Durham Cultural Roadmap Overview 8.17.26

Good evening. >> Good evening. Hello. I am Margaret Nab. I am chair of the Durham Cultural Advisory Board. On behalf of the board and the city and county, I want to welcome you all and thank you. You can't do I I need to shout in a little bit more. Is this better? Can you hear me out back? >> Okay. Yes. Okay. Great. Thank you. Okay. I'm Margaret McNav. I'm chair of the Durham Cultural Advisory Board. On behalf of the board, the city, and the county, I want to thank you all for showing up today for Durham's creative future. Thousands of us um have been involved in creating this uh in have been involved in the city and county uh planning process. This is the people's plan for Durham. U it reflects our collective vision uh for the arts and culture and calls for a more coordinated um investment in Durham's creative economy. And the person I'm here to introduce, the person who has facilitated this process for us, Margie Reese. Uh where is she? >> Right there. >> Okay, there she is. She's still here. She's still with us. Great. Um we are so fortunate to have had her um uh expertise and her experience and leadership in this process and facilitating this vision. Um she is a veteran arts uh administrator who's led agencies in Dallas, Los Angeles, and Witchaw Falls. Uh she served as a program officer for the Ford Foundation in West Africa. and she has been a national leader in advancing equity and developing arts leaders. So, thank you very much for joining us. I'll turn over the um mic to you and thank you again for your experience and for all the time and um and effort that you put into our community. >> Is it me now? >> It's you now. Okay. Okay, y'all. >> Thanks. >> Hey, everybody. >> So, um, much of what I'm going to review, you probably >> Oh, it would be good if I hold the microphone. There's, you know, there's some things one never learns, I guess. um most of what you're going to be reviewing with me tonight has been available online and you know etc. And so I hope that this turns into more of a Q&A and a dialogue. So whatever thoughts or questions apprehensions you know have ar you know come to your head I do encourage us to talk. So I'm going to review quickly and then uh ask you guys to just start uh let's just have a conversation. So we um first of all I want to call your attention to one of the things that gets left to the last minute and those are that is the logos across the bottom. the city and county commissioned this work, but also um secured additional support and funding from several local foundations. And I think that's really important for us to always acknowledge that we need the private sector to do this kind of work. Um, I think I'm I'm naming this chapter in the process the implementation chapter so we can talk more about the how to. We've been talking for two years about the what. What do we need? What do we want? What are we missing? What do we have an abundance of? And um we also learned during this process that it's very important that we think about this collaboratively arts and culture. Um the big deal here is that Durham and Durham County, Durham City has such rich um cultural history. And I think that sometimes you guys because you live here, live with that history and that richness, sometimes forget how how other cities envy you because of your history and your commitment to staying true to that history. Um there are other things that we can do, you know, to get stronger and better and disseminate that um pride more, but I think that's part of what your strength is is that is your shared history. Um and so we're also thinking today about how do we move all the conversations to a system. Thank you. Um, so that rather than our continuing to work in silos, my art practice, my organization, my community, um, I am encouraging you all to think about building a cultural system for Durham so that you can build institutions, cultural institutions. So project by project may not be sustainable but we want to move toward getting to the place where we can say our symphony our dance companies our artists co-ops etc are decades old rather than being project by project by project. So let's see if I can make some sense out of all this text. So a slide deck with all these you know words is way too much. is way too much. So, forgive me. But today, I want to review a little bit um the community input that's been really strong. It's a mission of our team. Uh we want to talk about timeline for implementation. None of these things have a timed or dead end or time specific on them, but we also want to remind ourselves that this work is going to be a process that happens over time. We'll talk a little bit about the budget and investment strategy that we'll be asking elected officials and continuing to work with the private sector to support and then we'll just talk about the decision points. What what kind of commitments are we asking the community elected officials to make? And so this when I first um applied for and got this assignment and the name of the the work was named a road map, I thought, huh, what are the access points? What are the exit points? What are the intersections? Where are the big red stop lights? Don't do this. Where are the caution? Because I was thinking through all of that and and none of that has been um excluded from the conversation. But what is included uh is really focusing on the on-ramps, the continuation and the growth. So why does this matter for Durham? Now it continues to grow. There's no news, but uh cultural spaces, the places where artists create that are sacred spaces for that work to happen, those spaces are not growing. they're not as available um to artists as as as as might be needed. And then this is a city county plan. How much more complex can you get? >> Putting those two mega tax entities together and saying, "Okay y'all, let's work to let's play. You got there's only one sandbox and we have to create artwork together in this space." And so the sum of summary of that is um without coordination, without really systemic dialogue, focus, intentional work, we are not going to be as strong as we could be. And with that coordination, we can perhaps stabilize the growth of RC culture in in a very uh robust way. I have to stay with these notes because my my mind goes off to examples. So these are the numbers. This is how we worked, how many opportunities we had to talk to um residents, how many times we came to Durham. And I learned um today that maybe there was a possibility that another firm might have come a couple of times and written a plan for you. But I now know where to get good barbecue, where to get a good shrimp salad, where to get, you know, um and then we were um supported in our work by an engagement team. Stein and Monae here uh were our uh boots on the ground that would not uh let us forget the creatives, right? and and refused to leave behind the idea that art making is reserved for a certain kind of group of people. We believe it. We believe it. These are just some data points because I have been contracted by the city and county and they want to know how many, how much, how long, you know, how deep. And so just to give you an idea that none of these ideas that have come to be presented to you today were done in a vacuum. So our job is to translate what we hear from a variety of people and communities etc and put that into hopefully policy language so that what you're doing and thinking about has um a beginning, a middle and never stops. Uh this piece uh that you have in front of you actually was one of our notetaking sessions at Hay