Creating Effective Public/Private Investment in the Arts and Military

Monday, October 22, 10:00am – 11:30am

Organized and moderated by Marete Wester, senior director, Arts Policy and National Initiative for Arts and Health in the Military.

Presented by Billy Nungesser, Lieutenant Governor, Louisiana; and Megan Everett, Veterans Program director, Robert R. McCormick Foundation.

Developing sustainable solutions for resourcing arts programs that support military and veteran populations are boosted—or hampered—by the policies of critical decision-making agencies. This session will introduce public/private strategies for breaking down structural barriers to creative collaborations and laying the groundwork for sustaining these relationships over the long term. The new joint three-year State Military and Veterans Arts Initiative by Americans for the Arts and the National Lieutenant Governors Association (NLGA) to increase visibility, understanding, and support for the arts for active duty and reserve service members, veterans, their families, and caregivers across the state military continuum, will serve as the springboard to discuss how key public stakeholders (e.g., lieutenant governors) can catalyze conversations among the philanthropic, military, veterans, arts, and business communities to change policies and enable partnership. The session will also introduce ways that non-arts funders are changing “small p” policy at the institutional/organizational level as well as participating in “large P” policy at the macro level that support investments in new projects and strategies. The session will end with an open forum for participants to surface and respond to specific policy challenges they are confronting in their own communities.