Making Exact Change
How U.S. arts-based programs have made a significant and sustained impact on their communities
By William Cleveland

• Table of Contents
• Part One: Introduction
• Part Two: Case Studies
• Part Three: Findings
• Part Four: Recommendations

Part Two: Case Studies

Northern Lakes Center for the Arts

Don Hansen (r.) as Ezra Williams in "The Neighbors" by Zona Gale.
Photo courtesy of Northern Lakes Center for the Arts.

Basic Facts

Snapshot

Water is a critical life force for the small community of Amery, Wisconsin, located 75 miles northeast of Minneapolis-St. Paul. The Water Project, a project of the Northern Lakes Center for the Arts (NLCA), was a multidisciplinary exploration into the issue of water — its use and abuse. Between November 2000 and December 2001, people working in different art forms presented creative strategies for discussing perspectives on water: a reading and publication of new writings inspired by water; an adaptation of Ibsen’s “An Enemy of the People” to present-day Amery; a chamber orchestra concert featuring water-related classical repertoire juxtaposed with newly commissioned work; the creation of Amery’s first three-dimensional piece of public art; and an exhibition of photography chronicling life along Amery’s Apple River.

This project illuminated the vital role that a local arts agency can play in catalyzing and linking public interest and discourse around a key civic issue in a small community. It examined the training and use of community members as facilitators for dialogue, particularly highlighting the vital role that young people can play; the potential to employ both classic and new work as a stimulus for dialogue; the tailoring of dialogue techniques to the art presented, as well as its anticipated participants; and the effectiveness of joining forces with other partners to build understanding and awareness around an issue. It underscored the difficult balancing act in arts-based civic dialogue that involves fostering authentic dialogue while retaining artistic quality and value so that each has validity and purpose. Throughout the evolution and implementation of this project, NLCA showed how flexibility, openness to opportunities, and a willingness to combine existing and potential resources lead to strengthened artistic activity, broadened public interest and involvement, and increased capacity within the community for meaningful dialogue.

—Cheryl Yuen, “The Water Project,” 2004[1]

Description

History

Wisconsin has a long history of arts development at the local level. At the very beginning of the 20th century, Progressive Party Governor Robert LaFollette and University of Wisconsin President Charles Van Hise developed “The Wisconsin Idea,” which carried forward the concept that all of the elements of state government, including the University of Wisconsin, belong to all of the residents of the state. The implication was that rather than requiring all residents to avail themselves of services centered in the State Capitol in Madison, it was the responsibility of state government and the university to go out into the state to where the people lived. And this concept was practiced in reality. Thomas Dickinson started community theaters in Madison and Milwaukee. Franz Rickaby and Helene Stratmann-Thomas traveled to rural corners of the state gathering Wisconsin folk music. John Steuart Curry, the first artist-in-residence of any major university, helped rural residents develop their drawing and painting talents as part of the Wisconsin Rural Artists Program. From the 1940s to the 1970s, it was impossible to turn on Wisconsin Public Radio (incidentally the oldest public radio station in the nation) without hearing “…this has been a production of the Wisconsin Idea Theater, Robert Gard, Director.” Robert Gard and his staff traveled to every corner of Wisconsin teaching writing and theater as part of various programs, including the Wisconsin Rural Writers Program.

To be quite honest, when we developed the Northern Lakes Center for the Arts, we did not do so to intentionally follow in the footsteps of those who had gone before us, but we had grown up with Wisconsin Public Radio and the Wisconsin Idea Theater and all of that was part of an inbred culture that was directed at developing the creative talents and the artistic imagination of local residents. When we started working, the commitment to growing the abilities of local people seemed only appropriate and logical.

—LaMoine MacLaughlin, 2005[2]

Mission/Values

Mission: Northern Lakes Center for the Arts was established in 1989 as a comprehensive cultural center organized and designed to provide local residents with the opportunity to develop and share their creative talents and abilities with one another and with the general public.

Values:

• The arts represent our society’s highest form of cultural and spiritual expression.
• The authentic experience of the arts involves active participation, not passive observation from a distance. Art is first of all a process rather than a product: Art is Action.
• Everyone possesses inherent creativity and imagination which can be further­developed.
• Involvement in the arts not only enriches the lives of individuals; it ennobles and raises the spirit of the entire community as well.
  Success and Change

Goals (2004/2005)

• To implement the Regular Season and Summer Season Activities Schedule (Concert Series, Drama Series, Writers’ Forums, etc.
• To continue operation of a community school of the arts
• Continue school for the arts enrollment of at least 100 students
• Continue scholarship program
• To implement a regranting program providing financial assistance to local arts organization
• To continue special project involvement
• Continue development of local endowment
• Continue public school long term art/literature residency
• Investigate/develop Palestinian exchange project
• Continue Clayton newspaper publication
• To continue necessary Center facility remodeling
• Continue/finish pipe-organ refurbishing
• Perform Center facility minor repairs

Defining Success

We haven’t redefined success so much as we have seen our original expectations reinforced: that local residents, if given positive support and room and time to grow, can produce beautiful music and wonderful theater and amazing dance and fantastic visual artwork and moving writing.