Thai, right? That was just um a very rich conversation. These are the high points. Durham has a strong and active cultural life that is that exists. And this morning I was talking to the public art committee and they were acknowledging that um some elected officials think well the artists just keep making it work and they keep leaving. They keep moving. They keep getting exhausted. Um there is a high level of participation in the arts by certain demographics in certain you know different things. And so we want to make sure that we're thinking about every possible um uh profile of person, child, artist, etc. There's a strong creative workforce here. People just keep making things. Artists keep having ideas in this community. We want to see how we can um continue that systems like I'm a systems person. Like I eat bureaucracy for breakfast. Um because bureaucracy lays down the here's where we're going, this is how much, how many. And as a as a resident and a voter, you have a voice in adjusting the way things are carried out. um but the system city, county, private sector um aren't are not following the same path. So hopefully this plan and how it gets um implemented over time will help coordinate all those efforts and we don't have in the Durham uh environment infrastructure, right? So yes, artists keep making it happen, but is that a penalty? I mean, is that something we're going to penalize the sector for, or is it something we're going to get in lock step with? Um, these are some data slides. I think all of these are in the in the report. This one, for example, talks, you know, shows you some really good definitive numbers. um who's coming, who's attending, how many people, what are they spending their money on, everything from buying a cocktail um at a performance to um sending their clothes to the dry cleaner. So all of these numbers are in this report. And so if the city county is investing um a dollar, it's probably the return on that investment is probably nine times. So, if you think about everything from parking your car when you go to a performance um to hiring a babysitter, you every single thing that's involved with participating in the arts is a part of that factor. And this data is from the 204 I think Americans for the Arts Arts and Economic Prosperity Survey which this community u participated in. So this is not my research but it's national research. Here are a couple of gaps that we learned and and you know this I just wanted to tell you I'm trying to synthesize this 9900 page document so that you can you know circle things that you want to come back and talk about the funding system uh right now is fragmented. Um you get it. So where where we want to see some consistency in public funding as well as private sector funding, you want deadlines to be in sync so you're not rushing to submit a grant application, spending the money ahead of time and then waiting until a year to get it to get reimbured for that. Arts groups can't handle that. Um you need investment and not one-time grants. Are you with me on this one? So, how can we um grow when we just get watered every six weeks, right? And how do we grow if we're not able to hire the kind of professional staff that will seed, nurture, till the soil, all those uh things. Projectbased investment is important. If somebody says, "I need to secure funding to pay for a professional marketing person for a year as opposed to for one project." You need that kind of ability to to dig deep. Um there is very limited um or no long-term support. So I get a grant for a year, I write my evaluation, then I have to gear up and do it again. whereas perhaps organizations would benefit from a three-year grant with benchmarks along the along that that timeline. Um we you know those of us in this room um understand that I cannot talk about diversity, equity, and inclusion anymore. So I have to talk about equitable funding delivery systems. But don't tell anybody uh that that's what we're talking about. In this case, we're saying across neighborhoods. Let's stop talking about everything as as though as though it is racebased. People live where they choose to live and their neighbors are who they choose to have as their neighbors. So we also want to talk about how do we deepen participation across neighborhood lines, historic neighborhoods, newly developing neighborhoods, etc. Um and then we want to talk about leadership development. There are some of us who are more inclined to be on the arts producing side and then there are some of us who would serve a broader number of people if they were part of the implementation team. How do we make these things happen? And so if that's a goal then how does this plan support leadership in the field of the arts? because you know um arts management is a real thing you it's a career I've been doing it for a few years 4 something um so those um correlate with the four pillars of the plan balance the distribution plan this cultivate leaders etc and then we'll talk about the 10 recommendations of the plan and then the key recommendation that I take full accountability for saying this is a nonnegotiable in my mind. Now, Durham, you do whatever you choose to do with my recommendations, but in order for us to grow, we've got to have a seed that guarantees a seat at the table all the time. This morning I referred to this potential leader of this effort as an arts zar. It's someone who shows up everywhere that that understands the where the vote needs to go that speaks on behalf of the constituents but understands that um there is this thing I should try to I won't I should try to say this um as simply as I can. In 1965, right, Ivonne, there was an act of Congress that created the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities. They're on shaky legs right now just because of, you know, current leadership, etc. But the first line of that document says, "All the arts belong to all the people of the United States." It's aspirational, but it took an act of Congress to get that written down. And what else was happening in the 60s? We're rethinking um education. We were rethinking housing. We're rethinking so many things. And and this act um is something that we're still trying to implement fully. And we probably will spend the next I don't know 50 years trying to to do that. But none of this to my what I'm trying to say to you is is is new thinking. It's just calling attention to it right now so that we understand the why. I've included in the report um answers to some questions about we want to be like we want to be like this city. We want to be like Birmingham. We want to be like New Orleans. We want to be like and I saying to the gentleman in the back who's shaking his head, absolutely not. You want to be like you are unique um steeped in history and culture um gainfully employing artists and challenging artists to keep doing their work. But I just wanted to show you here there are several agencies that we did some um scanning against. You guys are projectbased um in Asheville. They have integrated cultural development into the economy and growth of their city, not just as a one-time parade. You know, now in in New Orleans, they're full of parades, right? And so the arts and cultural aspect of their work is embedded into the office of the mayor, right? which has some challenges, but it gives the public a chance to see the arts at the top of the list of how how that city will invest. It's embedded into economic development and culture. So, every city has a different structure, a different format. So, I want us to get accustomed to feeling like we don't have