Somewhere in amongst all the rest of the replies it should be noted that any type of artistic expression can be therapeutic in nature.  The process itself of focusing on the task one has set ones self, whether it be dance, music, performance art, or any other type of media can be beneficial to the individual creating it as well as to the audience.  How do you put a price on that?  I have often said that if the eyes are the windows of the soul, then Art is it's voice.  How do you put a price tag on the visualization of human emotion?  sorry if I'm rambling.

Arts Education   the Value of the Arts    Paying for the Arts    the Impact of the Arts   What leaders can do for the Arts

The discussion always comes back to the money one, and it doesn't have too. (It should be noted I still haven't watched the webisodes)

Arts Education  -  Some form of art should become a requirement in the schools, rather than an elective. That will take some money changing hands within the local schools systems, and that will cause a fight of course. But it's up to us to show up at those meetings and insist on the changes, with solid reasoning to back up our insistence. Will we take the time and energy? It won't cost us any money, outside of the gas budget.

the Value of Arts  -  I don't think this has anything to do with value as in monetary value, but what value in emotion, thought, human and social importance that we put on it.  I show my estimation of value by discussing it all the time. I have my own art in my yard, though my neighbors think I'm crazy. I talk to teenagers whenever I run into one, inviting them to drop by the studios and have a look, try their hand. I taught my own kids, and now my daughter and I are passing it on to my grandson.

Education and Value together - Most art associations charge a membership fee. That leaves a lot of artists out of the mix. Start a no fee art association with all the artist you know. Make the focus about education and spreading the word, rather than about promoting each artist and the association. Get permission to have no fee sidewalk artshows in a local park or a sidewalk show. Make awareness the key, rather than sales. Show enthusiasm, talk about the arts to everyone that comes by. Offer classes to kids who otherwise might have nothing to do with the arts, for they lack opportunity.

Paying for the arts  -  forget it. Don't tie the arts to the government. At a grassroots level, art awareness and participation can cost very little. Think about it.

What leaders can do - We are the leaders. Don't count on anyone else, make things happen yourself. I'm working on that now, in my own small way, here where I live.

Just my thoughts on the subjects.

I appreciate your thoughtfullness, and am totally with you about not waiting for others to make it. I've noticed that the things I get payment for, I'm able to focus myself on it more. I'm not running around doing it. I'm taking the time, trying to do it right...

One of the ideas I took from one of the interviews was that arts can be either a central part of public life, or it can be seen as an 'amenity'. In many cultures new art (not old art) is part of the whole public life. It's like how in some countries they have two hour lunches, or five hour dinners. We have a weak place for art in our public life, and a strong place for work/money generation.

How we think about these things matters. How do we value art? What makes us 'professional'? what makes it 'art'? For my money (so to speak) I think that art is part of pubilc discourse. I see governments and communities and countries evolving over time, and I think that art has a place in the public discourse. That place needs to be respected. And right now, in this country, that place needs to be defended. We've become overly utiliatarian, perhaps. My two cents... : )

We have posted webisodes 3 and 4 and want to get your feedback. *Particularly about Webisode 4 where our very own Senior Vice President of Marketing participated in a Q & A with blogger Rob Bettmann.

Take a look:

Webisode 3

*Webisode 4

Also, we want to hear from you about the future of this series. We are planning a monthly update blog where we ask even more people to write and answer Q&As. Who do you want to hear from and what are the most important topics to you in arts policy and funding?

putting a price on artworks and judging them based on how much the market will bear is sooo wrong.....look back and see Vincent's marketability....in his lifetime he sold 1 painting, and now his stuff sells for more than millions, and proved to be more stable as investment than real estate, gold, stock or other commodities....why? because the emotions they stir are priceless....

Ovation had a very good biography on I.M Pei, it just blew me away. Can not think of a more influencial artist, architect, engineer that changed the world. And I met him.

Please do not get the idea that I'm attacking or anything like that. That's the farthest thing from my mind. I will say the arts are indeed made up of individual artists.

But on this topic, this particular discussion, I believe the goal was what could be done to promote the arts as a whole. What can we do to make all the arts (and thus the artists that create them) as important to our society as, say, football, or American Idol.

There is information out there, masses of it, that tell an artist how to promote him/herself. Some of it works, some of it doesn't. And it's up to the individual artist to try them, and get themselves out there.

But promoting the arts in general is not something you see talked about much, unless it's some sort of scandal or protest. And having the arts in the news only for that reason is hugely unfair to artists all over the world.

So, for this topic, I was hoping to get more about promoting the arts to the general public, and getting them involved. You already do that, and I'm working on it in my own way. And I believe it will take a lot of artists who are willing to put aside themselves on occasion, and coming together with others to strengthen one of the weakest areas of our society.

Cheryl, my apologies for taking so very long to reply to this thread... Your question is one that I struggle with. How can we promote the arts? The arts are a multiplicity -- they are so many things. So diverse. How can we promote something so diverse? Marketing requires focus, and the arts are so broad that without focus on what within "art" you are marketing, you'll end up marketing nothing but yourself.

The arts and humanities contribute indirectly to my ability to have food and shelter, but directly to the pursuit of civilization that keeps material interests from dominating our individual lives. When I market the arts, I want to share the celebration of values integral to my personal understanding of civilation. Some art upholds, or represents, or embodies, values that I think are important, and other art does not. As a whole, technique, beauty, composition, intelligence, research, color, and expression are present within art that I care about. Step one of marketing the arts is identifying what is worth marketing, in some ways worth saving, and articulating that in affecting ways.

Arts education is a critical component of arts marketing. In some ways, it makes no difference to you as an adult if you read chaucer, or milton, or hemingway as a child. But it makes all the difference in the world to have adults insist that the values and precision in those works are valuable. To have your attention pulled from your natural childish interests toward works of adult value. We teach children not only to read, but what is valuable. When we market the arts to adults, it's the same thing. We are sharing what is valuable by declaring its worth. It's appropriate to be really thoughtful about exactly what it is that's important to market. We don't want to be exclusionary, but if I try to market all arts I am working against the values I think are really worth preserving and passing down. Marketing the arts field requires as much judgment as curation.

If one works for a particular business, or is trying to build a business, its excusable to be less idealistic and more reactionary. But if you are actually designing tools for the field, or even just your own community, you have to think about what within your community is really of value, and then design your marketing program to drive understanding and support for those things.