Everyone is an artist… all around us, the fundamentals of life are crying out to be shaped, or created.
Joseph Beuys, Artist c., 1970
Without a global revolution in the sphere of human consciousness, nothing will change for the better in the sphere of our being as humans, and the catastrophe toward which this world is headed—be it ecological, social, demographic or a general breakdown of civilization—will be unavoidable.
Václav Havel, Poet and President of Czechoslovakia
Speech to U.S. Congress, February 21, 1990
The integration of art into daily and political life remains an unfulfilled ideal of American
Culture.
Philip Kennicott, Journalist
“The Long Lost Corcoran” The Washington Post, February 26, 2014
Vision is a useful tool for the uncertain times in which we live, because it focuses intention on what we want to create. Vision describes success far enough into the future that it stretches our minds beyond today’s problems and limitations to what is possible. When a vision process works most powerfully, it lays the groundwork for a future far better than what we might have imagined before.
On January 26, 2014, the Cultural Data Project invited a group of 25 American artists and organizational leaders from the arts, culture and humanities sector to gather at Bloomberg
Philanthropies in New York City and cast their sights forward to the year 2029 in an exploration of their visions for the future. Jonathan Peck, President and Senior Futurist for the Institute for
Alternative Futures (IAF), guided a daylong discussion to uncover the aspirations held by the participants who represented a mix of arts institutions, artists, national arts service organizations, private foundations, public funding agencies, arts educators, and academics. (Participants are listed by name and affiliation in Appendix A.) Graphic artist David Hasbury recorded the proceedings in images.
Throughout the day, participants focused on three primary challenges:
 articulating their aspirations for the sector in 2029;
 describing future success in three realms: the cultural ecosystem, creative learning, and the cultural economy; and
 exploring ways to turn aspirations into actions.

