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Arts & Historic Preservation

Updated January 9, 2003

NCSL Cultural Policy Working Group
Washington, DC
December 11, 2002 - Meeting Summary

The second meeting of the NCSL Cultural Policy Working Group was held on December 11, 2002 in conjunction with NCSL's Fall Forum in Washington, DC.

In Attendance:

Legislators:
* Representative Sharon Weston Broome, Louisiana
* Representative Peter Lewiss, Rhode Island
* Representative Cheryl Kagan, Maryland

Legislative Staff:
* Susan Munley, Florida
* John Rappa, Connecticut

Others:
* Tom Birch, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies
* Mary Lee, Center for Arts & Culture
* Mandy Rafool, National Conference of State Legislatures

Introductions and Opening Remarks

Participants introduced themselves. Representative Lewiss (RI) and Mandy Rafool discussed the possibility of clustering cultural policy with biotech and high tech within NCSL and mentioned the New England Council's economic impact study. Concern was expressed that the Cultural Policy Working Group doesn't get good time spots at NCSL meetings.

Update on Dissemination Efforts

Mary Lee from the Center for Arts & Culture updates the group on the Center's Policy Partners dissemination efforts. She discussed the state convenings that are planned for Kentucky and Pennsylvania, the collaborative work to produce three documents with NCSL, and the Center's attendance at national domain meetings (National Trust for Historic Preservation conference, American Folklore Society meeting, National Assembly of State Arts Agencies conference, etc.) and other meetings such as the Ringling Cultural Policy Symposium in Sarasota, Florida. She stressed that while Kentucky and Pennsylvania have been selected for statewide meetings to discuss Policy Partners, the Center for Arts & Culture is eager to hold meetings of this kind in other states. The Center welcomes the opportunity to discuss this with interested parties. Lee answered many questions from the working group regarding the Center and their Policy Partners dissemination efforts.

General Discussion

Representative Weston Broome (LA) discussed the importance of relating culture to tourism in Louisiana and that the Lieutenant Governor has valued this connection. Representative Cheryl Kagan (MD) pointed out that in Maryland there is a statutory requirement that a member of the legislature serve on the arts council. Cumulatively, the group discussed the importance of being able to measure and formalize the impact of the arts and cultural sector on states. Discussion also centered on increased accountability for public funds, access to rural areas, and economic development.

Discussion of State Legislative Report Draft

The bulk of the group's discussion was meant to inform and revise a draft copy of the State Legislative Report, written by Mandy Rafool. Several members of the working group suggested a new section that illustrates ways to measure impact. Rafool reiterated the difficulty of measuring impact. Another suggestion was to include action steps. Rafool reminded the group that NCSL can't take an advocacy role and that best practices, while readily available in the arts, are too difficult to find or not available for folklife, humanities, and preservation.

A question posed was whether agencies are better protected when subsumed under other agencies (such as economic development). Discussion centered on the need for a graph (potentially produced by NCSL), which surveys all the states and presents information on where these agencies are located in each state. Rafool suggested that this might be good topic for an NCSL legisbrief, but might require too much research for our timeline. Rafool suggested that by denoting agency-by-agency money that is committed to cultural activities, arts and cultural allocations would become clearer.

As a specific recommendation to the draft, it was suggested that in the box found on page 15-16, specific examples from the arts domain be listed (which would show how placement of arts agencies varies state to state). Tom Birch of NASAA suggested that the document stress that regardless of the placement of organizations, collaborations are key and collaborations work. Birch reiterated that the purpose of Policy Partners, which the State Legislative Report is meant to disseminate, is to stress the importance of collaborations.

John Rappa (CT) pointed out that legislators want to know what they can do to encourage collaborations-with the goal of efficacy. Others agreed that that is absolutely the point and that action steps would be helpful. It was suggested that this be inserted into the document before the conclusion. The group collectively comprised several suggested action steps:

Proposed Action Steps:

Upcoming Meetings

The NCSL Spring Forum will be held April 24-27, 2003 in Boston. Projected attendance is lower since state budgets and travel allowances are tighter.

The 29^th Annual NCSL Meeting will be held July 21-25, 2003 in San Francisco. Mark Schuster, Professor of Urban Cultural Policy at MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning, is interested in speaking to the Cultural Policy Working Group. The San Francisco meeting may be the optimal time, since attendance is expected to be higher than the April meeting.

Deadlines for publications and Proposed Topics

(All publications will be available by the San Francisco meeting)

If you have any questions about this project or would like more information, please contact mandy.rafool@ncsl.org.

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