Focus on Yakima Arts: A Workshop and Forum

The Washington State Arts Commission presented an Arts Participation Leadership Initiative free learning event in Yakima, co-sponsored by The National Endowment for the Arts (an outgrowth of our work with The Wallace Foundation).

Forum

Focus on Yakima Arts: A Workshop and Forum featured nationally recognized speakers on increasing arts participation and audiences. The forum and workshop were held on Wednesday, June 29 at the Yakima Valley Convention Center. Speakers included:

• Christy Farnbauch of Strategic Links, Columbus, Ohio
• Jerry Yoshitomi of MeaningMatters, Los Angeles, California

Workshop - 9:30 to 11:30 am

Enage Now! Expand Your Bases of Support! Raise More Money!

All arts organizations were invited to explore how to build new audiences, motivate board members, facilitate change using social media, and expand bases of support.

Lunch Forum - 12 to 1:30 pm (complimentary lunch)

The Effective Role of the Arts & Artists in Economic and Community Development

City and arts leaders were invited to hear how communities are deploying the arts for economic and community benefit. Community bankers, chamber of commerce members, and elected officials in many cities in the US and Canada are using these concepts.

Webinar

The Washington State Arts Commission is held a follow up conversation on our Focus on Yakima forum and workshops.

Participants from around the state joined in on August 3rd from noon to 1 pm for a free, engaging conversation on the arts in Yakima.

A wide range of people heard about how communities are deploying the arts for economic and community benefit. Community bankers, chamber of commerce members, and elected officials in many cities in the US and Canada are using these concepts.

Related Reading

• Creative Placemaking (PDF) by Ann Markusen and Anne Gadwa. This white paper is for The Mayors’ Institute on City Design, a leadership initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts in partnership with the United States Conference of Mayors and American Architectural Foundation.
• Press Release - Study Shows the Majority of Arts Graduates Find Satisfying Work, Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP)
• Toronto Symphony Orchestra strikes gold with the kids, LA Times Culture Monster blog.

About the Speakers

Christy Farnbauch

Christy Farnbauch is a community engagement strategist who speaks on creating connections, meaning and value. Since 2006, Strategic Links, LLC has helped hundreds of people and organizations use proven ways to engage stakeholders, partners and audiences, resulting in more volunteers, fans, and money.

Christy, an experienced nonprofit leader for over 20 years, served Ohio's nonprofit arts and cultural organizations through her work at the Ohio Arts Council (OAC) between 1991 and 2004. As the OAC’s Community Development Director, she developed extensive insight into building participation and communicating the public value of nonprofit arts organizations through The Wallace Foundation's START Executive Leadership Program.

As the Business and Community Partnership Coordinator for Hilliard City Schools (Ohio’s eighth largest school district), she managed the planning, implementation, and evaluation of partnerships with businesses and community organizations in support of the district’s educational goals. Christy facilitates conversations, and designs training materials for organizations across the country and internationally.

She is the author of countless articles and is co-author of a paper entitled, From Transactions to Transformations: New Frameworks for Revealing the Public Value of the Arts. She is published in Yes!: 50 Scientifically Proven Ways to Be Persuasive by Goldstein, Martin and Cialdini. Christy’s training materials for Made To Stick, by Chip and Dan Heath, are included a SkillSoft Executive Leadership Series. Her blog, The Missing Link, provides readers with practical ways to engage people in meaningful ways.

Jerry Yoshitomi

Jerry Yoshitomi began his work as an arts administrator as Grants Manager and Artists in the Schools Coordinator for visual artist residencies at the Arizona Commission on the Arts, where he eventually became Deputy Director. He then went on to become Vice President at Western States Arts Foundation (now WESTAF), managing (amongst other projects) the Western States Biennial Exhibition which opened at the Denver Art Museum and then traveled to the National Collection of Fine Arts, the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art and the Newport Harbor Art Museum (now the Orange County Museum of Art).

Jerry is an independent cultural facilitator and Chief Knowledge Officer of MeaningMatters, LLC. MeaningMatters, LLC is engaged by foundations, public arts agencies, and arts organizations to research and provoke innovative new practices that have changed the landscape of arts practice in the United States, Canada, Australia, and more recently New Zealand and the United Kingdom.

Organizations and artists have successfully implemented methods from his writings and workshops to diversify attendance, deepen engagement and increase earned and contributed income.

Jerry is the facilitator for a collaborative of Performing Arts Presenters at major research universities and served as facilitator for the START (State Arts Agency) Initiative of the Wallace Foundation, managed by Arts Midwest. He participated in a team to create the Cultural Master Plan for the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department, a Regional Learning Framework to increase participation in the arts for the Washington State Arts Commission and an evaluation of the California Community Foundation’s Arts Program.