Art of the Possible Meeting Report
March, 2014
This report is designed to provide a snapshot of the ideas and issues the group explored. It synthesizes the emerging elements of a new vision for the arts and cultural sector as a powerful change agent that might shape and create the “fundamentals” of “daily and political life,” as Beuys and Kennicott call for, and help our society avoid the “catastrophe” that President Havel foresaw.
Most importantly, this report seeks to be both a catalyst and a challenge that spurs cultural leaders to continue to extend the conversation to others in order to crystallize an intention to equip our society to respond creatively to the host of challenges we will face.
The potent themes that run through this report can carry the sector beyond the limits of the past and present roles into a more complex world in which the arts and humanities expand and deepen their contribution to 21 st
century life. However, the nascent vision described in the words and images that emerged from the day is still taking form. The intentions and aspirations shared by the session’s participants are at once powerfully stated and yet still inchoate. The potential for largescale change both within the cultural sector and throughout society as a result of its contributions is beginning to take shape for some of the day’s participants. “Change,” as one participant put it, is coming “just around the corner.” For others, current and entrenched institutions, structures, belief systems, and practices loom so large that they block the view. If the arts and humanities hope to develop a vision that will in fact prepare our culture with the creativity required to meet the opportunities and challenges of the future and the necessary revolutions that are yet to come, this group believes they must open up and make way for a greater range of diverse perspectives and voices in their midst.
Participants at The Art of the Possible visioning session recognized that this emerging vision must engage many more people who were not in the room. A series of suggestions and recommendations for doing so follow, which include using this report to spark dialogue through the networks represented by those at the meeting. The emerging vision described below is an invitation to all those who care about the arts, culture, and humanities to join in a larger effort to aid society and pave the way for a better future.
The draft vision statement below was crafted by the IAF team from the spoken and written statements of participants in the meeting. This vision statement reflects the group’s aspirations and the essence of what was beginning to take shape.
“ The arts and humanities are open in all ways and in all directions, unleashing the creative power needed to reshape our communal and civic life. In a world where creativity and imagination are integrated in all that we do, everyone develops the artists’ capacity to know the world differently and it becomes a safer and more joyful place to live. Creative acts and expression equalize an unequal world, guiding us past discord and trauma towards spiritual relief and greater inclusion of those whose voices are too often unheard. Regular experiences with art and culture are recognized as essential for the health and wellbeing of individuals and our democratic society.
”
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One participant reframed the vision as follows:
Art, in all of its forms, will be embedded and infused in daily life where we live and work -- in the way we see, think, learn, create, relate, and thrive.
The artist "way of knowing" will be woven in relationship with the ways of knowing that emerge through the practice of science, business, civic, and communal life, actively shaping communities, and a nation, that works.
Art as a regenerative and creative process, and artists with the artifacts and products they create, will be experienced, recognized and valued as vital contributors that nourish our physical health and spirit, make innovation manifest, inspire a celebration of what is, and demonstrate ways to create what needs to emerge.
These words will no doubt continue to be refined as others are engaged in dialogue about their vision for the arts and cultural sector in a new cultural moment.
A number of common themes echoed throughout the day. Unattributed quotes in the following text reflect the participants’ own words. One of the most pervasively expressed concepts to emerge from the dialogue was the image of the arts and humanities opening up in all directions.
This part of the vision recognizes that our society will need greater creativity in all endeavors to meet the challenges ahead. Collective imagination must be used to engage with challenges ranging from climate change to rapid urbanization and growing inequities in an expanding and diversifying population. Workers in the 21 st
century will need a core set of skills that includes creativity and the courage to find new ways to approach intractable problems. The creative learning and problem solving skills that the arts and humanities can instill, as well as the application of the creative process itself, have the potential to improve our economy, our scientific and technological competitiveness, as well as our political and social interactions. Once the sector embraces and truly enacts this broader “civic footprint,” questions about its relevance and value will fade.
This is the potential that our culture must unleash and tap through the arts and humanities. This is the value story that the sector must “name and claim.”
From some points of view, facilities have become iconic as negative symbols where art and cultural experiences are marginalized, inaccessible and exclusive. The historic impulse toward “buildingness,” in which facilities control the accessibility of various art forms, has engendered an understanding of the arts and of cultural experiences as less an everyday enrichment and more as something one occasionally visits or samples. For example, people coming from a jazz concert in a park may not even recognize they were having an “arts experience” because they do not view artistic practice and products that occur outside of an opera hall or a museum setting as art. Similarly, people who gain an education in the humanities may not recognize how fully this underlies their skill sets later when they take jobs in which
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critical thinking and communication skills are the basis for their success. These examples warn of a culture turning inward and looking to the past rather than opening outward to engage the possibilities of cultural emergence .
For others, however, cultural facilities are “places with place making potential”: vibrant centers inviting cultural interplay whose “dimensions of history, environment and architecture can be unique assets for creativity and inclusion.” There is already movement afoot to evolve institutions: to make them more permeable, to invite daily life in and to take cultural experiences outside. Access to facilities for the less established and less enfranchised will require a fundamental rethinking of the concept of “ownership” in public amenities and of the funding structures and norms of prestige and power currently in place. As one participant suggested, when the arts open in all directions, it may lead to “a destabilization of the notion of ‘expertise’ as the only valued currency” in the artistic realm. This idea can be both exhilarating and terrifying to the cultural establishment and to professional artists. But as a more fluid relationship develops between the “art” that happens in buildings where it has long been housed and the “art” that happens more regularly as a part of daily life, the collective impact has significantly greater potential to redefine how people live.
Aspirations and Visions to 2029: Infomural by David Hasbury
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These leaders also view the arts and artists as a potent force for the creation of a more democratic, just, and civil society.
The tension between politically powerful interests and the yearning for equity in a society filled with growing disparities makes creative endeavors a central force in the vision to
“level the playing field” in an unequal world.
Human expression transcends the boundaries and constraints imposed by entrenched interests. Culture invites all voices to speak their truth regardless of the economic, social, geographic, ethnic or racial background from which creative expression comes. Therefore, the arts and humanities are a gateway through which the wealthy and the poor, the like and the unlike, can come together and learn from each other’s stories . It is thus imperative to use the principles and practices of creative learning, with the “non-linear thinking” and conceptual problem-solving that it encourages, into all aspects of formal and informal education for people at all life stages. In this future scenario, the role of the arts in society may no longer be only about artists reinforcing and telling their own stories but also be about helping others tell their stories, directly or through a process of synthesis and reinterpretation.
