Art-Train is a virtual technical assistance program that is free for artists everywhere and low cost for municipal agencies, community non-profits, and arts councils. It translates American Rescue Plan Local Fiscal Recovery Fund guidelines and shares arts-based approaches to build locally-rooted collaborations that address critical recovery and rebuilding needs including workforce development, economic growth, public health, housing, infrastructure, and civic engagement. During this session, participants will learn how to navigate and advocate for ARP flexible funding as a means to rebuild equity-centered civic and economic vitality and gain skills to frame and translate their recovery goals into formats that will be supported by multiple funding sources. -Michael Rohd, Artist for Civic Imagination, Center for Performance and Civic Practice, Phoenix, AZ -Jun-Li Wang, Associate Director, Programs, Springboard for the Arts, St. Paul, MN (virtual)

1. Welcome!
Art-Train at NADO October 17, 2021

2. This moment we are in…
Art-Train facilitators:
Jun-Li Wang, Springboard for the Arts
Michael Rohd, Center for Performance and Civic Practice

3. Who’s here today
and why?

4. Placeholder for Maria video

5. Dr. Maria Rosario Jackson
The current Nominee
for Chairperson, National Endowment for the Arts
in Senate Confirmation hearings this week

6. Art-Train Values

7. With the right approach,
the same tools and capacities artists use to make art
can be utilized to transform systems and
improve the impacts of government and
community-driven efforts and programs.

8. If you are working for change,
the people you hope will benefit from that change
must be the authors of the vision for change.
And,
they must be co-designers and co-leaders of
any strategies to accomplish that change.

9. Cross-sector, equity-centered,
locally-rooted and culture-based collaborations
are crucial contributors to just recovery efforts and
systemic, anti-racist approaches
to re-imagining how we live in communities
that work for everyone.

10. Today’s Training Goals
● Why and how to engage local artists in equitable
recovery & rebuilding.
● How to influence your local deciders’ use of
recovery dollars.

11. Agenda
● Artist Contributions
● Funding Access
● Program Models
● Equitable collaboration
● Action plan
● Q&A
● What's next with Art-Train

12. How do we define artist?
Why is local important?

13. Goal:
Why and how to engage local artists in
equitable recovery & rebuilding.

14. Why work with local artists?

15. Primary Impacts
● Change/enhance community narrative & identity
● Build social capital & diversify cross-sector networks
● Increase community health & economic vitality

16. Jun-Li example

17. Jun-Li example

18. Jun-Li example

19. Jun-Li example

20. Jun-Li example

21. Outcome/Output
&
Process/Product

22. Conversation

23. Goals:
Understand and advocate for local artists’ role in
community and economic development
By: understanding & influencing use of local
ARP recovery resources

24. ARP FUNDING FACTS
● American Rescue Plan - Block Grants. $350 Billion.
● Focus is equitable COVID recovery.
● Spread across localities everywhere.
● No universal application/proposal process.
● Local government will decide.
● Half the money is there, half will come in 2022.
● Paying local artists to work towards recovery outcomes is allowable.

25. ELIGIBLE USES
● Address negative economic impacts. Artists can be employed to draw
customers to small businesses, engage community in planning
conversations, activate public space, create gatherings.
● Serve the hardest hit communities and families. Artists can connect
communities to resources and information, promote healthy environments,
build support for local economies, engage community in decision-making
around disparities.
● Support public health expenditures. Artists can communicate health
information, rebuild social cohesion, co-create visions of community health.
● Replace lost public sector revenue (gaps in gov’t budget)
● Provide premium pay for essential workers
● Invest in water, sewer and broadband infrastructure

26. If you want to influence local ARP use:
● Research your local situation for the funds
● Who is deciding? What is the process?
● Is there any community engagement?
● Do you know a decider/staff of a decider? Someone who knows a
decider (individual, organization, etc.)?
● With partners/allies, map your way to someone who has influence
on/access to decision-makers.
● Educate them about possible ARP uses and how results can be
achieved by working with local artists.

27. If you don’t have interest/capacity for
advocacy work-
● Find potential partners outside the arts, learn about their recovery
AND community work
● Explore whether your creative practice can support their goals in
your community.
● If it can, work together to find recovery and other resources for
collaboration.

28. ART-TRAIN ARP BRIEF

29. Goal:
Why and how to engage local artists in
equitable recovery & rebuilding.

31. 3 Program Models
Customizable models to engage local artists

32. PROGRAM DESIGN PRINCIPLES for all models
● Work with local artists, broadly defined
● Work from existing assets, share resources
● Engage people not often at the table
● Collaborate across sectors
● Give people a common cause
● Build relationships
● Provide simple mechanisms
● Small and many
● Support and pay artists

34. Model 1: Open Call

35. Model 2: Cohort

36. Model 3: Artist Organizer

38. Goal:
Why and how to engage local artists in
equitable recovery & rebuilding.

39. Partnership, collaboration,
and equity -
How agencies work with artists.
How teams work together.
How projects engage residents.

40. The difference between
collaboration and
partnership

41. Collaboration = action taken
together in shared work
Partnership = relationship

42. Questions as practice

43. QUESTION SET 1: COLLABORATION
(to bring into conversation with/amidst collaborators at top of process):
1) What does a great collaboration look and feel like to you?
2) What are some challenges you have experienced in collaborations?
3) What do you need from a collaborator to be the best collaborator you can
be?
4) What do you bring to collaborations that help make the process joyful and
productive?

44. QUESTION SET 2: PARTNERSHIP
(to bring into conversation with/amidst collaborators at top of process):
1) What conversations might we have, and what commitments could we put
in place, to ensure that we have an equitable partnership?
2) What questions might we ask each other about our values, our practices
and our organizational culture(s)?
3) How might we make decisions together?
4) How might we think together about the impact we want to make through
this partnership that we could not/would not achieve on our own?

45. QUESTION SET 3: EQUITY
(to bring into conversation throughout a collaborative process)
1) Who gets to define what success means for this project?
2) How will we engage residents?
3) Who do we need to listen to, outside of us, for this work to be equitable
and successful?
4) What steps can we take so those we hope to impact are co-designing
project goals and approaches from the beginning of our process?

46. Conversation:
Who defines success
for your programming?

47. Conversation
What is one thing you could do differently that
would help you serve all of your residents more
equitably?

48. In Conclusion-
Block Grants, Opportunity,
Relationships & Equitable Practices

49. What’s next with Art-Train

50. Q and A time

51. Stay in touch!
jun-li@springboardforthearts.org
michael.rohd@gmail.com