WESTAF Update Notes #59 | December 2009
From Anthony Radich, Executive Director
This is the 59th in a continuing series of updates about the work of WESTAF
WESTAF-Region State Arts Agency Executive Directors and Arts Leaders Will Meet in Denver in December
On December 15 and 16, 2009, WESTAF-region state arts agency executive directors, board chairs, and state arts advocacy leaders from the West will gather in Denver for a professional development session. Steven J. Tepper, associate director of the Curb Center for Art, Enterprise, and Public Policy, and assistant professor of sociology at Vanderbilt University, will lead a seminar addressing agenda setting, framing, and collective action in support of the arts. Meeting participants will also update one another about the status and future of each state agency’s budget and state arts advocacy development.
Steven Tepper’s 2009 WESTAF Symposium Presentation Released
WESTAF is pleased to announce the audio release of Steven Tepper’s presentation at WESTAF’s recent annual cultural policy symposium, which was held October 15-17, 2009, in Aspen, Colorado. In the presentation, Tepper shares his perspective on the participation of young people in the arts and new patterns of arts participation by the public. His remarks are  available in .MP3 audio format at https://www.westaf.org/tepper.mp3. If you are unable to play the file, would like instructions for saving the file to your computer or audio device, or would prefer to access the file in a different format, please contact Erin Bassity at erin.bassity@westaf.org. Symposium proceedings will be released in batches as sessions are edited. The first release will be in January 2010. Full symposium proceedings will be available in June 2010. If you would like to receive these proceedings in segments as they become available, please submit your e-mail address to Erin Bassity.
Executive Director Anthony Radich Heads to Moscow
As part of a presidential initiative of the Obama Administration, WESTAF Executive Director Anthony Radich was invited to travel to Moscow, Russia, December 5-11, 2009, as a member of the U.S. Russia Bilateral Presidential Commission Working Group on Education, Sports, Cultural Exchanges, and Mass Media. The purpose of the meeting is to share information about cultural programming, to facilitate partnerships among cultural institutions in both the U.S. and Russia, and to increase cultural exchanges. The working group is a component of a vision shared by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Under Secretary of State for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs Judith McHale for expanding cooperation between Russia and the United States in the these fields.
Barry’s Blog to Feature Interview With Rocco Landesman, Chair of the National Endowment for the Arts, in January
Building on the high volume of interest in Barry Hessenius’s recent multi-week blog forum on the future of the National Endowment for the Arts, Hessenius is scheduled to interview newly appointed NEA Chairman Rocco Landesman and present the interview in his  January blog. To access the blog, please click here. Please note that in January, 2010, Barry’s Blog will soon move to new, more advanced platform. If you are a current Barry’s Blog subscriber, you will soon receive an e-mail notification requesting that you to confirm your continued subscription on the new blog platform. We hope you will agree to do so.
WESTAF Update Notes To Go Green
While Update Notes will remain a paper publication for the time being, we are currently updating WESTAF’s mailing list to include your e-mail addresses so that we can comply with requests for the electronic version of Update Notes. If you wish to receive Update Notes in an electronic format instead of receiving the paper publication, please forward your e-mail address to Erin Bassity at erin.bassity@westaf.org.  Also, please encourage others who might like to receive WESTAF updates in the future to contact Erin and provide her with their e-mail addresses as well. Once the “green” transition is complete, we will continue sending Update Notes via regular mail to those who prefer a paper format.

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