If significant and sustained positive impact, defined as change leading to the long term advancement of human dignity, health and/or productivity, means moving the community from where it is to somewhere else, then change has not been a specific intention of our work. We have always believed that Amery is a real, bona-fide community by any standard or definition and has inherently, almost by definition, advanced the human dignity, health and productivity of its local citizens. You don’t have to lock your doors (either of your house or of your automobile). The most common crime involves writing bad checks or minor shoplifting. This doesn’t mean that everyone likes everybody, but in very real ways we are all interdependent upon one another and respect one another.

—LaMoine Maclaughlin,
written response to MEC questionnaire, January 2005

Critical to Success

The Center’s programming has been guided by the needs and interests of the community it serves. The staff memebers feel their approach has been validated by the community’s support of and involvement in their activities. A further indication of the success of this way working has been the Center’s increasing integration into the community’s cultural and social life. “When we began,” MacLaughlin observes, “I was impressed by the fact that a local softball team had two families with three generations of players on the same team. We haven’t had three generations performing at the same time in our theater activities or in our chamber orchestra – yet – but we have had two generations frequently, and we will get there some day.”

Outcomes

At the most basic level, the Center’s supporters see their survival as the most critical outcome measure. Beyond that, MacLaughlin, once again defers to the wisdom of the community as an accurate measure of their effectiveness:

Having lived my life in rural areas, I have learned that rural residents are pretty no-nonsense when it comes to evaluating the worth of a local organization or activity: If they consider it worthwhile, they will support it; if not, they have other things to do. Beyond that, our students perform very well in arts competitions and we have had young people go on to pursue careers in the arts. Local residents have a great amount of respect for real, honest achievement.

The Center has a strong penchant for participation and active learning, so full houses are not necessarily considered threshold achievements. MacLaughlin quotes Baker Brownell to elaborate on the concept that “art is action”:

The passive, voyeuristic audience sitting in plush seats has nothing to do with what the arts are all about. Make no mistake about it – the one experiencing the art during any concert or performance is the artist – the audience is merely watching. The artist is having all the fun experiencing the creative delight; what the audience experiences vicariously is second best – once removed.

In contrast, MacLaughlin wants “everyone to experience first-hand what the artist does.”

When asked which of the program’s characteristics have most contributed to the program’s significant and sustained positive community impact, MacLaughlin points to their persistence as key. “It’s not so much a program as our having hung in there and stayed the distance for these past 15 years. Local residents know that we will be there when they need us and are ready for what the Center offers.”

MacLaughlin describes the Center’s evaluation efforts as “pretty unsophisticated.” The board of directors’ annual review process is designed to identify the specific community’s needs and articulate how the Center will respond to them over the coming year. The Center pays close attention to two indicators that tell them whether they are moving in the right direction.

• From the very beginning the organization has never operated in the red. This means that the community has financially supported the organization.
• People continue to enroll in the Center’s school of the arts and to be involved in and to attend its concerts, performances and exhibits.

Nuts and Bolts

Environment

Amery, Wisconsin, is a small, rural town of 2,863 situated 57 miles from the Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan area. Its downtown lies on an isthmus between the Apple River and Pike, North Twin and South Twin Lakes; Bear Trap and Wapogassett Lakes are nearby. The median age of Amery residents is just shy of 45 years old. In 2000, the average household income was $31,000 and the average house sold for around $93,000. Ninety-seven of every 100 residents in the town are white, with the majority tracing their ancestry to Scandinavia and Germany. The rest are either Hispanic or Native American. The 2000 census indicates that practically all the adults in town have at least a high-school diploma, with 20 percent completing college. Depending on the time of the year, unemployment fluctuates between 1 and 1-1/2 percent. Violent crime has an equally low profile. In wintertime, temperatures in Amery can dip significantly below zero, with an average in the teens. Summers are mild and sometimes humid. “Spring and Autumn are spectacular!”

Leadership

Says MacLaughlin, “We have always believed in the innate creativity and imagination latent within every individual and all of our programs have been developed with that belief in mind.”

Resources

The Center’s 2004 budget was $100,000. Over the organization’s 15-year history it has grown slowly, but steadily from $40,000 in 1986 to its current level.

