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Arts Advocacy and Arts Policy

Questions and ideas around the relationship between the arts and government are explored in this section, including a guide to advocating for the arts at a national level in the United States, a vision for a new Green Federal Theatre Project, and many pieces about arts policy in cities and countries around the world.

The Latest

La MaMa LiveTalks: Dmitry Krymov and Yasha Klots
Video
La MaMa LiveTalks: Dmitry Krymov and Yasha Klots
Join us for a live conversation between celebrated exiled Russian Dimity Krymov and Yasha Klots, associate professor of Russian, CUNY Hunter College.
Monday 25 March 2024
New York
Ripples of Legacy in California’s Latinx Theatres
Essay
Ripples of Legacy in California’s Latinx Theatres
by Richard Falcon, Fran Astorga
12 June 2023
Claim Your Culture, Find Your Power
Essay
Claim Your Culture, Find Your Power
by Jacqueline Flores, Abel López
5 May 2023
An image compromised of two different headshot style photographs.
La MaMa LiveTalks: Dmitry Krymov and Yasha Klots
Video

La MaMa LiveTalks: Dmitry Krymov and Yasha Klots

Join us for a live conversation between celebrated exiled Russian Dimity Krymov and Yasha Klots, associate professor of Russian, CUNY Hunter College.

Monday 25 March 2024
New York

A little over a year after Krymov’s relocation to New York, they will discuss rebuilding his career from the ground up, censorship, and the importance of artistic expression.

Two men posing for a picture in front of a wall that reads "Experimental Theater".
Ripples of Legacy in California’s Latinx Theatres
Essay

Ripples of Legacy in California’s Latinx Theatres

12 June 2023

Richard Falcon and Fran Astorga discuss the need for inclusive spaces that led to founding their own companies, the road blocks they've pushed against, and the legacy they hope to create as part of the teatro field.

Two people standing on a barely lit stage with large photos of faces behind them.
Claim Your Culture, Find Your Power
Essay

Claim Your Culture, Find Your Power

5 May 2023

Jacqueline Flores and Abel López, co-curators of the Latinx Leaders at the Forefront series, discuss their careers, their sense of cultural identity as Latinx theatremakers, and importance of intergenerational dialogue.

From the Ground Up Podcast image featuring Miranda Wright.
Ensemble as Contemporary Commentary
Podcast

Ensemble as Contemporary Commentary

19 April 2023

Miranda Wright, producer and executive director at Los Angeles Performance Practice, and Jeffrey Mosser discuss how Miranda has developed a presenting organization for sharing ambitious, collaboratively created work over the last ten years, as well as what she’s learned from some major arts funding research.

Event poster for no summary Comedy as a Form of Solidarity and Resistance.
NO SUMMARY: Comedy as a Form of Solidarity and Resistance
Video

NO SUMMARY: Comedy as a Form of Solidarity and Resistance

A Conversation with Artists and Students of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Columbia College Chicago

Friday 14 April 2023
United States

In the first episode of our 2023 season, Golden Thread’s Sahar Assaf, executive artistic director, and Wafaa Bilal, artist-in-residence, will be joined by the classes of associate professor Simon Anderson, a British-born-and-educated cultural historian, and interdisciplinary Syrian artist Sami Hussain Ismat, at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and Columbia College Chicago.

event poster for Re-Centering Cultural Performance and Orange Economy Book Launch.
Book Launch: Re-Centering Cultural Performance and Orange Economy in Post-Colonial Africa: Policy, Soft Power, and Sustainability
Video

Book Launch: Re-Centering Cultural Performance and Orange Economy in Post-Colonial Africa: Policy, Soft Power, and Sustainability

Offering Perspectives on Ways Existing Cultural and Non-Cultural Infrastructures Can Open Opportunities for Diplomacy and Soft Power

Tuesday 14 March 2023
Saskatchewan, Canada

The Centre for Socially Engaged Theatre (C-SET) at the Faculty of Media, Art, and Performance at the University of Regina, in collaboration with Theatre Emissary International, presents the online book launch of Re-centering Cultural Performance and Orange Economy in Post-Colonial Africa: Policy, Soft Power, and Sustainability. This book explores the role of national theatres, cultural centers, cultural policy, festivals, and the film industry as creative and cultural performance hubs for exercising soft power and cultural diplomacy. This event will feature live captioning and ASL interpretation.

Two actors sit across from each other at a small square table during a show.
Civic Imagination: The Urgency of Possibility
Essay

Civic Imagination: The Urgency of Possibility

27 February 2023

Theatre artist Michael Rohd shares a lyrical call for more civic imagination, community care, and care-centric processes in the theatre field.