The experience and skills of creativity and imagination provided by the arts and humanities are essential to personal and social wellbeing , although this often goes unrealized. Part of the opportunity highlighted by the vision will be to measure, communicate and claim this value that arts and culture contribute to the health of our communities, cities and society. The understanding of health has grown to include not only the absence of pathology or illness, but also the presence of spiritual dimensions through which awe, faith, love and joy are shared. Human creativity plays a critical role and offers a strong value proposition in such an understanding of wellbeing. Leaders in the cultural sector know this but have yet to convey it persuasively. Stories of people in refugee camps who “give up a place in line for food” to have the opportunity to see a film that guides them through trauma and promises spiritual relief, or of the power of dance to help a boy survive a traumatic childhood and later share this gift with the world’s most vulnerable youth, are persuasive testaments to the transformative power of art. Yet the challenge remains for the sector to make clear to itself and to society at large that the future wellbeing of our nation and citizenry will depend in many ways on the contributions the arts and humanities can make so that humans truly flourish.
It is sometimes hard to reconcile the differences between what is past and what is coming, to know how to move from an unexpressed aspiration to an articulated vision and then action. Vision without action is no more valuable than a hallucination. So how can leaders in the arts and culture navigate and, in some cases, accelerate changes that are coming around the corner?
As leaders strive to shape a new reality out of a shared aspiration, they must align their words and actions with the shared vision. The Aspirations-Behavior-Circumstances graphic below invites leaders to see if they are modeling their aspirations into their behavior rather than reacting to their circumstances. At their best (shown in the left side of the graph), leaders align their behaviors with the collective purpose in order to change circumstances.
When leaders are stuck as “victims of circumstance” (right side of the graph), they continually react to the crises around them, producing not a reaffirmation of aspirations but rather an “exhaust cloud” of explanations, rationalizations, and justifications.
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“We are aspiring to make a certain contribution to the world.”
“How can we align our behaviors and shape our circumstances in line with this aspiration?”
Art of the Possible Meeting Report
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“We are doing good stuff but nobody likes us.”
“We are misperceived.”
“How can we get them to understand us?”
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Participants were invited to imagine what success would look like in three different realms by 2029: the Cultural Ecosystem, Creative Learning, and the Creative Economy. The following captures in images and words the aspirational narratives the group developed.
Visions of Success 2029: Infomural by David Hasbury
Cultural Ecosystem : the living, evolving exchange between entities that assure societies’ enduring creativity.
In 2029, the cultural ecosystem will be fluid and networked. Formal, professional, and institutionally based creative practice will marry seamlessly with informal, personal, and non-institutional activities and expressions. The arts and culture will be so deeply integrated into all areas of life that they are uniformly recognized and supported as an essential public good. A new infrastructure will exist that values and supports a free flow of creativity, imagination, and innovation from all sources and does not unduly privilege only those expressions and products that derive from established or recognized sources. Funding mechanisms will prioritize a healthy field over individual institutions or organizations.
Artistic experiences will happen everywhere, not just in defined creative spaces at defined times with defined creative practitioners. The current state of “buildingness” – where some organizations prioritize facilities, which are controlled by only a few, and define where and when creative experiences occur – will be joined by or give way to shared physical, digital, and social structures that can shift, flow, relate and transform in response to the needs of the time and people. Buildings designed for cultural purposes will be much more “civically useful” assets that support the functions and relationships of the community. The sustainability of the cultural ecosystem in 2029 relies on a healthy lifecycle in which organizations and structures are born, mature and die. Evolution, transformation, and
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regeneration are all essential activities of the ecosystem and the cultural sector will allow the old to die in order to make way for the new.
The arts will have a larger civic footprint with “tentacles” that reach into, enrich dialogue, and inform action on a range of critical issues: social, economic, educational, environmental, health, or political. Artistic vision and creative practices will shape and democratize our society, engaging all people—not just trained artists—more fully in the process of imagining, reinterpreting, and making sense of the world around them. Narrative skills and artistic expression will level the playing field in an unequal world. Shared cultural experiences will build bridges between different communities of people, transform trauma, and spark recovery to promote greater wellbeing, making the world a safer, healthier, and more joyful place.
Creative Learning : the ways in which artistic and cultural experiences and practice prepare us to learn, adapt, deal with complexity, and give expression to life.
In 2029, “creative learning” will have replaced “arts education” as the essential mechanism by which we nurture future generations with the skills needed to envision new solutions to complex challenges, make good decisions, and relate to one another in just and equitable ways as our society grows ever more diverse. Creative learning is a whole-life activity that occurs in formal and informal settings, contributes to wellbeing and health, promotes strategic thinking and innovation, and encourages experimentation and risk taking. This type of learning will ensure that we have the creative human capital needed to sustain and advance our society. The arts will be recognized as playing a role in advancing democratic ideals of equity, justice, free expression, and civil discourse.
Arts organizations and the sector as a whole will value learning as a critical strategy for survival. They will use the creative capacity that resides within their ranks to imagine new ways of working and will readily tap sources of data and information (quantitative and qualitative) to inform their processes and decisions and communicate their impact. New measures of success that go beyond economic impact or basic educational attainment will be developed to quantify the value of creative learning. Educational norms will shift from a principal reliance on literacy and numeracy to include sensory, imagery, and inquiry skills.
Creative Economy : the combination of goods, services, and livelihoods that the artistic and cultural sectors generate and distribute.
In 2029, the arts are recognized as integral to the local regional US and global economy. The macro-economic impact of the arts is significantly larger and valid means of measuring and reporting that economic impact have been established. The micro-economic impact of the arts is so well observed and documented that there is a tsunami of awareness and support for art and artists.
A major shift has occurred resulting in the increased integration of nonprofit, for profit, amateur, and professional arts and cultural activity. There is a reciprocal relationship
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between formal arts production and citizen creativity. Creative practice is tapped to build a stronger workforce and to transform traumatized public systems. As a nation, we tap into and prize the divergent thinking artists can bring to a range of challenges, in order to help organizations find solutions and adapt.
Artists and other workers in the cultural and humanities sector will earn at least the median wage for U.S. wage earners. Arts and cultural practitioners have learned to be better marketers and crafters of their narrative, embracing a much more inclusive definition for the arts, while continuing to support the revolutionary power of the artist’s voice. There are new income strategies to support and sustain artists, artistic creation and access. For instance, a re-envisioning of tax codes could create a dedicated stream of revenues for the arts or a change in copyright law could capture some percentage of royalties to create a national arts fund for the creation of new artistic works. The sector will move from measuring success against a single bottom line of artistic excellence to a triple bottom line that combines creative and artistic vitality, economic strength, and public impact.
While the emerging vision still needs deeper consideration and more thorough articulation following wider input and affirmation from a broader array of cultural leaders, participants in The
Art of the Possible began to conceive new ideas for collective action. Members of the group suggested a series of critical “shifts” as starting points for action.
When considering potential paths forward, leaders can inquire:

