PROGRAMS and INITIATIVES

Field Guide to FEMA and SBA for Arts Organizations & Businesses, Artists & Cultural Workers

The National Coalition for Arts’ Preparedness and Emergency Response (NCAPER) contracted AdvisArts to research and create a written guide to federal assistance for the arts sector for use following a national disaster. The Field Guide to FEMA and SBA for Arts Organizations & Businesses, Artists & Cultural Workers (2021) is available for download in English and Spanish. Developed with funding from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, the document is geared toward the needs of artists and arts organizations in response to a declared natural disaster, to be supplemented by an online tool. The publication complements FEMA, SBA, and other federal agency information by demystifying federal emergency management processes and timelines in terms that are relevant to the arts sector. The document also serves national, state and local arts agencies as an informational tool to illuminate the opportunities, protocols and procedures available after presidentially declared disasters. The Field Guide highlights FEMA and SBA programs of particular relevance for individuals, organizations, and businesses in the arts, and includes an introduction to additional federal resources.

National Coalition for Arts’ Preparedness and Emergency Response (NCAPER)

CERF+ Artists Readiness Project

The increase in natural disasters spotlights the need for emergency readiness in all sectors. CERF+ Artist Readiness Project (CARP) is a new initiative focused on strengthening readiness, response, and recovery for diverse populations of individual artists. With the support of the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, CERF+ worked with AdvisArts to research emergency needs and response methods relevant to artists, and to create a roadmap for CARP pilot projects across the country. This initiative builds on past work undertaken by CERF+ to address artists’ emergency needs, as well as related efforts in the cultural sector including the Performing Arts Readiness Project (PAR), and the National Coalition for Arts Preparedness and Emergency Response (NCAPER). The 2019 research focused on selected regions of the country where high concentrations of artists intersect with a high likelihood of various natural disasters, as identified by FEMA. This exploration resulted in identification of three pilot sites for 2020-2021: Arts Council of Greater Baton Rouge in Louisiana; Artist Trust in Washington State; and Springboard for the Arts, in Minnesota. AdvisArts developed recommendations to guide and assess these three 18-month projects, and to advance a community of practice in emergency preparedness with the artist-serving sector.

CERF+ the Artists Safety Net

Arts Ecosystem Research Project

The Arts Ecosystem Research Project (AERP) is dedicated to researching, documenting, and sharing information on the Seattle region’s dynamic arts and culture sector. The focus is the arts organizations, businesses, and major events that shaped the region’s recent cultural character, with the 1962 Seattle World’s Fair serving as a threshold event. This multi-year project links research conducted by graduate students in Seattle University’s MFA in Arts Leadership with a digital repository of scholarship at Seattle University’s Lemieux Library, working in partnership with the regional arts community. The project was launched in 2017 and was developed by AdvisArts founder Claudia Bach, who has served as Adjunct Faculty at Seattle University since 2010. The AERP BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) Research Initiative was developed in 2020 and continues to amplify research from diverse communities. All AERP research builds on the lived experiences of the individuals involved in shaping this relatively young arts ecosystem, and offers insights to inform the future of the arts sector. In 2023 AERP began commissioning articles by Community Writers whose insights and research add new perspectives on the regional arts ecosystem.

AERP has received support from the Seattle Office of Arts & Culture, 4Culture, Museum of History and Industry, Seattle Public Library, and others. Student research that meets all requirements becomes part of the publicly accessible AERP digital timeline and website and ScholarWorks. New research expands the timeline and repository as it is completed.

Arts Ecosystem Research Project (AERP)
Seattle University’s MFA in Arts Leadership
ScholarWorks

Artist Trust’s Creating a Living Legacy Program

The essential tasks of documenting artwork, ensuring long-term access to an artistic legacy, and addressing estate planning are daunting for most artists. Claudia Bach, AdvisArts principal, has worked with Artist Trust on a series of related artist legacy projects, with support from the Joan Mitchell Foundation’s Creating a Living Legacy (CALL) initiative.

In 2016 focus groups with Washington artists and artists’ service providers explored needs and perspectives on estate and legacy planning, resulting in a webinar and an estate planning checklist. These projects built on work AdvisArts did with Artist Trust and CALL in 2013 to advance relevant technology skills for digital documentation and archiving by visual artists, and to expand information on local, state and national archives and repositories of relevance for Artist Trust’s online professional development resource.

These efforts have spurred further exploration of blue-sky thinking on new forms for digital art archiving, estate planning tools, and effective legacy management for artists in the years to come.

