From the Executive Director

Here at the end of May, I’m thinking of renewal; young people graduating, carrying the weight and promise of the state of the world and the rest of their lives. It’s been a challenge for us to plan Alliance 40th Birthday activities next year under the weight of and promise of the election, the unavoidable hostage-taking of our media and our souls.  At some point in 2020, we will celebrate 40 years of The Alliance for Media Arts + Culture in a very special way, a National Day of Storytelling, a year of collective visioning of the future – honoring the history of NAMAC, and the unique and growing community of media organizations, institutions, artists, technologists, activists and educators who continue to support this ALLIANCE. We can renew each other with bold and intimate actions and gathering together during stressful times. If you’d like to contribute, plan, coordinate, co-create this celebration with us, please email me and I’ll hook you up. wendy@thealliance.media.

In other news: We are thrilled to welcome the Smithsonian as a partner in Arts2Work! Some lucky emerging filmmaker will be our first Arts2Work Apprentice in Washington, DC. Arts2Work Cities (like Philadelphia, New Orleans, NYC, DC, Chicago, Los Angeles, Baltimore, Oakland, Milwaukee, Spokane, Atlanta, Portland and others) are “works in progress” and we are putting together local employer and community training networks, pre-apprenticeship programs and Arts2Work Accelerator funding across the country. Stay tuned for the website launch next month – we will do a special eBulletin with the link.

I’m also very happy to announce new NEA funding for The Alliance and our Youth Media Initiative! Thanks to the co-creative work of our Youth Media Fellows and Advisors, with Senior Consultant Jason Wyman, The Alliance will be co-producing and co-hosting 15 Video Roundtables — interactive conversations focused on collecting and curating stories, videos, and resources that reflect and embody our NEA and Adobe-funded Collective Action work over the past two years. Entitled Emerging Practices in Youth Media, we re-imagined a traditional Collective Impact approach and designed a co-production process that centers the voices of youth artists, teaching artists, program directors, educators, and organizational leaders. Participants share emergent strategies from their respective youth media communities-of-practice and work through challenges as a field.  Overall, we were not looking for solutions or attempting to align prefabricated goals; this work is about how we collectively address the pressing questions of right now, how the field grows with meaning and relevance as young media makers themselves emerge from communities across the country.  More information on the Video Roundtables is coming next month including specific topics, dates, and registration process. See website for details. The Video Roundtables are co-hosted by Alliance member organizations including Austin Film Society, Creative Action, RYSE Youth Center, Indie Grits Labs, Jacob Burns Film Center, and Appalachian Media Institute.

Conferences and gatherings where you may find us this summer: Maryland Arts Summit, Free Minds, Free People, The Time is Now, Digital Summit Philadelphia. Reach out. Would love to hear from you.  wendy@thealliance.media