to be like any other city. um when I talked to you guys in different groups and I said, you know, what's what do you see your marketing? You know, how do you want people to leave the city? And you all said, well, I don't know. We're kind of and then the phrase that stuck was gritty. We do things with the seat of our pants. We embed all of our energy into those things. And so, don't give up your power by trying to be like um someone else because in truth, you're you're unique. Um, here's a the Raleigh. I heard a lot about we want to be like Raleigh. And here's how they're organized. They only have up to 10 full-time staff people. Um, they they're embedded into an arts commission um that is managed on the ground by an office of the Raleigh Arts um arts commission. They provide about 35 major grants to nonprofits. So, they're not giving away tons of tons and tons of money. What what what is happening under their um key programs and their scope of programs is that they are providing ongoing technical and management assistance to artists and arts organizations convening people. We heard this at the elementary school town hall meeting. Artists said, "We just want to get together. Can the city keep bringing us together so we can keep meeting each other and talking to each other and thinking about collaborations? So again, there are over 500 local arts councils in the United States in the 50 states in the five US territories and they're all different. Can you imagine a local arts agency in the US Virgin Islands versus in the state of Alaska? So for every community there is a profile that fits that community. And I think that over time um you have the ability to nail that structure for Durham, but you have to be fearlessly headed in that direction. Um, right now the city is investing dollars in uh staff permanent part-time contract as well as the county. None of what we're talking about says this is enough or let's eliminate these and start over because you have a great deal of institutional knowledge already in those positions and within those organizations that should be considered a platform, not the plateau. This is where we begin. This is not where we're going to erase and try to start over. And I'm sure you know the city and county staff that are in this room. Just sort of wave your hand or stand up or say Kumbai Harrison. Um and so this is the pecking order, right? Starting with the city council. This is part of your homework for the advocacy work that you will need to do because city and county staff cannot do that. They they can take your case and represent the needs and the growth, but they cannot go to a city council me person and advocate for them to vote a certain way. You know, that's a conflict. So, look at all the the voices that are involved in making decisions about. So, you know, there's a lot of people to influence. Um, and you're going to have to do that. You will no longer be able to wait until budget time to go to a council meeting and say, "In my neighborhood, we need the children in my neighborhood school need." You're going to have to commit to doing that kind of work um every month or how often. Here's the county structure. These are my people, y'all. These are these are folks that look at policy and the law and budget and try to weigh out what's in the best interest of our citizenry. Um, summary, summary, summary. Um, and I'm going to pause in just a minute and let you tell me from what you've seen, read, heard, and are curious about what we want to talk about tonight. We're just saying for starters, um, year one, whatever year one ends up being, we think it's 27, it could be 28, but in year one, the the plan will be adopted. We will set some ground rules for how it will um get rolled out. Whatever is the current level of funding should grow. It's that's not a that's not an end point, but it should grow. And at least consider um how you um work with the Durham Cultural Advisory Board to think about an advocacy game plan. You got the rest of 2027, too. Then think about what programs get started first. What staff positions are needed? What are the partnerships that are needed? What are those engagement opportunities for you to meet your peers across the country? Where they where are their conferences for visual artists and conferences for teaching artists? How can you convene uh a set of peers to do that convening in Durham? How do you begin to invite all the public art professionals in the region? You know, all of that work helps to build your credibility with elected officials because when you invite 50 people to spend two nights in Durham, they got to sleep somewhere. They got to eat somewhere. They're not all coming to Brenda's house. They got to, you know, sleep in hotels and eat in restaurants. So, um, think internally. And so for the full year 2, which could be the 27, 28 year, however the fiscal years line up, I I ain't shamed to say you need to ask for $1.5 million. Go big or whatever or lose, I don't know. Um, now I can also tell you it's an uphill battle to get that kind of funding commitment you want. But there's one way that you surely won't get it. >> You don't ask for it. You don't make a case for it. You don't rally the troops. And even if you do all of that work, you may get a much much smaller allocation. But that's not the end game. That's the beginning. By the time you get to years, the full year of 2029 or the full third year, um, you should be adding. So, if year one, you get a 100,000, you should be have a goal as a community for adding to that number, never going back. So, the current staff, the current grant programs that are on the table, that's also the ground floor. And we would be encouraging you all to ask for more um more participation uh more ways to serve neighbors, more ways to serve the education system, more ways for artists to earn money and stay in this city. Um and then we'll continue with this work over the next four to 10 years. This is supposed to be a 10-year plan. Now that I'm on the other side of it, I would have never offered a 10-year planning process because things change so quickly in the creative sector, right? So, this is our plan. This is what we were asked to do. But this doesn't mean that it's it's simply just the road map, right? But you're going to have to continue to participate. So if I never come back um the work has to continue and the people in this room are going to be a major part of that. So let's go back to um the recommendation for year one maintain uh work with the cultural advisory board to prepare for a roll out of the the road map. A couple of times just in today and most most recent conversations, I was asked, "Well, where is the media? Where where's the big party? Where's the celebration? Where are the balloons? Where the the the chorus of artists?" I don't know the answer to that, but that doesn't mean it always has to be this way. So, bring one, add another, talk to your boards, your patrons, you know, all of that language is going to have to come from you. Again, it's not the city staff's role. It is the role of the public. Um, there might be some uh implementation strategies included in the plan that again are just some examples of how do we do all of this? You might, the city county might consider hiring a contractor just to get this work up on its feet or to assign an existing staff position. Um and then to design and implement a public information campaign. We we um know that elected officials don't want to add a tax to something. They don't want to impose, you know, but sometimes we need to help them get to those to those points. And