Convenings
WESTAF regularly convenes experts and leaders from a variety of fields to address critical issues that affect arts and culture and to provide an opportunity for practitioners and thinkers in the region to reflect on issues particular to the West while considering a national context.
2021 Creative Vitality™ Summit
Thank you to all of our participants, moderators, speakers and panelists for attending the Creative Vitality™ Summit, presented by WESTAF in partnership with the National Creative Economy Coalition, ASU Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, Grantmakers in the Arts, and more. The virtual convening took place on Monday, September 20 and Tuesday, September 21, 2021.
WESTAF previously brought field leaders together to discuss the creative economy and state economic development in the form of a major convening in 2008. In 2021, we once again assembled a group of today’s creative economy experts, economic development professionals, arts and culture leaders, solidarity economy advocates, and equity champions to share their knowledge and practice.
The 2021 Creative Vitality™ Summit featured a series of speakers, panels, and community-led discussions around how the creative economy intersects with the solidarity economy and other alternative economic models. These discussions delved into trends in creative work, centering the creative worker in creative economy development, and the role and need for networks of those advancing the creative economy across public, private, and nonprofit sectors.
Please be sure to visit the Creative Vitality™ Summit page for more information on Summit sessions, resources, and also check out our pre-conference paper for more insight on Summit proceedings.
Arts Leadership and Advocacy Seminar
Between 2011 and 2017, WESTAF’s annual Arts Leadership and Advocacy Seminar (ALAS) brought a group of arts leaders from the West to Washington, D.C. to meet with members of Congress and their staffs, engage in briefings regarding the status and future prospects for federal arts support, and to discuss with the WESTAF trustees ways to generate more state government support for the work of state arts agencies. Learn more about WESTAF’s Arts Leadership and Advocacy Seminar.
Cultural Policy Symposia
WESTAF organizes symposia of experts and leaders from fields both inside and outside the arts to address critical issues affecting arts and culture. These periodic meetings, 16 of which have been held since 1997, provide an opportunity to reflect on cultural policy issues particular to the West, to introduce practitioners in the region to one another, and to expand the acquaintance of national and international discussions of cultural policy with thinkers in the West. Learn more about WESTAF’s Cultural Policy Symposia.
Arts + the Rural West Seminar
The Arts + the Rural West convening brought together funding and policy organizations with practitioners to consider future directions for rural arts as a policy priority and practice of the field.
In 2020, WESTAF piloted a new seminar format that brings together representatives from local and state government, private grantmakers, national rural arts and rural design initiatives, folk and traditional arts organizations, indigenous organizations, artist collectives and colonies, and other arts and cultural institutions on how to advance arts in the rural West. On April 3, WESTAF conducted an Arts + the Rural West initial virtual workshop over 3 hours with 25 participants representing the Alliance for California Traditional Arts; California Arts Council; Idaho Commission on the Arts; Epicenter; Mountain Time Arts; First Nations Development Institute; Plains Indian Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center for the West; the Los Angeles County Museum of Art; the National Endowment for the Arts; Housing Assistance Council/Citizens’ Institute on Rural Design; Rural Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC); Wichita Falls Alliance for Arts and Culture; Center for Education, Business, and the Arts; Advocates for California Indigenous Language Survival; Western Folklife Center; Artes Americas; and the Town of Eagle, Colorado.
The Arts + the Rural West session report features discussion summaries and transcripts of participant report-outs from the virtual convening. WESTAF believes that the ideas and insights that were shared during this convening have the potential to inform the advancement of arts and culture in rural communities in the West and beyond.
Arts + the Rural West
Virtual Workshop
Participants
| Kate Belton Director of Development and Communications Mountain Time Arts Bozeman, MT |
Anne Bown-Crawford Executive Director California Arts Council Sacramento, CA |
| Catherine Bryan Director of Programs, Strengthening Tribal and Community Institutions First Nations Development Institute Longmont, CO |
Matthew Fluharty Founder & Executive Director Art of the Rural Winona, MN |
| Juta (yuh-tah) Geurtsen Community Development Director Idaho Commission on the Arts Boise, ID |
Meg Glaser Artistic Director Western Folklife Center Elko, NV |
| Tiffany Hammer Senior Program Officer First Nations Development Institute Longmont, CO |
Jennifer Joy Jameson Programs Manager + Media Director Alliance for California Traditional Arts Los Angeles, CA |
| Margie Johnson Reese Executive Director Wichita Falls Alliance for Arts & Culture Wichita Falls, TX |
Sarah Lillegard Resource Developer Epicenter Doyle, CA |
| Consuelo (Chelo) Montoya Assistant Vice President Adult Education and Public Programs Los Angeles County Museum of Art Los Angeles, CA |
Nikiko Masumoto Organic Farmer and Artist Del Rey, CA |
| Hunter Old Elk Curatorial Assistant Plains Indian Museum at the Buffalo Bill Center of the West Cody, WY |
Bob Reeder Program Director Rural LISC Washington, DC |
| Brandy Reitter Manager Town of Eagle Eagle, CO |
Ruth Saludes Interim Coordinator Artes Americas Fresno, CA |
| Courtney Spearman Design Specialist National Endowment for the Arts Washington, DC |
Kelly Stowell Executive Director Center for Education, Business and the Arts Kanab, UT |
| Maria Sykes Executive Director Epicenter Green River, UT |
Stephen Sugg Special Projects Manager Housing Assistance Council/Citizens Institute on Rural Design Washington, DC |
| Carly Tex Executive Director Advocates for California Indigenous Language Survival Fresno, CA |
Abby Whiteing Lead Program Officer First Nations Development Institute Longmont, CO |
WESTAF Staff
Christian Gaines, Executive Director
David Holland, Director of Public Policy