Critical Stages in Malawian Contemporary Theatre teaser image with the title at the top and a picture of the guest in the middle.
Producing Malawi’s First Multidisciplinary Arts Festival
Podcast

Producing Malawi’s First Multidisciplinary Arts Festival

9 January 2023

When filmmaker Thomas Chibambo founded the Blantyre Arts Festival in 2009, it was Malawi’s first multi-disciplinary arts festival. He joins host Fumbani Innot Phiri, Jr. to discuss the Blantyre Arts Festival’s current plans to better support theatrical performance and his own work to establish an Arts Council in Malawi.

Artistic imagination as force for change event poster.
Animating Democracy Session Three
Video

Animating Democracy Session Three

Artistic Imagination as a Force for Change

Friday 18 November 2022
United States

Art2Action and Animating Democracy presented Artistic Imagination as a Force for Change, the third event in the series Animating Democracy: REFLECTING FORWARD, livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Friday 18 November 2022 at 1 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 3 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 4 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4).

headshots of Stacy Klein and Baraka Sele.
The Radical and The Revolutionary
Video

The Radical and The Revolutionary

Stacy Klein and Baraka Sele on their Experiences in Theatre and Life as part of Double Edge Theatre's Fortieth Anniversary

Sunday 16 October 2022
Massachusetts

Double Edge Theatre presented The Radical and The Revolutionary, livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Sunday 16 October 2022 at 11 a.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 1 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 2 p.m. EDT (Boston, UTC -4).

event poster for The Novelist as Knowledge Keeper Safe Havens Freedom Talk.
Freedom Talk: The Importance of Storytelling
Video

Freedom Talk: The Importance of Storytelling

The Novelist as Knowledge Keeper

Friday 14 October 2022
South Africa

Safe Havens Freedom Talks (SH|FT) presented an Freedom Talk: The Novelist as Knowledge Keeper livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Friday 14 October 2022 at 8:30 a.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4) / 12:30 UTC / 2:30 p.m. SAST (Capetown, UTC +2).

Event poster for ietm belgrade Plenary Meeting 2022.
IETM Belgrade Plenary Meeting 2022
Video

IETM Belgrade Plenary Meeting 2022

Work Hard, Live Harder!

Thursday 29 September and Saturday 1 October 2022
Belgrade, Serbia

IETM presented the IETM Belgrade Plenary Meeting 2022 livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Thursday 29 September and Saturday 1 October 2022.

event poster for animating democracy session one voter mobilization and the arts.
Animating Democracy Session One
Video

Animating Democracy Session One

Voter Mobilization and the Arts

Wednesday 28 September 2022
United States

Art2Action and Animating Democracy presented Animating Democracy: Voter Mobilization and the Arts, the first event in the series Animating Democracy: REFLECTING FORWARD, livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Wednesday 28 September 2022 at 1 p.m. PDT (San Francisco, UTC -7) / 3 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 4 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4).

open channels 2022 poster.
Canales Abiertos / Open Channels
Video

Canales Abiertos / Open Channels

Un Taller de Teatro Popular del Caribe desde Santiago de Cuba y Nueva Orleans / A Caribbean Theatre Workshop from Santiago de Cuba & New Orleans

Saturday 9 July 2022
Santiago de Cuba

The Stone Center for Latin American Studies, The Cuban and Caribbean Studies Institute of Tulane University (New Orleans, Louisiana), and Estudio Teatral Macubá presented Canales Abiertos 2022 livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Saturday 9 July at 7 a.m. PDT (Los Angeles, UTC -7) / 9 a.m. CDT (Mexico City, UTC -5) / 10 a.m. EDT (Santiago de Cuba, UTC -4).

event poster for freedom talk at the power of art.
Freedom Talk at the Power of Art
Video

Freedom Talk at the Power of Art

We Don’t Call It Occupation, We Call It Ihtilal, Suffocation

Friday 8 July 2022
Jenin, Palestine

Safe Havens Freedom Talks (SH|FT) presented a Freedom Talk at Power of Art: We Don’t Call It Occupation, We Call It Ihtilal, Suffocation livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Friday 8 July at 8:30 a.m. EDT (New York, UTC -7) / 12:30 p.m. UTC / 2:30 p.m. CEST (Stockholm, UTC +2) / 3:30 p.m. EEST (Jenin, UTC +3).

Urban Bush Women Summer Leadership Institute's Culminating Performance event poster.
The Urban Bush Women Summer Leadership Institute's Culminating Performance
Video

The Urban Bush Women Summer Leadership Institute's Culminating Performance

Using Music, Dance, Theatre, Visual Design, and Spoken Word to Address This Year’s Theme “Are We Democracy?”

Saturday 18 June 2022
New York, New York, United States

Urban Bush Women presented the 2022 Summer Leadership Institute (SLI) Culminating Performance livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Saturday 18 June at 4 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4) / 3 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 1 p.m. PDT (Los Angeles, UTC -7), and then again at 6 p.m. EDT (New York, UTC -4) / 5 p.m. CDT (Chicago, UTC -5) / 3 p.m. PDT (Los Angeles, UTC -7).