then what what are the kind of master's level thinking that you know you're going to need to have? If I say that um we're asking uh the city and county staff to develop grant guidelines, well, you know, that's going to call for some expertise, systems of accountability, uh how to work with organizations with different management structures. So, you you would be shy to require every grantee to comply without a set of criteria for delivering that service. And you would also be remiss if you ask every size organization to to provide an evaluation of their work with the through the same lens through the same criteria. If I'm an individual artist or if I'm an organization that gets a lot of um unearned income, I need a different way to evaluate and talk about what I've done with the city's money. Um so again these are big chunks uh an office of arts and culture program funding many many many a different grant programs to test the efficacy of them and then to launch again this is not instead of this is in addition to uh some proposed staffing structure dialogue is also included in the plan, you need investment grants. And we we talked about this once before that a grant is different from a contract, right? A contract has a very specific set of deliverables on behalf of the public and a grant is an award. So, we want we want to be able to have those conversations consistently. Am I getting a grant or am I applying for the delivery of a service? We talked a lot about neighborhoods. We talked in the plan about an umbrella arts learning system that's countywide. The county manages school systems here. So, let's go after that level of investment in arts learning. Where's Josh? This is this is Josh's contribution to the plan. You got to have a system that is systematically providing arts learning for kids across the board, not just for kids who make it into the arts high school or kids whose parents can afford um to pay for private lessons because you know when they're well I'm not there. Um, we've got to talk about building a workforce intentionally. Stage hands, tech theater people, um, designers, so people people who are making the art visible and presenting it in a high quality way, including festival producers. Um, one of my first meetings was with a a group of festival producers who listed a a very long and impressive list of needs. So, you want me to do some sort of show and tell for the visiting public, you got to invest in the infrastructure that makes that happen. So, yes, artists can dance on cement, you know, parking lots, they can do that. But what's the risk factor? How how disrespectful is that? Um so um looking at adapting spaces that are city-owned and county owned spaces that are um we used to have a what is it called? There used to be a national program that said it was eliminating blight and something and something. I don't know if that kind of money still exists, but if there are places in your community that you know having a fresh coat of paint uh will cost um a new um you know respect for that building. Then hire artists to do some of that some of that kind of work. Partnerships, leadership and innovation is huge. When we interviewed the private sector, private companies, uh, businesses who who move and their employees and their families move here, they said, "Yes, we do want to participate. Yes, we want to support the arts, but nobody's asking us to do that in an organized way. If if we get 25 requests to fund the the arts banquet, we don't know what to do with those. We don't have the time or the interest. But if you guys if the arts community came together and said, "We're going to be offering um professional development services. We're gonna build incubator systems in different parts of that's some one thing that that um funer the group of funders can can uh get around. These are just again for your review in the document the kind of components that equals the kind of expertise you need. I've said this over the last 24 hours. Um when when there is a major civic need, you hire a high level expert public safety. You know, you don't hire the you you you hire people in line with the work that you expect for them to do on behalf of the public. So there's nothing wrong with anyone's career. We're just suggesting that um in order to get the best advice and build these structures that you need, you're going to have to pay for those services. So when you are recruiting a new police chief, um you don't call me to do that job. You call someone who has that level of expertise. And so these are just give you giving you some uh profiles of expertise that you need to have. I've also heard over the course of the day today, why is an office of arts and culture your priority or the first thing we want to think about? Um, and here's some here's some reasons right here. Neighborhood access grants, what does that mean? How do that get how does that get implemented? What are the accountability systems that are built into that? who gathers the neighborhood leaders together to talk with them about a structured program for bringing more arts into their neighborhood identity. Individual artists, many states, and I don't know about North Carolina, but many states and juris jurisdictions are not by um law able to provide funding to an individual artist. they have to have that structure of a board of trustees, a plant program, you know, uh the ability to match a dollar for dollar. Um, so you have to have the kind of expertise that looks through the system and and understands not how to work around, but how to design an accountability system that meets the needs of the public, but then also provides access for that individual artist to earn a living or at least to earn money. cultural organization support is different from supporting an individual artist, right? So all of those things are tactics that um you want to go into this process not experimenting with. You want to have the ideas from you know across the country or other programs in the in the region and then public program contracts. So, by the same token, um, what does it take for a neighborhood to take ownership of producing an arts activity, whether it is a festival or whether it's a an exhibition or a showcase of work. And then, um, we want to remind everybody that, um, showing the value ad to elected officials is a skill. You have to have the passion for it. Yes. But you also need to have like the understanding of of um local, regional, national, statewide requirements for how you spend public money. I know that I'm I'm beating the bureaucracy to death, but I promise you it's the only way to sustain this work. So, in year two, after we've gotten all of agreements for all the things that we want to make sure that um we're going to roll out, in year two, you might only see the development of two or three core grant programs. So, if you're an individual artist, that might be one of the core programs. If you're an organization that's been in existence, there's this theme that I call legacy organizations. You might want to make sure that those legacy organizations get the funding that they need to hire professional staff to do the grant writing and to write the evaluation reports on the back end of it. Um perhaps the collaboration between city, county, and the private sector creates a grants portal. So if you have a project, if your organization has developed a project or or you as an individual artist, rather than going website to website, there might be a way to c put all of that information together so that grant deadlines are sequential so you're not having to sacrifice, well, I can't