What attitudes and beliefs will need to change in the face of these aspirations?

What current structures and systems must evolve or die to make way for new structures and systems?

What actions are already underway which support or propel the shifts described below?

What new actions might be initiated that would facilitate some or all of those shifts?
The table on the following page captures key shifts that should occur between 2014 and
2029. These shifts provide a framework for creating an action agenda aligned with the emerging aspiration.
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From occasional “exposure” and “experience” with the arts and humanities to regular “participation” and integrated
“function” in everyday life
From “arts education” to “empowering creative learning”
From building facilities to building infrastructure
From the health of single institutions to a healthy cultural ecosystem propelled by artists and creative practice
From long-term perpetuation to sustainable lifecycles
From nice to necessary, replacing “Come to us” with “Where do you need us to be?”
From reinforcing our own stories to animating the stories of others
From an isolated sub-industry to an integrated aspect of every industry
From a separate, micro economy in need of subsidy to a recognized contributor to the macro economy worthy of investment
As far back as the time when people drew on cave walls, humans have used creative expression to give meaning to existence in a changing world. This human ability is now needed more than ever to ensure our wellbeing on a planet soon to be inhabited by 8 billion people.
Leaders in the arts and humanities can choose to guide the cultural change that will enable society to respond effectively to the challenges of the 21 st
century. Or they can assume that what they have been doing is good enough. The vision offered in this report will only prove meaningful if it is shared in a conversation that is inclusive and reaches beyond the institutions and organizations that are currently established in the cultural sector. By extending the vision conversation throughout the cultural ecosystem, leaders can assure that they are aligning the arts and humanities with a positive revolution – one that leverages the original and essential meaning of the arts – rather than with a devolution.
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A number of open questions remain, that may form the basis for thought and dialogue going forward:

What is trying to emerge in the life cycle of the arts and cultural sector that can best bring the powers of creativity, imagination, and courage to our larger society?

Who needs to be invited to join this conversation? What other conversations do we need to become aware of and join?