2022 TCG Conference in Pittsburgh event poster.
2022 TCG National Conference: Pittsburgh
Video

2022 TCG National Conference: Pittsburgh

Redefining Our Art. Transforming Our Practices. Tending to Our People.

Thursday 16 June to Saturday 18 June 2022
Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States

Theatre Communications Group (TCG) presented the 2022 TCG National Conference: Pittsburgh livestreaming on the commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network from Thursday 16 June to Saturday 18 June 2022.

Six people dressed in fake soldier uniforms protest the war with a banner.
There Was Some Contemporary Culture Left in Russia. Then Putin Started a War.
Essay

There Was Some Contemporary Culture Left in Russia. Then Putin Started a War.

4 April 2022

Russian theatremaker Viktor Vilisov details the rapidly dwindling infrastructure for free expression in Russian culture in a time of war. As theatres and theatre workers navigate the deterioration of their sector, elements of performance persist in anti-war protests and state political messaging alike.

event poster for safe havens freedom talk the power of art event.
The Power of Art
Video

The Power of Art

To Create and to Oppose: People Will Not Listen to Politicians, but They Will Listen to Artists

Friday 4 February 2022
Norway

Safe Havens Freedom Talks presented a conversation on The Power of Art livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Friday 4 February 2022 at 8:30 a.m. EST (New York, UTC -5) / 14:30 CET (Oslo, UTC +1).

School of Resistance: Pitfalls of Representation: Assemblies in Theatre
Video

School of Resistance: Pitfalls of Representation: Assemblies in Theatre

Looking at the Often Productive, Often Ambivalent Relationship Between Art and Activism

Saturday 29 January 2022
Ghent, Belgium

NTGent presented School of Resistance, Pitfalls of Representation: Assemblies in Theatre livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Saturday January 29 2022 at 10 a.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC -8) / 1 p.m. EST (New York, UTC -5) / 19:00 CET (Ghent, UTC +1).

event poster for school of resistance: Art in conflicted areas.
School of Resistance: Practices from Euromaidan to Belarus / Art in Conflicted Areas
Video

School of Resistance: Practices from Euromaidan to Belarus / Art in Conflicted Areas

Conversations questioning civil and artistic practices of resistance.

Friday 17 December 2021
Munich, Germany

IIPM and NTGent in collaboration with the Münchner Kammerspiele presented School of Resistance: Practices from Euromaidan to Belarus / Art in conflicted areas livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network at howlround.tv on Friday 17 December 2021 at 8 a.m. PST (Los Angeles, UTC-8) / 11 a.m. EST (New York, UTC -5) / 16:00 GMT (London, UTC +0) / 17:00 CET (Munich, UTC +1) / 18:00 EET (Kyiv, UTC +2).

event poster for Climate Action in a Global Landscape: A TCG Virtual Summit.
Climate Action in a Global Landscape
Video

Climate Action in a Global Landscape

A Theatre Communications Group Virtual Summit

Thursday 9 December 2021
United States

Theatre Communications Group (TCG) presented Climate Action in a Global Landscape: A TCG Virtual Summit as part of the 2021-2022 TCG Fall-Winter Convening Season: Crisis and Transformation, livestreaming on the global, commons-based, peer-produced HowlRound TV network on Thursday 9 December 2021 at 10 a.m. PST (Los Angeles, UTC -8) / 1 p.m. EST (New York, UTC -5) / 18:00 GMT (London, UTC +0) / 19:00 CET (Berlin, UTC +1).

event poster for panel conversation what we risk for art.
What we risk for art
Video

What we risk for art

How censorship and persecution of individual artists reflect a global trend with the Safe Havens Conference 2021

Saturday 4 December 2021
United States

Safe Havens Freedom Talks presented the event: What we risk for art livestreaming on the commons-based peer produced HowlRound TV network on Saturday 4 December 2021 at 10 a.m. PST (San Francisco, UTC -8) / 1 p.m. EST (New York, UTC -5) / 6 p.m. GMT (London, UTC +0) / 7 p.m. CET (Stockholm, UTC +1).

Imagining a New Federal Theatre Project with Corinna Schulenberg and Dr. Elizabeth A. Osborne
Podcast

Imagining a New Federal Theatre Project with Corinna Schulenberg and Dr. Elizabeth A. Osborne

24 November 2021

As a part of the New Deal, the Federal Theatre Project of the 1930s funded theatre in the United States at an unprecedented level, providing paid work for trained theatremakers and low-cost performances to audiences all around the country. Corinna Schulenberg and Dr. Elizabeth A. Osborne discuss the history of the Federal Theatre Project and its potential to act as a model for a New Federal Theatre Project formed in conjunction with racial justice, climate justice, and Land Back movements.

The Future Is Now: Conversations with Ambrose Idemudia Joshua and Rusanda Curcă
Podcast

The Future Is Now: Conversations with Ambrose Idemudia Joshua and Rusanda Curcă

12 November 2021