write two grants, one due this week, one's due next week. So how do we organize those opportunities? You see, that's foundational. um community workshops um where do people gather naturally also then providing technical assistance and I mean that grant writing tips and tools vocabulary words that um grant panels are looking to hear from you. Let's make sure we're communicating citywide so that you're not just accidentally stumbling upon a blurb on a website that says tomorrow is a deadline. Got to start communicating I'm stronger. And then this grant review process which I insist that you never forget that people who review the grants that you guys are writing and submitting must also be trained must also understand what conflict of interest is and bias is and also understand the qualities of quality and by whose definition. So if I say we we're funding quality programs according to who? the the six people that you've gathered to review them or a standard that's set by the community. Um here you go with the the breakout of how the dreamed for $1.5 million. I didn't just pull this number out of the air. We really actually talked about the number of organizations that were receiving funding already that might need some um foundation building funding support temporary public art projects initiative. is a whole new category of of funding public art programs. You have a strong county and city public art program, but how do I get jump started in that work for my neighborhood that I live in as an artist? Um, you know, etc. So, these are just some ways that we're suggesting that you can get the $1.5 million spent pretty quickly, or depending on the response that the advocacy groups come back with, you can look at one or two of these initiatives as a as a community. By year three, you're starting to invest in program expansion, planning for things, doing more research, launching an incubator, um where emerging arts organizations or organizations can share resources, expanding the program reach, um and then what does an evaluation formed adjustment look like? So, if we're talking to the elected officials and corporate leadership about how the fund for the arts in Durham can grow, you you're hearing from them what they want you to prove. I know this is boring y'all, but I got to tell you all this stuff. Um, so then we move to years two, years three, you know, etc. So, we're not suggesting that everything that needs to happen to advance and grow the arts in Durham is going to happen in the first three years. maybe not even in the first five years, but without this sort of um marked road map, we don't know where we're going. And so, you can't explain that to an elected official, nor can you explain that to a private official. So, by year three, you should have a $2 million budget based on the population of Durham City and Durham County. That's reasonable. What will the public experience more visible arts programs where people live? So, somebody asked us today about the performing arts center. That's fine. That is important. But also access is important for seniors who don't want to go downtown at night. For children who are not involved in any organized programming between the peak hours, uh 3 to 6:00, that's when kids need the most guided uh learning opportunities. I may have said this to you before and the optimum partner in that kind of thinking is the Durham Police Department. They're the best partner to help you think about what are kids doing because they know where they are. They know where they're not. They know what kinds of activities they're getting in. I remember I said to some group at some point uh the first time one of my clients took me to the police department's stolen bicycle warehouse. hundreds of bikes. It dawned on them that these are some smart kids. They're figuring out how to unlock, untap, you know, all that. So, why wouldn't you include um the fire department and thinking about public safety and marking and helping to communicate? So, let's not get into this lull thinking that only the arts division can do this work. If you're in city government and you're standing beside the fire chief at a after a staff meeting and you say, "Hey, I just saw you guys got this $10 million federal grant. I want to come talk to you about it." You have someone who's in the space that can talk about this. So, you see all the non-exiting things I'm bringing to you. All of that is involved in building a road map to strengthen arts and culture and dur it doesn't just happen because people keep writing you a check. stabilization and growth of multiple economics. Stabilizing local restaurants, popup shops, you know, um talent retention is is the one thing that made them made me the most um discouraged is to hear artists talk about they can't make a living here, so they leave and they come back, you know, and and resume their um their living um arrangements, you know, at some other time. They're not making keeping Durham their hometown. And then we keep talking about capacity building. Again, these are the simple things that we're asking the city and county elected officials to do. Approve a structure that stabilizes access to resources for artists and and arts patrons. Support a multi-year investment in the arts. endorse this idea of a phased strategy. So over the next 10 years, understand that you're going to be asking for increased support and then authorize this thing to happen. Just say yes, we believe this is important and this is not arts for arts sake only. Absolutely. We want to make sure that artists have a chance to experiment, to grow, etc. But also, how do the arts impact civil society? Um I I I have a a um example of a project that in Minneapolis, Minnesota. We know George Floyd incident sparked so many great ideas, but the leave behind that was caused by investing in the arts is huge for that community. So the number of schools of music that have opened, entrepreneurial opportunities for young people to get involved in learning um you know uh job development skills in the creative sectors. So um just thinking about over time these are some of the deliverables that you want to consider posting up that these are the things that we're working toward. I think that's it. Um the 10 recommendations I'm not going to read them over. There are 10. They don't all have to be done at the same time. They don't all have to be done sequentially from two to 10. But I'm never going to lose sight of the fact that number one is number one. What's the foundation? Where do we start? Who advocates for us inside city hall? And who helps us build the cultural system outside of city hall? um an investment framework, a tax incentive that encourages the private sector to fund public art projects, to develop a percent art program, um to launch these various grant making programs, you know, all these things. This is together a coordinated system, a coordinated road map that lives in highly visible places that gets reviewed every 12 months, every 24 months. So this may be um the beginning of uh an opportunity to grow the arts in in Durham City and Durham County, but it certainly is not the end. You cannot start in the middle. You got to begin at the beginning. Okay, I think that's all my story for now. >> Yes. What do I do now? >> Thank you all so much. I'm gonna turn it over to Jackie Field who's going to do a couple of acknowledgements and then we'll be walking around with microphones for questions. So, >> thanks Rebecca and thank you Margie. Thank you for um hearing us, hearing our needs and uh and synthesizing them so eloquently. Um the work that you and your