The return of ARTS IN ACTION

HMS Media Co-Founder Scott Silberstein’s blog Arts In Action is back… thanks to a couple of Chicago teenagers.
Today's edition is only 798 words long and will take only 2.6 minutes to read.

It's been almost three years since the last edition of Arts In Action. We'll officially start again tomorrow morning, and then every two weeks after that.

There are reasons for the lengthy hiatus, and there was a catalyst for the reboot. It's a cool story, and if you've got a couple of minutes, I'd like to share it.

Arts in Action began as a series of emails written to stay connected with friends and colleagues with whom I'd gone to Washington, DC to advocate for the arts. Over time, semi-regular emails to 20 people morphed into to a newsletter with more than 4,000 readers.

Arts in Action was never an extracurricular activity, but rather professionally strategic and personally meaningful project intended to grow and inform a community of arts advocates. I loved doing it, and I appreciated the supportive and constructive feedback each edition precipitated.
 
And then, needing to focus on family, depleted by the professional challenges created by the pandemic, daunted by genuine and important social, cultural and political turmoil, I hit a wall. I lost confidence that my voice mattered or that I could make a difference.

So I stopped. Three years passed. And then...

In December, I discovered Let’s Help Regional Theater, a new podcast created by Leo Spiegel and Joanie Cox, two Chicago theater lovers who saw regional theater was in crisis and created a series to talk with theater professionals about how people can rally behind this beleaguered yet essential sector. 

The first two episodes featured Lookingglass Theatre's Andy Whiteand Steppenwolf Theatre’s Brooke Flanagan, knockout guests who are among Chicago theater's heaviest hitters and whose appearance bestowed the series with instant credibility.

I know Brooke and Andy well. They are deep thinkers and feelers with whom I've collaborated on countless creative and advocacy projects. They’ve been hit with the same kinds of overwhelming challenges I have. Yet here they were, making the time to lend their voices to Let's Help Regional Theater.

For not the first (and certainly not the last time) my friends inspired me to step up. I emailed Leo and Joanie, told them that I thought their podcast was terrific and offered to be a part of it, if they felt I was a good fit. We set a date for the interview, they showed up at my door, and...

... Leo Spiegel and Joanie Cox turn out to be high school students.
 
I don’t mean this to read “only high school students," as in, "how is it worth my time to talk with a couple of teenagers?" I mean, "Wow. High school students. High school students made this happen. This is cool. This is impressive."

I remember being their age when my best friends Matt Hoffman, Jon Meyer and I started HMS Media, filled with ideas, hope and that feeling, so specific to teenage-ery, that you see something others don’t and you’re going to do something about it. I sensed those things fueling these two. It was a joy to behold, and it made the interview a delight.
 
Leo and Joanie were smart, prepared and engaging interviewers. They were passionate about the subject because they held a deeply belief that what they were doing mattered because people who work in and support the arts are doing things that matter. Forget age and experience; these two young people were model and natural arts advocates. In creating Let’s Help Regional Theatre – whose subsequent guests include UIC's Monty Cole and Lifeline Theatre's Ilesa Duncan – they reminded me that arts advocacy work is vitally important, can take any number of forms and is needed now more than ever.

So, with gratitude to Leo and Joanie for the inspiration, I'm bringing Arts in Action back, not so much because the arts and culture sector is challenged in unprecedented ways – we know that – but more because it needs and deserves our full attention and engagement.  

No matter what some may say, these things will always be true:

The arts define and distinguish us as people.

They hold the keys to help us address everything that ails us as individuals and communities. 

They are means and ends to better lives and better societies.

And it's up to us to provide both the data and the narratives to make that case.

Arts in Action is my way of doing that. So starting tomorrow (and only every other Thursday after that so as not to be too intrusive), a new Arts In Action will arrive in your inbox. It'll be a short, enjoyable and impactful read about what people are doing, thinking or saying to help our field.

And even if you're too busy on a particular Thursday to open the email, I hope that simply seeing it in your inbox will be a reminder that as artists, craftspeople, administrators, staff members, journalists, board members and any kind of arts supporter imaginable, the work we do matters. And that in doing it, none of us is alone.

See you tomorrow.

PS If after listening to Let's Help Regional Theatre you'd like to support Leo and Joanie's entirely self-produced efforts, here's a GoFundMe link.

If you're not currently a subscriber to Arts Advocacy in Action but would like to make sure you don't miss future editions, click here.