Giving Compass' Take:

• This blog post from Americans for the Arts discusses an initiative in Los Angeles that embedded artists within the county department to help implement community-based projects.

• While it would seem challenging to align artistic methods with government-based implementation, the results provided valuable lessons for other collaborations, including defining the chain of command.

• Here's more about the privilege of voice in the arts.

This summer the LA County Arts Commission (LACAC) kicked off the artist-in-residence Creative Strategist Initiative. One of seven recommendations from the Cultural Equity & Inclusion Initiative that were funded by the LA County Board of Supervisors in 2017, the AIR Creative Strategist Initiative places individuals with artistic expertise in County departments to assist in the implementation of special County projects. Creative Strategists are placed as artists in residence (CS-AIR) for a minimum of 12 months, and work alongside department staff. Together, the department and CS-AIR collaborate with project partners and community stakeholders to effect change and impact a specific project or initiative.

Cycle One’s Creative Strategists are embedded in two departments: the LA County Library, to create lifelong learning opportunities for local communities, and the Registrar-Recorder’s Office, to help ensure equal access to voting for over 5.2 million voters.

The Arts Commission implemented extensive field research and months of conversations with these departments to prepare for artist placement, uncovering critical lessons through the process.

“Trust the artist-driven process” does not easily translate to non-arts staff nor governmental management styles. We learned quickly that departments often work within a performance matrix with set timelines for goals and milestones. The framework that was established for the CS-AIR was intentionally set to allow the artist to get grounded in the department’s program without an explicitly stated end product or art deliverable. The different styles required Arts Commission staff to serve as translator; in some instances, emphasizing that an artist’s unique creative process is meant to organically infiltrate the department’s systems by using a different lens through which to look at things.

Read the full article about embedding art in the bureaucracy by Pauline Kanako Kamiyama at ARTS Blog.