team have done um really speaks for all of us. So thank you. And I just want to say thank you to you all for being here today, for supporting this process um for the last three years. uh your your work um has led to this uh this great piece and and really Margie's team being able to to synthesize it for us. I also want to say thank you um to the leaders uh throughout the community that are here today. Commissioner Burton um uh chairperson of uh u the school board uh Joy Goff is here. cultural roadmap planning uh group members are here. Other cultural leaders are here tonight. Um Katie with Durham Arts Council, Taran Henry with Heritage uh Hayai Heritage Center, Nicole Thompson with DDI, Susan Amy and others with uh Discover Durham and Durham Next. Um, we just want to say thank you for um for being here tonight to represent uh and to support this process and thank you for being here throughout uh throughout the planning. Um, we need you now more than ever. We've needed you to build this to build these recommendations and now we need your support. Uh, we need you to continue to show up in the next couple of weeks. We need you to speak out. We need you to speak to uh to all of our elected officials and tell them your why. Tell them why the arts are so important to you. Tell them your story because that's how we'll get this done together. So, thank you. And um to support why we need you. I know that Barbara Laauo uh is going to talk a little bit next about how you can um how you can be our advocates for this plan. Any questions? >> Any burning questions? Any Why are we doing this now? Why haven't Josh? >> All right. Well, we're going to turn it over to Barbara Laauo who is on the Durham Cultural Advisory Board. >> Yeah, these can go one side. >> Oh, it's so great to see you all. Um, we have handouts. We don't want you to have to look too hard to find out how to get in touch with your city council person or county commissioner. We don't want you to forget any of the dates for the upcoming meetings. There are work sessions where Margie and her team will be presenting this plan to our elected officials. And then there are uh city council and county commission meetings where they we hope they're our goal is for them to vote to adopt the plan. So we need everybody because as Margaret said this is the people's plan. This is all a summary summary of all the work all of you have put in for the last three years. Now is not the time to think, oh well they know about it or they can read this. They need to hear from you. They need to know that you, your organization, your friends, uh, people you work with, other artists and arts organizations, and just people care about the arts and culture in Durham. I could go on about why Durham is so dependent in some way on its history, why our identity is so built on our arts, our history, our culture, and why we want that to be lifted up and forwarded and used to uh tell the world why Durham is the place that we all love, that we all care about, that we all invest in, and many of us have spent decades building organizations ations participating, creating work, all of that is really important and we want our elected officials to really know how important that is to us and our neighbors. So, I think it's really essential to reach out. If you want, we have a a sign up. If you want more information, a toolkit, more specific answers to specific questions that we think could come up in a conversation you might have with an elected official, just drop your name on that email list and we will share whatever you need to help make those conversations, whether it's with your neighbors, your colleagues, or your elected officials, as effective as possible. And our timing. So, the other handout is about those meetings. Uh, they're coming up pretty quickly. So, it's sort of like go home tonight, write a quick email. You can send it to the whole city council in one swoop, right? You can send it to the one city council person that represents you or the county commissioner, but it's really important to get the word out to you to spread it throughout the mailing list of your various organizations and to try to raise the status of the arts and culture in our civic infrastructure, which is what Margie's been encouraging us to do. Right, Margaret? >> That's right. Yeah. I Jackie made a really important point that as we uh reach out that we're sharing our why. Why is this important? Um, for me, I recognize that arts and culture touch so many of our city's priorities. This is not just about arts and culture as a standalone initiative. Um, I think that uh that the more that we have a voice, the more that we have a plan and um we can all collectively tackle many of the other issues of our city um as uh through arts. >> Yeah. And I think it's absolutely worth our investment to have staff and an office that can coordinate all the organizations both inside the city. How many of you ever tried to plan an event in Durham? >> Tell me about how many places you have to call. >> Tell me about well who does this? How do I get the road closed? How do I get water? How do I get security? Right? It's a million different places. So part of that idea is that this central place can not only coordinate all of us as organizations to be more effective to connect us to other funding sources to other sectors but all sorts of that stuff that's going on right inside city and county government. We are standing in the Durham Public Library, the largest humanities organization in our county. The library is a place that needs support. the humanities programs here at the library need our support. All of those things. So, it's not just a city thing or just a county thing. It is something that we have to ask our elected officials to work on together. I know that's a big ask here, but I think we need to speak up and at least let them know what we want to see. As Margie said, this, you know, I was the round of the last cultural roadmap. We didn't get everything we wanted, but we got some things that were really important. We got a an amazing public art initiative. We got a Museum of Durham history. We got other things. We got But now we have a grants program. Now we have staff. There weren't any of those things. So, it's about building this. And the only way we're going to build it is if the elected officials believe that this is our plan. We want to see it move forward. You might pick out something in particular you care about more than anything else and push that. Absolutely. But let them hear from you. >> Yeah. Great. >> Yeah. Anybody? I think Margie's ready to answer all of your questions. >> Okay. Yes, sir. your mom. >> Oh, she's bringing a >> If y'all would say your name and what organization you're with, that might be helpful. >> Hi, I'm Tim Walter with the Fruit Performing Arts and Visual Arts Center downtown here. Um, the I was doing a little bit of math and I I want to sort of think about where you're actually thinking five and 10 years out. Um, because I think you're a little more crafty than you're letting on. Um, I used to I used to hang out with the Ford Foundation, too. So, I know you're you guys are deep thinkers and you think way ahead, but 1.5 million uh out of a budget of a billion dollars combined is 0.15% of the municipal budgets. And I'm just guessing 0.15% for the arts is not where all this work and spending all these six years or whatever four years plus building on top of the other stuff is going to end up. Where do you really think the grant programs, municipal grant programs for Durham should be for a city, a growing city headed for 