The following is by no means a definitive list. These strategies are offered rather as a stimulus to further brainstorming, debate and, hopefully, action.

Bridges

1. EXPAND THE ROLE PLAYED BY CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS IN OUR COMMUNITIES. Begin exploring new working relationships with the non-arts service providers in the community. Help funders leverage their investment in the community by enlisting their support for partnerships between the arts and other human services. Make the case for the arts as an essential human service.

2. LEARN FROM THE SURVIVORS IN OTHER FIELDS. Look beyond the non-profit world for new and efficient models for managing, marketing and communicating. Pay particular attention to innovative strategies used by entrepreneurs and small businesses that have grown despite the recession.

3. FIND THOSE IN OUR COMMUNITIES OUTSIDE OF THE ARTS WORLD WITH WHOM WE HAVE NATURAL AFFINITIES. We should be exploring our common ground with those working in support of ethical business, saving the ecology, and freedom of expression.

4. EXPAND THE CONCEPT OF ARTISTS' RESIDENCIES BEYOND SCHOOLS, SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS. Establish residencies as the laboratory for new ways for artists to interact with their communities. Consider new venues such as factories, condominiums, zoos, the unemployment office, neighborhoods, individual homes and the halls of government. Document and publish the results.

5. CONFOUND THE "SPECIAL INTEREST" STEREOTYPE by building advocacy alliances with non-arts human services providers. Explore the creation of mutually beneficial relationships with unlikely allies at the local and state level. Use respected non-arts community leaders to lead advocacy initiatives. Adopt advocacy strategies used by other highly successful advocates.

6. IDENTIFY THOSE NATIONAL ISSUES that have a direct bearing on the immediate and long term health of the field. Join with those who are advocating positions that are in our long term self-interest. Issues with significant impact on artists and arts organizations include: national health insurance, civil rights, immigration reform, education reform, AIDS and many others.

7. ESTABLISH FORUMS FOR DISCOURSE and problem solving between and among artists and scientists, engineers, politicians, economists, philosophers, etc.

Translations

1. REWRITE THE DICTIONARY OF AMERICAN CULTURE. Examine and question the vocabulary and prevailing standards of American culture. Consider how our language reflects and supports our marginal status. Use language that reflects the dynamic nature of our communities, our country and the world. Invite others in our communities into the discussions. Recognize that the process of the defining of cultural norms is ongoing.

2. CONDUCT RESEARCH ABOUT THE STATE OF THE ARTS and artists in America and the impact they are having on our communities. Use the results to create a regularly published American Cultural Almanac.

3. TAKE THE POSITION THAT CREATIVITY IS A BASIC AND POWERFUL HUMAN CAPACITY, that the exercise and expression of our creativity is crucial for the health of individuals and communities, and that the arts are the laboratory for the development and understanding of the creative processes.

4. LEARN FROM OUR ELDERS. Those we consider newcomers to our communities actually bring older, far more inclusive cultural traditions with them. As these traditions take root here they form a new American aesthetic. Work to protect them from domination, co-option and expropriation. Other artists who have been living and working in their own communities should be respected as the front line and first voices in the effort to support the integration of the arts into community life.

5. PROVIDE TRAINING FOR ARTISTS, ARTS EDUCATORS, AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT WORKERS ON THE WIDE RANGE OF ROLES ART CAN ASSUME IN COMMUNITY LIFE. Quash the notion that true artists are alienated and aloof and uninvolved.

6. MAP THE CULTURAL ECO-SYSTEM. Recognize that there is a cultural eco-system that we have allowed to operate out of balance. Know that every time we justify our existence or gain a foothold at the expense of others in the cultural community we undermine the integrity of the whole system.

Change

1. MAKE THE CASE FOR THE STUDY AND PRACTICE OF THE CREATIVE PROCESSES AS A CORNERSTONE OF EDUCATIONAL REFORM. Collect and disseminate information about the success of arts-based education as it is practiced in magnet schools and in Waldorf schools. Establish local initiatives for arts-based reform. Pass legislation to provide an incentive and support for such local projects.

2. DEMOCRATIZE OUR CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS. Decentralize the controlling forces of cultural power. Institute policies and funding guidelines that emphasize local and regional cultural empowerment. Recognize that public attitudes towards the arts are in large part determined by cultural arbiters who have a self-interest in the market-defined notions of artistic quality and success. Recognize that the status of artists in society profoundly affects the quality and content of art.

3. IDENTIFY OURSELVES AS CO-CONSPIRATORS IN OUR OWN DEMISE. Resist the tendency to self-define according to the marginal condition we find ourselves in. Recognize that in times of scarcity we fight each other out of fear. Reject the cannibalization of funding categories as resources diminish in the public sector. Refrain from intramural fights over scarce funding and understand that the real problem is the community's unwillingness to invest in its cultural resources.

4. TOPPLE THE HIERARCHIES. Replace the notion of cultural hierarchies with the idea of a cultural continuum. Resist the temptation to categorize and self-marginalize-separating fine from folk, classical from traditional, and monocultural from multicultural. Broaden and enrich the definition of artistic excellence through inclusion and education.

5. CHALLENGE OUR MISSIONS. Reexamine the missions of artists and arts organizations in a complex and changing world. Consider how "the work" contributes to the common good. Consider the arts as an essential human need as we reframe our missions.

6. EXPAND THE DEFINITION OF "PUBLIC ART" beyond the realm of the public artifact. Adopt the position that citizen/artist collaboration, integration and activism are necessary components for true community ownership of artistic endeavors. Include areas such as urban planning, ecology, science and mass communication as new contexts for public art.

7. PROMOTE AND SUPPORT THE WELL BEING OF THE INDIVIDUAL ARTIST as a cornerstone of arts policy. Recognize that the inability of many of our finest artists to make a living wage practicing their art is an issue of freedom of expression.