there was one woman out there whom I recognized, but I wasn’t sure who she was or where I had met her.  Somewhere towards the middle of the session it occurred to me that the woman I was looking at was none other than arts consultant and emerging arts leader advocate Victoria Plettner Saunders.

Though we had spoke on the phone once before, I had never met Victoria in person.  For years, however, I had an intellectual arts researcher crush on Victoria and her work.  Her hallmark articles such as Boomers, XYs, and the Making of a Generational Shifts in Arts Management had long served as beacons of scholarly hope bobbing in a sea devoid of literature on generational change in the arts.

After the Future of Leadership session, my co-panelists and I had our final group hug and said our adieus and then I went over to speak to Victoria.  We spent the rest of the afternoon together, seeing Dewey Schott and Marc Vogl present their work in a session on “Leadership and Influence” that was moderated by AftA’s Stephanie Evans.  Throughout the session Victoria and I shared notes and whispered commentary to one another.  Afterwards, she suggested that I connect with her and the Emerging Leaders group in San Diego during my trip to the area in August.  It was very cool to connect with one of the researchers I had long looked up to in the field—not to mention be invited to meet up with her in California!

Statuary at One-Eyed Mike's in Baltimore, MD.

Following the daytime events at the AftA summit, the Emerging Leaders Council held a cocktail reception at nearby Maryland Art Place.  Again, I got to hang with Andrea Sachdeva, Marc Vogl, Ebony McKinney, and the ever-present Ian David Moss.  After the reception, Andrea and I headed over to One-Eyed Mike’s for a 20UNDER40 happy hour.  One-Eyed Mike’s is a pirate themed bar on a little cobblestone street that oddly has an affiliation with Grand Marnier—tons of Grand Marnier bottles were all over the place.  Regulars even had their own personal bottles of the stuff kept tucked away on official looking shelves.  I tried a shot neat—not bad, but I suggest that when in Rome—stick to the crab cakes.

Andrea and I were soon joined by the Wallace Foundation’s Ebonie Pittman.  A young arts leader and a dancer who has some of the same arts admin battle scars as I, Ebonie told me she just got her first article published.  I was psyched!

After the AftA night came to a close, I was in a cab and headed back to the airport the next day.  Baltimore is a wacky little town with a lot going on.  AftA couldn’t have picked a better spot for its fiftieth anniversary.  I’m glad to have met up with so many people during my brief stay, and I’m grateful to Stephanie Evans and Mara Walker for bringing me down there. Oh—and Zsa Zsa or whatever your name is… thanks for the bubbles!