400,000 people and at least in the duration of this um this plan? Where really should we be? >> There's a simple way to look at it and a more complicated way to look at it. The simple way to look at it is to think about the per capita >> number. So there you go. How many people live in the room? >> I don't know. >> 300,000. So it's $5 >> per person. So there's one simple way of doing the math about it. Um and I think the other way is to amend the thinking to target schoolage children over the 12 years of their educational journey. those who are interested, families who want that for their kids, etc. And to think about the multiplier of that. So, in school and out of school. In this case, you've got the county um advising on what young people need to get in their educational journey, K12, etc. and you have the city thinking about um out of school time programming for for kids in the neighborhoods and places where they live and learn. So I am not um um silly enough to put a number a cap on the table because I think it could be endless if you think about um different pockets and populations of people. I mean, San Francisco counts all the programs for people incarcerated. There goes the numbers. And it's not arts money. It's money that provides arts programming. Um the um in some communities they think about the elder population and all the services that artists bring to elders and how those programs are implemented without arts money. So we have to also not forget that there are other dollars that can be used to promote, protect and preserve, you know, all those things. But I think where you start is not where you will finish. Um, but I think only you guys will be able to answer that question about how big, how far. That was another crafty version. >> But what I don't want is for you to quote a number, right, and say that that consultant said we should be at $30 million by year 10 cuz you know war happens. >> Hi Dan Ellison. I've got lots of hats. Um, so, so Tim's comment and and your response to it also makes me wonder about the money that is within the budgets already of different departments. it hasn't been labeled specifically as being for the arts and the fear of okay we'll just take we'll move it from this place to this place and we'll say well we've just increased the arts funding but actually it doesn't increase it at all and I know that happens sometimes um and I wonder how to make sure or just pointing out I think we need to make sure that that we don't allow that to just be a reshuffleling of how we put the budget down on paper. Um, but with that said, where does the money ultimately come from? It comes from tax dollars, I think, is the bulk of where the city and county's budgets come from. Uh, and and so how do we do you have any thoughts on really how to garner broad population demands for the arts? You know, it's fine to get the arts community together and say, "Give us money." But it's the entire population that I think really needs to speak to the the folks that make those decisions. >> Absolutely. And it is also important to look at sources of funding that only a city government can request whether it's economic development funds or transportation funds and percentages of that number. Um the city and county have um comprehensive planning comprehensive planning uh requirements. every so many years uh an entity like a county there's no a comprehensive plan. So where are the new sidewalks going to be? Where are new park and recreation facilities going to be? And how do you embed arts programming? So, I would want to encourage you, yes, the money is the thing, but I would want to encourage you, we talk about that in the plan, to think about what are your civic goals so you don't have to answer where the money comes from to put a new signal light at the intersection, right? But and so there are other services that the city has to provide to the public that has embedded a creative thought partner inside of that work that could lead to um uh an a pop-up arts incubator space in downtown that services the visiting public as well as the resident public. So we need to also think about what are our goals for Durham? How do we want to show up? People don't come to Durham or any other city to see how you paint the stripes in the parking lot. They come to hear people talk about their story. They come to hear per musical performances, you know, etc. So, I think the money is the driver, but it's not always arts designated arts money that provides some of those services and addresses those goals. to serve preservation. Um the medical sector, you know, arts and medicine, arts is hu arts and medicine is huge. Arts in the military right now is a big deal coming out of Washington for you. Um but all of those kinds of public services have the opportunity to have a creative force as a part of that and that helps identify your city as a creative city. And also don't forget, I think I said it early on, this is not an arts plan. It's an arts and culture plan. And so what are those historic preservation dollars? How do we embed the literary arts into the storytelling and documenting of Durham's history and its stories? So it's all inclusive. Think about it. And arts dollars are not all labeled arts dollars. And so you need somebody that is what did you call me? Crafty or something. >> Forward looking. That's leading that effort. And as I said to another group today, you need a team of people that represent creativity, culture, and heritage. And when an elected official sees that person coming in the room, they go, "Well, here she comes. What you got to ask for today?" But it's a representation of what we're doing here, which is synthesizing, regurgitating, sending back, and not leaving the elected official alone, showing up and and advocating. >> Margie, we have two more questions over here. >> Hi everyone, Marcus Green, St. Joseph Historic Foundation. Um, as I see it in I guess in in the civics and and the um city and county, they think of infrastructure as roads and things of that nature. Um, which is true. Roads move people, but culture moves community. And so in your your subtitle here, position arts and culture as civic infrastructure, I'd like to understand ex exactly how do you move the the the city council and the and and the county commissioners to understand that arts and culture is infrastructure and to view it as such. Because it seems as though a lot of times the squeakiest wheel gets the oil, which is a road or some other physical infrastructure. But where they miss it is the um the arts and culture is the glue in these communities that that binds them that gives these communities identity. Um here at the H the the the foundation we have a adage that we we say culture creates identity and with the belonging it brings that belonging and that belonging increases and attracts investment and then that investment uh creates opportunity. So, I just wanted to sum some my question up and my comment is how do you move a a city official, county official to understand that arts and culture is truly um infrastructure and >> and I do think most elected officials appreciate that. So, that then pushes the question to how do you get them to act on that belief? Um, and I I I think one of the most impactful ways is one on one the person you voted for that commissioner that attends your programs. You know, you you're going to have to just as you you know elected officials are not elected knowing everything that they need to know to serve as their constituents. So you have to teach them, you have to expose them, you have to invite them, you have to go to