The New Face of Arts Leadership in the West - westaf - The Western ...

California Arts Council artist-in-residence artist,
which, again, continued my own artistic leadership
in the community. I started to develop my
own performance work. I became involved
with the Highways Performance Space. I started
sweeping the floor, and I became the artistic
director eventually and continued to sweep
the floor. It is all part of this world that we know
and we love and that we know the work we
are doing is really important and vital. We
can see it, and we can see it manifest in the
people who touch us as we touch them. So the
work that I hope that I have and am fortunate
enough to continue to do, I will be able to do.
But, back to the ma’am. Ma’am. The body is
changing. I can see 10, 15 years forward a little
clearer in a sense. I have to look at what I have.
I have a tremendous amount of experience as
an arts administrator, as a theatre artist, as a
residency artist. Those three things do not give
me health insurance, which is very important.
What I have done is, in a way, transitioned
out of the arts field for the moment, I hope,
so that I can go back and get my bachelor’s
degree, so I can go back and perhaps teach
in a related field or perhaps get into the
classroom, perhaps get benefits in that way.
What concerns me is I entered in ‘92, ‘93,
‘94—it’s all kind of a blur—but I entered the
community-based art world at that time,
during the height of what we now call the
culture wars. That was kind of the first wave
of de-funding for the arts, which I think very
much is a political act—if not an attack on next
generations—because it is a way of taking away
funding, taking away a voice, so we have to find
those alternative methods and modes of bringing
the voice through. We experience it again
and again. Each time, we find new, innovative
approaches to filling areas of funding that were
lost. But I think that there is a gap that is occurring
between, let’s say, my generation and your
generation, and it is really frightening. I want to
know and open it up and maybe start exchanging
some more ideas of ways we can do this.
Health care is not a new issue, yet I don’t feel
that it is being addressed locally or on a state
or even a regional level. Leadership transition
and succession: I took over an organization
from a very charismatic founding director—one
of the artist-driven models that we hear about,
which are almost nonexistent at the moment.
So are we perhaps looking at, say in another
five years, a new surge of artist-driven organizations
coming up and rising up? Perhaps we will
see the establishment of more collectives and
the proliferation of alternative models. I am
currently in my Accounting II class, and talk to
me about debits and credits—ooh, la la. But
how can we subvert the corporate model in a
way that, instead of shareholders, stakeholders
engage shares of an organization in a different
way—in a way that has value and integrity, as
opposed to putting in a dollar? Or maybe it is
about putting in a dollar and selling shares to
our organizations in a way. I don’t know and,
again, I am throwing out thoughts and ideas
and wanting hope for the next generation.
Samuel Aguiar Iñiguez: I just want to say
a couple of brief things. First thing, I want to
acknowledge Tatiana. I am really proud of her.
I met her when she was 18 or 19. She actually
came to my house in Oakland when I was in
the master’s program there, and she was in this
all-women rock band called Velvet Fury. She
was the drummer. I looked at her and said,
“I don’t think she is going to be the drummer
for very long”—not that she wasn’t a good
drummer, but I just saw something more in her.
I saw a long-term vision in her and in the way
she thought. She is doing what I expected of
her, but I didn’t put an expectation on her.
Tatiana said something very key and that is
that she doesn’t know how to say “no.” As an
artist who has done a lot, I can tell you that
the only time you can put your own work out
there more is by providing time for yourself and
learning to say “no.” You can say “no,” and
you aren’t going to be disrespectful, and it is
not an emotional thing. People won’t hate
you—they will just respect you more. Learn
92