THE CREATIVE ALLIANCE COLUMN

I have been making a list of great books and websites for artists and supporters of artists to read this summer (for the record I also read light magazines besides this type of heavy reading) Here is my very short list:

Books:

Stewards of the Sacred, edited by Lawrence E. Sullivan & Alison Edwards (AF advisory board member!) is a best seller and is published by the American Association of Museums. Basically there is no international policy that museums who hold sacred objects and human remains have to follow in how they care for them, display them, and interact with the communities/peoples they are from. This book addresses these issues and many more. I was able to attend some of the conference that lead to this book. It was daunting to me to think that there was not a clear global policy for addressing these important issues. It made me think, what about museum's roles as stewards of the other objects and art they hold? Say contemporary art? Site specific art? Or dare I say potentially stolen art?

Authors and their Books:

Malcolm Gladwell has written two books worth reading, The Tipping Point and Blink. He has his own website that has a Blog, excerpts from the two books, and an archive of his pieces for the New Yorker and for Slate.

Another good author to have on one’s radar is Jim Collins. His, Why Business Thinking is Not the Answer-Good to Great-and the social sectors- A monograph to Accompany Good to Great, is worth buying never mind reading. For more information see hiswebsite.

Reports and organizations:

A must read: Lens on the Bay State: Motion Picture Production in Massachusetts. This report can be down loaded off of the Alliance for Independent Motion Media’s website.

Health Care for All of Massachusetts is an organization the AF has been collaborating with for years. They have been on the forefront of the Health Care Reform Debate in Massachusetts and nationally. Their website and news e-letter is worth looking at.

Americans for the Arts is one of my favorite organizations who are fighting for artists and the arts. Often in the fight for the arts, artists and their needs get left out of the agenda. This organization has a national advisory board of artists! And they are currently working on legislation that will directly benefit artists as well as the standard needed type of legislation that will benefit the arts establishment. Their web section on national arts news is great to see what is going on in the US.
(for those interested in what is going on in our state see: MAASH.org)

The Rand Corporation- yes you have heard their name banded about. It is worth looking at their website and reading the reports they have published on the arts.

European Cultural Policies 2015: A Report with Scenarios on the Future of Public Funding for Contemporary Art in Europe. The report is a collaboration between Iaspis (International Artist Studio Programme in Sweden) eipcp (European Institute for Progressive Cultural Policies) and åbäke, an international design group based in London. The report was produced on the occasion of the Frieze Art Fair in October 2005. The report is also available as a pdf-file online.

Planning to go away for a residency? Then the Alliance of Artists’s Communities is the organization for you! They publish the Artists Communities- a directory of residencies in the United States that offer time and space for creativity.

Also of note for international residencies: The International Network for Residential Art Centers: www.resartis.org

Stay tuned for news on a conference for international residencies that is slated to be in Boston Spring 07 during the Cyberarts Festival. (Sign up for the Artists Foundation’s free list serve www.artistsfoundation.org and also check our public policy section).

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