What closely held beliefs and privileges must fall away before this vision can be fully realized? Who will lead the revolution?

What needs to change in existing funding streams, systems, structures, and approaches in order to align with the aspiration of meeting 21 st
century needs and looking beyond current circumstances?
The most important action item to emerge from the day is the need for the participating leaders to seed and nurture the conversation in the coming weeks and months within and across their own networks. Recommendations for moving forward include:

Use this report as a catalyst for conversation with boards, staff, members/constituents, and peers.

Consider drafting a formal manifesto or statement of aspirations for the group to serve as an invitation to others.

Seek opportunities to engage other, less institutional perspectives within the cultural ecosystem.

Identify opportunities to connect this conversation with other sector-level conversations on similar themes.

Actively undertake a listening tour and seek out conversations outside the sector to gather insight into real needs and points of convergence.

Reconvene in a larger group setting for deeper consideration of a shared vision and potential for collective action following a period of listening, learning and discernment.
The participants in The Art of the Possible represent a small contingent of America’s arts and culture leaders, and include some of the sector’s most influential national financial supporters, policymaking and service institutions. One of the most illuminating aspects of the day was when these leaders spoke about the experiences and passions that first engaged them in the arts, culture, and humanities. Many of their larger aspirations and hopes for the sector are still driven today by the desire to share the sense of personal investment and fulfillment that creative expression and communal action for the arts gave them at a young age. The group was acutely aware of the natural impulse to protect and preserve what they had a hand in building. Yet they also showed great willingness to discuss alternative directions, consider ways to break from tradition, and to step away from things that are no longer working. This openness to the possibilities of the future is a reflection of the powerful creative impulse that can drive this sector forward. The group has issued a clear intention to listen deeply to others across the field and to continue the conversation. We therefore invite debate, dialogue, affirmation, and counterpoint. Please feel free to repost and circulate this report and to share the conversations it sparks in your organizations, companies, and communities at www.culturaldata.org/conversations/artofthepossible.
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Ford Bell , DVM, President, American Alliance of Museums, Washington, DC
Ben Cameron , Program Director for the Arts, Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, New York, NY
Alice Carle , Program Director, Arts and Culture, Kresge Foundation, Troy, MI
Philip Chan , General Manager, Youth America Grand Prix, New York, NY
Anita Contini , Program Lead, Art and Culture, Bloomberg Philanthropies, New York, NY
Mária López deLeón, Executive Director, National Association of Latino Arts and Culture, San Antonio, TX
David Devan , General Director, Opera Philadelphia, Philadelphia, PA
Richard Evans , President, EMCArts, Inc., New York, NY
Teresa Eyring , President, Theater Communications Group, New York, NY
Susan Feder , Program Officer for the Performing Arts, The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, New York, NY
Brent Hasty , Executive Director, MINDPOP, Austin, TX
Susan Hildreth , Director, Institute for Museum and Library Services, Washington, DC
Jonathan Katz , National Assembly of States Arts Agencies, Washington, DC
Abel López , Chair, Americans for the Arts & Associate Producing Director, Gala Hispanic Theater, Washington, DC
Rick Lowe , Artist and Founder, Project Row Houses, Houston, TX
Esther Mackintosh , President, Federation of State Humanities Councils, Arlington, VA
Liz Manne , Independent consultant, Vice Chair, FilmAid International, New York, NY
Michael Rohd , Founder/Director of the Center for Performance and Civic Practice, Chicago, IL
Jesse Rosen , President and CEO, League of American Orchestras, New York, NY
Marc Scorca , President and CEO, Opera America, New York, NY
Joan Shigekawa , Senior Deputy Chairman, National Endowment for the Arts
Nina Simon , Executive Director, Santa Cruz Museum of Art and History, Santa Cruz, CA
Suzette Surkamer , Executive Director, South Arts, Atlanta, GA
Beth Tuttle , President and CEO, Cultural Data Project, Philadelphia, PA
Zannie Giraud Voss , Director, National Center for Arts Research, Houston, TX
Marguerite Grandjean , Futurist, Institute for Alternative Futures, Alexandria, VA
Liz Green , Program Assistant, Cultural Data Project, Philadelphia, PA
David Hasbury , Neighbours International, Inc., Highland Park, NJ
Jonathan Peck , President and Senior Futurist, Institute for Alternative Futures, Alexandria, VA
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