A Preview of NAMAC’s 2009 Conference
By Yolanda Hippensteele
Over a year ago, when NAMAC chose Boston as the location for its 2009 biennial conference and chose “commonwealth” as its theme, nobody involved knew how important this convening would become.
CommonWealth is a theme that evokes the best intentions of democracy and community, of interconnectedness and common purpose—all good concepts for an alliance of artists, media makers, and cultural workers to explore at any time. But the theme has become more and more àpropos over the past year.
In just the past twelve months, we’ve witnessed, through an epic grassroots campaign, the ascendancy of “a skinny kid with a funny name” toward his spot in history as the first African-American president of the United States. We’ve witnessed the collapse of our country’s financial system and the ensuing moves toward more collectivist economic policies. We’ve also seen great leaps in the democratization of our political and policy-making processes; further leaps in the technological innovation and adoption that have often transformed our work and social lives; pronouncements of the deaths of some forms of media and the births of new ones; a funding crisis with great impact on our organizations; and distinct indicators of demographic and generational shifts.
The times, as they once said, are a-changin’, and on so many levels, with such dizzying speed, and such a complicated mix of opportunity and threat, that it’s hard to stop spinning long enough to make sense of it all.
In an environment of such flux, the impetus to convene is not only strategic, but almost primal. People who have lived in earthquake and tornado zones will recognize the analogy to the convergence of neighbors in the street that occurs after a significant bout of ground-shaking or window-rattling. Instinctively, we are all drawn to leave our individual homes, meet on common ground with our community, and process what just happened: “Did you feel that?” “Is everybody OK?” “Is this a crisis?” “What do we do now?” We need to share our individual experiences, pool our knowledge, collectively diagnose the situation, and develop an action plan. Darwin might tell us that the instinct to convene in times of threat or opportunity is a survival mechanism hard-wired into our reptilian brains; millennia of natural selection have rewarded those who convene and collaborate with fortitude.
This 2009 NAMAC conference is of critical importance as our “coming together” during an extraordinary time. It is our opportunity, as a collective of like-minded organizations experiencing similar shake-ups, to gather on common ground to make sense of all the change swirling around us, and to plan our action steps moving forward.
But let’s not let the analogy of neighbors converging after a natural disaster, with its connotation of catastrophe, prime us with a crisis mindset or lead us into a “woe is me” chorus. While many organizations are experiencing funding shortfalls and challenging transitions—and our convening will certainly help us take stock of those and share strategies for sustainability—our state-of-the-field picture has at least as many bright spots as dark ones.
Increasingly, we are coming to understand that communication and collaborations among organizations are strengthening individual organizations, regional networks, purpose-driven networks, and the field as a whole. This theme of mutual support, shared resources, and network-centric organizing is a hot topic in the nonprofit sector, the arts, and the media industries. This time of economic hardship is a perfect opportunity to explore how innovative collaborations can be implemented to strengthen our organizations and create a field that is greater than the sum of its parts.
On the policy level, we see perhaps the greatest opportunities in a generation to advance progressive regulatory structures and funding initiatives in support of independent media arts. The new administration and Congress are stocked with friendly allies who want to hear from us and help our organizations get the governmental support we need in order to serve our communities well. There are opportunities for increased funding for arts and media projects; subsidies for artists and media makers through national service programs; advancements in internet policy that make broadband open, affordable, and accessible to all; progressive developments in copyright and intellectual property regulation; and more. At the state level, we see exciting programs, including the efforts of our host state of Massachusetts, which has truly embraced the arts as a key component of its economic and workforce development strategy.
Technology, too, continues to present us with exciting opportunities to raise the bar on creative expression, engage our communities in meaningful ways, and innovate our distribution strategies. Media and art are being revolutionized by increased involvement and creative production from “the people formerly known as the audience.” Our content-distribution opportunities have exploded outside the bounds of a few conglomerate-dominated media through social media, virtual reality spaces, and online distribution portals. Our creative community is rapidly adopting these technologies and applying them in mind-bending ways.
These topics are just a few of the key issues to be discussed in Boston this August. The Conference will feature keynotes and panel presentations on a few Big Ideas and developments in the field, as well as best-practice presentations that share innovative strategies among colleagues, and skill-building workshops that provide training in key competencies.
But we know this is a meeting of colleagues and peers, and that most of us don’t want to sit and be talked at all day. So there will be ample opportunity for structured and unstructured “open space” discussions, initiated by any conference participant who has an issues he or she would like to gather a group discussion around. It is critical to our theme of CommonWealth to approach this gathering with the understanding that we are all experts and that as a network, we hold the wealth of information we need.
In addition to meaty discussions about important issues and ideas, we’ll have the opportunity to see the best of Boston, thanks to our gracious local hosts. We’ll party hardy on the beautiful summer evenings of a charming East Coast city. There will be tours (by bus, by foot, and maybe even by boat or bike!) to check out Boston’s most exciting media arts organizations and landmarks.
When we’ve asked NAMAC members what they most want to get out of the Conference, we’ve heard some themes loud and clear. You want to be energized and inspired. You want opportunities to connect with colleagues and meet new ones. You want a big-picture overview of the “state of the field” that helps you understand where we are and where we’re going. You want to learn new information and skills and share ideas about innovative projects. You want to revel in the diversity of our network. You want a sense of community, a sense that your work is connected to something bigger.
You’ll get all of that this August in Boston. And you’ll get to scratch that itch, fulfilling the primal instinct to gather with your people at a time when that’s exactly what you need to do.
YOLANDA HIPPENSTEELE is the 2009 NAMAC Conference producer. Prior to NAMAC, she was outreach director at Free Press, and produced four installments of the National Conference for Media Reform. She can be reached at yolanda@namac.org.
