IMPORTANT UPDATE: NPAC FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITIES
June 14 marked the one year anniversary of the National Performing Arts Convention in Denver, 2008.We’ve attached a report on the considerable progress made since the convention on the recommendations generated in 2008.

Here are some highlights:

• At the convention, three priority areas were identified for NPAC action: advocacy, arts education, and diversity. NPAC organizers added two other priorities that were featured in NPAC discussions: artists and technology.
• After the convention, task forces were formed of diverse groups of artists and arts practitioners from across the country, for each priority area. Each task force reviewed NPAC findings, articulated a vision for each priority, and crafted short and long term actions to achieve the NPAC goals on the personal, organizational, local and national levels.
• NPAC is at work on creating a user-friendly, inter-active web-based resource center to include information, links, research, best practices, lessons learned, distance learning and networking options for all the performing arts in each priority area.
• NPAC is at work creating multi-disciplinary meeting opportunities, both physical and virtual.
• Each task force created a range of specific recommended strategies and actions, to be detailed in reports NPAC will complete this summer.

Report of the 2008 I-DOC Team
The National Performing Arts Convention in Denver was an extraordinary convening, designed specifically to build community and define collective goals for the performing arts field. Through its process, professionals from multiple performing arts disciplines and different organizational roles found meaningful time to connect, to share concerns, and to build a sense of shared purpose. But also through this process, participants and hosting partners had a unique opportunity to observe the nature of those interactions, and explore where connections and disconnections were most pronounced.
• I-DOC Final Report Executive Summary (PDF) - 1 MB
• I-DOC Final Report Full (PDF) - 2 MB

A total of 3,739 members of the performing arts community, representing 1,813 organizations, attended, traveling from all 50 states and beyond.

"NPAC 2008 was, by any measure, a tremendous success. Thousands of participants gained new insights and skills, forged new connections and experienced a vast spectrum of performances. The 21st Century Town Meeting that closed the Convention marked not an ending, but the beginning of a new chapter in multi-disciplinary collaboration. We look forward to continuing our work together."

• Final Report (PDF) - 2 MB
• Final Excerpted Report (Microsoft Word) - 126 KB

The design and printing of this report was made possible by a generous sponsorship from MetLife.

Our nation’s creativity has filled the world’s libraries, museums, recital halls, movie houses, and marketplaces with works of genius. The arts embody the American spirit of self-definition. As the author of two best-selling books – Dreams from My Father and The Audacity of Hope – Barack Obama uniquely appreciates the role and value of creative expression.
[read more - PDF]

"The guidelines that appear below are offered as a set of principles that may be used in any number of occasions where multiple arts organizations come together for deliberation and collective action. They may be of use in the various national coalitions and forums where arts service organizations engage. And, they may be equally applicable in local and regional contexts. We believe this unexpected yet highly important outcome of NPAC will be of lasting value as we work to deepen and expand our work together as community." [read more - Microsoft Word]