Northern Lakes is supported primarily by earned income (70-75 percent: arts-school tuition, ticket sales, facility rental, etc.) with supplemental contributed income (25-30 percent: public funding [Wisconsin Arts Board, Wisconsin Humanities Council, etc.], corporate and foundation funding, Amery Area United Way and individual donations). They also have a small endowment ($55,000+), which helps support scholarships for needy students to attend the Northern Lakes School of the Arts.

As the budget has grown, the spread of funding sources has remained fairly consistent. MacLaughlin notes that “rural organizations do not typically have significant sources of contributed income available and so have had to survive on earned income, which is usually more stable.” He points to this as a critical element of their success with the community. “Our ability to survive and grow has been dependent upon and in response to meeting needs within our community. We have never been perceived as money scroungers with our hand continually in someone’s pocket or continually looking for contributed financial support from local businesses.”

Volunteers have also played a big role in the organization’s ability to sustain itself. Volunteers are active in everything from performing, to fundraising, to providing refreshments following concerts, to cleaning the facility.

Governance

Northern Lakes is governed by an 11-member board of directors. The following outlines board-member responsibilities:

• Oversight – assuring that the organization pursues programs to meet its mission and is properly managed (that it pursues its activities with honesty and integrity and meets the letter as well as the intent of any laws and regulations relating to nonprofit organizations and funding-source expectations)
• Involvement – participating in the organization’s activities in order to provide input and feedback for evaluating present programming and for developing the organization’s future plans, goals and objectives
• Stewardship – providing or securing adequate financial resources to support the organization’s programs
• Advocacy – communicating the importance of the organization’s mission, objectives and programs within the local community and other appropriate places[3]

Every board member must be actively involved in meeting all of these responsibilities all the time. If a board member is unwilling or unable to meet even one of these responsibilities, that board member should resign. Board membership is a gift to the organization, but it is a gift with expectations. It is a gift of focus, of commitment, of resources, and of time. If a person will not or cannot provide the organization with what is necessary to be a board member, there may be other ways of supporting the organization, but each board member must meet all of these responsibilities.[4]

From its early beginnings, the Northern Lakes Center for the Arts was governed by an active, committed board of directors. The eleven members of the board are drawn from the various participating discipline-specific guilds. They and two staff members developed a working mission statement that still remains the functioning purpose statement of the Center’s activities. MacLaughlin says that “without the Northern Lakes board of directors, the organization would have died long ago.”

Partnerships

The Center has developed very strong working partnerships with the local public schools, with local government and local business organizations. They take programming into the public schools at all levels on a regular basis (monthly at least). They are also active members of the Amery Community Club (which describes itself as “more than a chamber of commerce”). MacLaughlin chairs the club’s Fine Arts Committee.

Training

For the board of directors, the Center has developed a comprehensive new-board-member orientation/training program. MacLaughlin identifies the lack of training for new rural-arts leaderships as one of his major concerns. He points out that “those training programs that do exist among U.S. universities are very urban-oriented; next to nothing is available for people wishing to work in rural areas.”

Constraints

According to MacLaughlin:

There really have been very few bumps. Those that have occurred have usually resulted from our own ignorance or marching backwards into the future. Our major problem has always been the out-migration of our young people to urban areas. Amery exists geographically within the fifth ring of urban sprawl oozing from the Minneapolis/St. Paul metro area (so Amery is just off the edge). However, we know that the future will change our community and what we are doing in our work is trying to keep what is best of the present to carry it forward into the future.“

Advice to Funders

Says MacLaughlin:

Don’t continue to neglect rural areas. The most interesting activities taking place in the arts right now are happening in rural areas across the United States. Consider what Sheryl Crow said last year in an interview on “60 Minutes” (she was really speaking about commercialism as applied to the arts): “I can’t say that the (popular) music industry... is one that nurtures artistry. It doesn’t— It doesn’t create a comfort zone, it doesn’t ask you to be creative. It doesn’t ask you to be original. It asks you to fit into a format that people can make money off of.” The pseudo-artistry she describes can be applied to more than just the music industry and is centered in our urban areas. Real art is still happening, but in rural areas less focused upon copy-cat commercialism. Look at what is happening in rural areas.

[Next: Case Study: Swamp Gravy]  [Table of Contents]

Notes

1. Yuen, Cheryl, “ The Water Project” (Animating Democracy Initiative, Profiles & Case Studies, 2004)
2. MacLaughlin, LaMoine, “Let Art Begin at Home” (Community Arts Network, March 2005)
3. From Northern Lakes Art Center Board orientation materials
4. Ibid.