Artist Trust

Fell from the Sky

This project grew from a wish by a single donor to provide support to women artists in King County, Washington, who face significant hurdles in advancing their creative art making and career due to the constraints of motherhood and financial need. Fell from the Sky is a means to financially assist a small cohort of women visual artists whose work as mothers has potentially stymied their work as artists. The project recognizes the challenging balancing act of making art and supporting children. Seven established artists nominated artists meeting the criteria. The donor selected seven recipients to receive unrestricted gifts (not grants) of $2000 per year for three years, for a total of $6000 each. The recipient’s only obligation is to be the donor’s guest at three informal dinners with fellow recipients over the three-year period, including a final celebratory dinner and conversation at the conclusion of the funding cycle in 2017. Claudia Bach, AdvisArts principal, worked with the donor to plan and shape the program. Fell from the Sky is conceived as a single three-year cycle that may or may not be continued in future cycles, at the discretion of the donor. It is hoped that the project may also inspire others in their support for individual women artists.

Fell from the Sky

Seattle Music Commission

AdvisArts worked with the City of Seattle’s Office of Film + Music, part of the Office of Economic Development, to explore opportunities to build on the strength and diversity of music in Seattle. This fledgling initiative led to the creation of City of Music: a vision for the future of music in Seattle and an assessment of the City of Seattle’s potential role in advancing this vision. The vision process, completed in September 2007, identified components relevant to musicians, music education, live music venues, and music businesses, as well as other sectors, in enhancing opportunities and outcomes by 2020. A key result of this process was the creation of the 21-member Seattle Music Commission, established by the Seattle City Council in 2010. AdvisArts provided assistance in the formation and start up phase of this new Commission, and worked with Commissioners and staff to develop an inaugural Seattle Music Commission Workplan and committee structure, and continues to provide consulting and facilitation support as the work of the Commission evolves.

Seattle Music Commission

Washington Artists Health Insurance Project

AdvisArts worked with Artist Trust and Leveraging Investments in Creativity (LINC) to research and investigate options for increasing health and insurance access for artists. The initiative was created in 2004 and developed into the Washington Artists Health Insurance Project (WAHIP) with a focus on Washington State artists. Initial steps included identification of innovative programs and models around the country, and bringing together a consortium of experts from health care, workers’ benefits, insurance and the arts to investigate new strategies. AdvisArts also provided oversight of the 2005 statewide WAHIP Survey of Artists and Arts Workers and the report, Artists and Health Insurance: Existing Data and Implications for the Washington Artists Health Insurance Project. AdvisArts worked over subsequent years with Artist Trust and other Washington State partners in four key areas: information and education for artists; exploration of innovative access options; coalition building and advocacy on legislative issues that impact health coverage access for individual artists; and the creation and testing of a new subsidy supporting community clinic access for artists. The work of WAHIP has been supported by numerous sources including the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation, Ford Foundation and the Nathan Cummings Foundation. Artist Trust continues to build on the WAHIP legacy by providing education and information on health care for artists.

Artist Trust Health Resources for Artists

Office of Film + Music’s Content Technology Initiative

The Content Technology Initiative strives to connect local creative assets with technology leaders to position Seattle as a global innovator in digital media creation and distribution. This initiative, supported by Living Cities through an award to the City of Seattle Office of Film + Music (OF+M), explores the economic development relationship between artists, content creators and entrepreneurs in interrelated media industries. AdvisArts and Community Attributes International were selected to work with OF+M and leaders from these fields to refine the definition of a Content Technology economic cluster, identifying core and supporting industries and inter-industry connections. Seattle’s Content Technology Initiative: A Report and Cluster Map Investigating Creative Asset Convergence examines and maps the characteristics and relationships of this emerging sector, as well as defining strategic themes and opportunities to support and instigate intentional convergence. This report serves as the foundation for additional work to maximize sector strengths and potential in the region.

Office of Film + Music’s Content Technology

Twining Humber Lifetime Achievement Award

The Irving and Yvonne Twining Humber Award for Lifetime Artistic Achievement is an unrestricted award given annually to a Washington State female visual artist, age 60 or over, who has dedicated 25 or more years of her life to creating art. The award recognizes creative excellence, professional accomplishment and dedication to the visual arts. Claudia Bach, AdvisArts principal, worked with Yvonne Twining Humber (1907-2004) and Artist Trust to conceive of an award that would serve as a lasting legacy to her lifetime of work as a noted painter and would also serve to acknowledge and support the work of other women artists. A panel comprised of visual artists and arts professionals is convened each year to select the recipient of a $10,000 award made possible by a gift from Yvonne Twining Humber to the Artist Trust Endowment Fund.

Learn more about the work and legacy of Yvonne Twining Humber.
article by Claudia Bach