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Director’s Spotlight: IAC Builds Relationships That Last
By Anita Walker, Director
Artists
know there’s nothing like a little distance to give a person perspective.
I’ve had a chance to enjoy a new perspective on the work of the Iowa Arts
Council, thanks to my new role serving on the boards of Arts Midwest and the National
Assembly of State Arts Agencies.
Please forgive me for being a bit boastful but in the context of the national scene the Iowa Arts Council is “on the map,” as one of my colleagues recently put it. From Wisconsin to Ohio to Washington State, the buzz is all about what’s happening in Iowa. In a recent editorial in the Denver Post, my counterpart Elaine Mariner urged her state to follow our lead in integrating the arts into economic development strategy. Creative economy guru Richard Florida told an audience of more than 1,000 people in Iowa City that Iowa is on the cutting edge of putting the arts in the lead in community development. Your work as artists, arts presenters and producers, and arts enthusiasts is more important than ever.
We want to make sure your relationship with the Iowa Arts Council is as productive and hassle-free as possible. No one likes to wait for test results or grant decisions. With that in mind we just completed our first test of a new process to get grant decisions to you quicker than ever. From grant deadline to award letter the new process took just 16 days. That’s down from an average of 3 months. Your project doesn’t hang in the balance awaiting word from us. Our staff is freed up to provide more personal technical assistance to you.
We’ve also just completed redesign of our operational support program. We’re creating an entirely new relationship with our backbone cultural organizations, one based on honesty and mutual responsibility for the cultural climate in Iowa. We were all a bit nervous when we made our first site visit under the new program to the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art October 20. Our team included IAC staff, board members and art museum colleagues. At the end of a day of candid conversation with the museum’s staff, board members and stakeholders, we emerged with a better understanding of each other and a “to do” list to improve support for the arts in Iowa.
Ed Ritts, the new director of the Dubuque Museum of Art, had the best comment of the day: “I’ve worked in Georgia, North Carolina and South Carolina and never in my career has a state arts agency come to my museum to spend a day with me…it’s amazing.” If you’re worried about your upcoming site visit, talk to Terence Pitts at the Cedar Rapids Museum of Art, Ed Ritts or Sheila Perry from the Charles H. MacNider Art Museum in Mason City.
Thanks for all you do for the arts everyday. If you need assistance, call or e-mail. We’d love to help.
