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The BlueMoon is published bi-monthly by the Kentucky Arts Council. Please
send comments, questions and information to The Blue Moon, Kentucky Arts
Council, Old Capitol Annex, 300 West Broadway, Frankfort, KY 40601-1980 or
call 502/564-3757V/TDD Toll Free: 1-888-833-2787
E-mail:
kyarts@mail.state.ky.us
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The Arts Council Travels to New Territories
to Develop
a Long-range Plan
At the last quarterly board meeting of the Kentucky Arts Council, Steve Kay was introduced as the
consultant who was going to help facilitate and design the process for
developing the council?s next long-range plan. Almost before he finished
introducing himself, he posed a simple question to the board and staff.
?Why are you doing a long- range plan?? The tone implied that he might be
putting himself out of work; the answers established an engagement in the
process.
The responses included finding out what Kentuckians are thinking about
the arts, informing the work of the Arts Council, establishing measurement
tools, and a path to find common ground with the goals of the Governor,
the Cabinet, NEA, NASAA, SAF, etc. The process should also form stronger
partnerships and new alliances. In addition, a new long-range plan needs
to be developed because the old one will expire in 2003. It was also noted
that the National Endowment for the Arts considers long-range planning as
part of the competitive criteria in awarding the Partnership Agreement
Grant, which is the Arts Council?s largest source of federal funding.
Moreover, it is an opportunity to meet the Arts Council?s mission and find
Kentuckians? vision of the arts for the future.
As the Arts Council moves forward with designing the process for
developing a long-range plan, many factors come in to play and many
players become participants in making certain that it is the ?people of
Kentucky? that own the plan. Design team meetings have folded in the
behavioral model from the Rand research on increasing participation and
the integrative approach that is evolving from the Arts Council?s
work with the Wallace Reader?s Digest Funds? START initiative.
Steps to Increase Participation Using the Integrative Approach
- Link participation-building activities to core values and purpose by
choosing participation goals that support that purpose.
- Identify clear target groups and base tactics on good information
about those groups.
- Understand the internal and external resources that can be committed
to building participation.
- Establish a process for feedback and self-assessment.
In addition to incorporating the integrative approach, the planning
team is also applying the standards based assessment process for
organizations that is being developed with the help of the Collaborative for Teaching and
Learning. This process constantly asks the Arts Council two questions
in order to have a continuous system of evaluation. 1. What do we need
to know to meet our goals? and 2. What do we need to do to meet our
goals? This assessment process allows for the flexibility to change
strategies in mid-stream if the goals are not being met.
Kentucky Citizens for the Arts and Arts Kentucky also have
representation on the design team as well as circuit riders, staff and
board members of the Arts Council.
Who has already looked at the role of the arts in Kentucky?
The team has reviewed the impact of various planning documents and data
that will inform the vision for the arts in Kentucky?s future and the role
the Arts Council has in realizing those visions. Among the external
documents noted was the Kentucky Long-Term Policy Research Center?s ?Visioning
Kentucky?s Future?. According to this research, Kentuckians feel the
Commonwealth is making its greatest progress (out of 26 goals) towards
?GOAL 12 ?Kentuckians will have opportunities to appreciate,
participate in and contribute to the arts and humanities and historic
preservation.? At the same time, when asked which goal is most
important the ?arts opportunities? goal fell to last place. The four goals
that ranked highest were ?safe and caring communities,? ?responsibility
for family success,? ?accessible quality health care,? and ?excellent
system of lifelong learning.?
The team has also taken under consideration other external documents
such as the Strategic Plan of
the Education, Arts and Humanities Cabinet, the Policy Governance of
the Arts Council, the Kentucky Strategic Plan
for Economic Development, The Cultural Heritage Tourism Master Plan,
and the Kentucky
Board of Education?s Strategic Plan. Internal documents that are being
considered in the planning process are the current long-range plan of the
Arts Council and the Kentucky Craft Marketing Program (KCMP), the Product
Development initiative of the KCMP, the mission, goals and strategies of
the Kentucky Folklife Program, as well as the START initiative work in
building participation.
What are the performance expectations of the new long-range plan?
The process and the plan itself should lead to a vision for the future
of the arts in Kentucky. The process being developed is intended to be
larger in focus than just the Arts Council?s programs and services. This
will require broader and more diverse public input than artists and
constituent arts organizations. Likewise, the ownership of the vision and
the implementation of the plan will belong to those that participate in
the process. Other desired outcomes include an increase in participation
in the arts, a broader definition of the arts, and a collection of thought
about the role of the arts in the four issues most important to
Kentuckians as reflected in ?Visioning Kentucky?s Future.?
The plan will also build on the current long-range plan, which is
currently a working document for the Arts Council. The strategies and the
work of the council will change as informed by the process, but the five
?ends statements? and the mission are likely to remain the same. The board
developed the ends statements and the mission as it formed its new
governance policy. Ends statements are final accomplishments, closely akin
to goals but not exactly the same. An easy way to understand ends
statements is ?our goals are met when??
The Kentucky Arts Council?s goals are met when?
- There is efficient statewide delivery of arts programs and services.
- Public policy is favorable to the arts.
- Education in the arts is provided.
- Artists live and work in a supportive environment.
- The role of the arts in society is valued as basic to life.
Are we talking public input or just another round of arts folks
lobbying for more programs and services?
Following the integrative approach, the Arts Council has set a
priority for listening to people from different target groups.
Across the Commonwealth local planning committees in partnership with Arts
Council Circuit Riders and staff will plan events that are more than just
public meetings, to reach people that may have never considered how the
arts affect their lives. This conscientious attempt to
diversify the attendance will involve changing people?s
perception of the arts from the outset. The events will also attempt to
broaden the participation by removing some of the practical
barriers to attending arts events and public meetings that face those that
are already inclined to participate. Look for these events
in your area of the state during October and November.
Public input will also come from those that have already established
themselves as stakeholders in the arts. As such, they are considered as
participants to form ?interest circles? that will have
in-depth dialogue with the Arts Council to help create a vision for the
arts in Kentucky. Those interest circles could be made up of
stewards (boards and staff of arts organizations, elected
officials, educators, etc.), creators (individual artists,
community-based artists, producers, presenters) and
audiences. It is anticipated that the interest circle
dialogues will serve to deepen the commitment to build
participation in the arts in Kentucky.
So then, what?
Once all the data (information and feelings that people have shared)
has been gathered, it will be organized in a fashion that can be analyzed
and synthesized into a long-range plan for the future of the arts in
Kentucky. The plan will also have evaluation mechanisms (or performance
indicators) that will inform the owners of the plan as to how much
progress is being made towards the common vision. This part of the process
will take a number of revisions and checks to ensure that it is a living
document, one that doesn?t sit on a shelf and one that actually
accomplishes something for the citizens of Kentucky. And by the way, if
you were able to read this article from start to finish, you have just
been led through the integrative approach for building
participation.
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