Page 33 - APAP - Inside Arts - Conference 2020

like, what would the work look like, if we were able to take care of one another? If we were able to take care of ourselves? Would we be able to make different work?”
RISK AND RESILIENCE TURN THE TIDE
For both risk and resilience to resonate at the conference and beyond, the co-chairs know the necessity of persistence.
“I just don’t give up on our desire to help people connect with one another, and to try to maintain good will, and understanding, and new ways of doing things,” Fisher said of her own work with Mexican artists. “Challenging the way things
are and what is possible: working as a team is critical. Understanding each other’s roles, each other’s risks and each other’s realities.”
And maybe our cultural anxiety is heightened, as Thomas believes, because we are in fact at a tipping point: a moment where the old paradigms of access and equity are shifting, and none of us can foresee the future and therefore must lean into our values and our missions. “This is why our arts organizations are at the forefront,” Thomas said. “This is where we change lives. The currency of art is change, so of course we are going to feel this.”
“Now culturally specific communities feel like people are listening. We're in a moment,”
she continued. “I know that the tension we are feeling is because the message is much more wide spread than in the past. This is the time when it is important to push as hard and far and as fast as you can get. This momentum of turning the tide. I think there is a positive marker here.”
She laughed warmly before concluding: “A healthy dose of apocalyptic thinking and a heavy dose of magical realism.”
Linda L. Nelson is the deputy director for Portland Ovations in Maine. She was the founding executive director for Opera House Arts at Maine’s 1912 Stonington Opera House for 17 years and most recently served as assistant director for the Maine Arts Commission. Her journalistic and new media roots date back to her 13-year tenure at Village Voice Media in New York City.
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CONFERENCE 2020 INSIDE ARTS 31