Summary and Slides: Arts Advocacy Seminar sponsored by Texas for the Arts and Austin Creative Alliance, February 3, 2016
About 25 persons attended the Arts Advocacy Seminar at the Asian-American Resource Center in Austin on February 3. Also attending were five City of Austin employees, principally from the Economic Development Development Department and its Cultural Arts division.
The session's PowerPoint slides may be viewed by clicking the two images below. Many of the documents shown can be accessed via the website of Texans for the Arts.
Following a welcome by Austin Creative Alliance Vice President Dewy Brooks the presenters examined:
1) Institutional Environmen; Education - Advocacy - Lobbying: Differences and IRS Rules regarding 201 (c)(3) and (4) Organizations; Identifying Federal, State and Municipal Officials and Their Records Regarding the Arts (Ann S. Graham, Texas for the Arts)
2) Funding for the Arts; History and Evolution of the Hotel Occupancy Tax; Designation of Up to 15% for Direct Arts Support (Boyce Cabaniss, Esq., Texans for the Arts and Austin Shakespeare)
3) Determining Advocacy Goals, Economic Value of the Arts (Biennial Study: 4% of U.S. GDP, conservative estimate for Texas of $5.1 billion and $320 million in Texas sales tax revenue annually), Travis County creative industries, firms and employees (Ann S. Graham)
4) Preparing, Planning, Carrying Out and Following Up Advocacy Visits to Public Officials and Their Staffs (Cookie Gregory Ruiz, Ballet Austin and other arts and charitable organizations)
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ANNOUNCEMENT:
Arts Advocacy Training With ACA and Texans for the Arts
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On Wednesday, February 3, 2016 the Austin Creative Alliance will host a workshop on arts advocacy for artists, arts administrators, board members, and citizen activists presented by Texans for the Arts.
Are you concerned about public funding for the arts? Access to affordable spaces to live and work as an artist? Want a voice in decision making about how public resources are invested in the arts in Austin?
As artists, arts administrators, board members, and citizens interested in the arts, you are already advocating every day through your work. We've invited Texans for the Arts to share specific ideas and content on how to put your passion, knowledge and experience in the arts into constructive and informative advocacy, through orientation, training, role-playing and more.
The Advocacy Workshop by Texans for the Arts will start with a focus on issues at the municipal level - clarifying the decision- making matrix of City Commissions, City Departments, and the 10-1 City Council, along with detailed information about the Hotel Occupancy Tax (HOT) funding for the arts in Austin (and across the state). Presenters will include a broad-strokes overview of national and state-wide arts advocacy issues, as well.
You have an opportunity to play a critical role in how your municipality invests in and promotes the arts. Learn how to build on what you already know to strengthen your voice and grow the chorus in support of public support for the arts in Austin.
The event is FREE and open to the public.
Wednesday, February 3, 2016
Asian American Resource Center, Austin, TX 78754
Workshop Presenters:
Cookie Gregory Ruiz, C.F.R.E., has more than 25 years of experience in the areas of strategic planning, organizational development and non-profit fund-raising/management. Since 2002 she has held the professional designation of Certified Fund Raising Executive (C.F.R.E.) by the Association of Fundraising Professionals. Ms. Ruiz served as the city-wide Chair of CreateAustin, a City Council appointee to ImagineAustin's Citizen's Advisory Task Force, as former President and Board member of Con Mi Madre, and is a graduate of the Austin's City Works Academy. As a graduate of Leadership Austin she served four years on its Board of Directors.
Ms. Ruiz is a currently a member of the Board of Trustees and former national Chair of Dance/USA, the Board of Directors of the Performing Arts Alliance, Vice President of the Board of Directors of Texans for the Arts, the Board of Directors of the Mayor's Better Austin Foundation, the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP), the Board of Directors of Housing Works Austin. She is also a Fellow of The National Arts Strategies International Chief Executive Program.
Ms. Ruiz serves as a speaker, facilitator and presenter for a variety of leadership conferences, including the National Conference on Community Leadership, the National Performing Arts Conference, American for the Arts Annual Convention, National Conference of Dance/USA, The Governor's Women's Business Leadership Forum and the Texas Commission on the Arts.
In 1996 Ms. Ruiz joined the staff of Ballet Austin as Development Director, became General Manager in 1997 and Executive Director in 1999.
Boyce Cabaniss is an Austin attorney specializing in appellate and fiduciary law. He studied chemistry, classics and vertebrate paleontology at the University and Texas and received his law degree from Harvard. He has been a shareholder in the law firm of Graves Dougherty Hearon & Moody since 1994.
Boyce serves on the Board of Texans for the Arts and is the immediate past president of Austin Shakespeare.
Ann S. Graham brings a strong set of leadership skills to her work and has demonstrated a deep passion for the arts and the role they play in building and strengthening our communities and enhancing our quality of life. She holds a Master's Degree in Arts Administration and has an extensive career in arts management and organizational development, arts festival and event production, public art administration, and arts advocacy.
Ann was appointed Executive Director of Texans for the Arts, the statewide arts advocacy organization, in August 2013 and works to secure and grow public appropriations for the arts at the municipal, statewide and national levels. Texans for the Arts led the legislative strategy that garnered a $5million increase in state appropriations for the Texas Commission on the Arts in the 84th Legislative Session.
Ann has worked as an independent producer and nonprofit management consultant, with Forklift Danceworks, PeopleFund, Texas Folklife, Town Lake Trail Foundation, the Downtown Austin Alliance, and more. She has also served in leadership positions with the City of Austin's Art in Public Places program, the Hyde Park Neighborhood Association, and AISD elementary, middle and high school parent organizations. She serves on the Board of Directors of Preservation Austin and Amigos de las Américas.
She was the Co-Founder of First Night Austin, whose highly acclaimed inaugural event on December 31, 2005 set a new vision for creative possibilities in downtown Austin and sparked a conversation and action around the role that site specific, temporary performance and installation art works can play in defining and enhancing our built environment. Ms. Graham's work on the City of Austin's CreateAustin cultural master plan was pivotal in insuring that its recommendations were integrated into Austin's comprehensive master plan, ImagineAustin.
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