council meetings, you have to go to their committee meetings. I mean all of that is uh labor intensive but that is what learning is. It's an activation of the brain and you've got to feed it. Um just a couple of quick examples. um one of the first percent for art programs. Um there are two kinds, right? There's a percent for art program um that taxes uh a private sector developer uh percentage of the development budget to support the arts in a city. There's also a public percent for art program structure. So, if the city is um upgrading and just filling potholes, that's a budget. You got to convince your elected officials to think about a percent for art that's part of public improvement. You got to spend the money anyway. They got to spend a million dollars to to rebuild a bridge, you know. So, a percent of that public sector budget, those are the easiest to implement public for our programs. Um, because the city council is approving them. Can you imagine? When I ran the office in in LA, we had both a public sector and a private percent for art. And the public percent generated more money because you're constantly upgrading and pro improving your city. And that money gets spent within the uh nexus of the where the public improvement is happening so that you don't leave out communities um and neighborhoods that are not getting private sector development but they're getting city infrastructure and and it's not just about commissioning an artist to do a public art project. is providing a cohort of teaching artists to work in a neighborhood community center for the for you know whatever the time period is and paying them and and the bonus is if they live in the neighborhood but we wouldn't you know x somebody out but I think it's thinking about policybased financial resources if we know that every so many years the city's um um um the the the men and women that design infrastructure improvements for a city. So every so many years we look at rebuilding fire stations, don't we? We look at all those programs and opportunities for attaching a bonafideed publicly approved percent of every budget for a public improvement project. And there are staff within your to be created office of arts and culture that's that's scouring every city council agenda, every department um budget plan for three years and five years to look for those opportunities to prepare the arts and cultural sector. So it's a it's a it's a highly creative job task, but it's highly researchbased on your behalf as well. So um San Francisco has artists embedded into the police station. There's staff salary. That's where they work. They solve problems along with. So you know any any thinking like that is going to need to be led by somebody whose job it is every day to think about just that. So it's it's it's the sign ordinance in the city. how tall, how wide, what kind of color, you know, there are neighborhoods that don't want uh certain colors of, you know, paint and this is, you know, those different kind people, but um but they have to be they pay taxes too, right? And so how then does your individual artist contracting program help respond to those kinds of opportunities? the sign ordinance, the super graphic program that just uh goof up that FIFA just created across the country and then they left. Let's paint over all these murals because we need to put a soccer ball here and and you know really destroyed some fine artwork that artists had done. That happened overnight because nobody was paying attention. So FIFA comes to town, they have all these promises and so we want to do what makes them happy and and helps them, you know, buy, stay longer, you know, all that stuff. But somebody in a little town said, "Not this mural. We're not paying over this mural." And they fought at city hall for that. And they won. But unless you raise it, unless we're bringing it to the forefront, we'll just continue to do um that kind of disservice to artists work. Marchie, we have one more up here and we have about five more minutes and um I invite you all to take whatever food is left over. Please help yourselves have a plate or a cookie on the way out. So, we have one more question right here. >> Oh, thank you. >> Hi, Katie Wyatt with the Durham Arts Council. I don't have a question. I just want to publicly state our support for the plan and fully endorse the creation of an office of arts and culture at the city level with our with our friends in staff. Now um we this is something we've been moving towards in our own board and staff discussions and have aligned our own strategic plan in alignment with the 10 recommendations laid out from the cultural roadmap. So thank you very much everyone for being part of this. Where we see particular alignment is increasing funding for artists and arts organizations overall. More money for artists and arts organizations wherever it's coming from is a good thing for germ. We're here to be supportive in the roll out of that and however we can help uh building capacity for individual artists and arts organizations whether that's training, teacher development, coordination, alignment of groups. Um, we're here to support. These are just areas I'm naming where I feel like we can be helpful um also in creating spaces for artists and arts organizations, making um creative space in the building that we manage on behalf of the city, which is really the people's arts space as well, making that place very accessible and open um and available for artists and arts organizations. And then however we can help advocate for arts and arts organizations across the community. So, thank you to everyone who has been a part of this all all along the way and we're very uh pleased to be part of it. Thank you. >> Well, thank you and I'm good to see you. Glad you're here. All of that and I'm thrilled that you are acknowledging the role that you can play as an organization with a strong board, you know, etc. All the mistakes that the Durham Arts Council made over the last 20 years are ours to learn from. All the successes that this organization has had in working with the city and opening its facility and doing artist development work. This this process and the next phase can learn from all of that. And I think we talked about this first thing this morning that the arts sector does the best job of any sector in the United States of dividing >> including discipline. What was my example? This one. There's a fine arts, there's folk art, there's, you know, you go down the line and we say to an elected official, just like the business community said to us, we get so many different requests from the arts community. We don't know what to respond to. So, I think we have to be cautious of who we are. We are a very um um polarizing sector. How many times have you do you hear an artist or an arts organization say my season as opposed to the season that is responding to what my audience is asking me to do. Right? So, we're going to also have to learn how to think in those ways. But this is, you know, the arts do mean business, but we have to get serious about it first. So, thank you, Kate, for being here. I didn't pay her to say that yet. Um, but I do think that's that's really critically important. If there were uh members of the media here, they should hear us talk about how we support each other as a as a sector. Um, so more more of that later. >> So, y'all can get involved in the business by picking up a postcard on the way out. It has the dates of when we're presenting to city county officials. Please take some food. And thank you all so much for coming. Please stay in touch and involved.