“Power is always a complicated puzzle.”
Lynn Osgood, urban planner
Power is often defined only in negative terms, but it can also be a positive force for individual and collective capacity for change. When considering power M/A partnerships, overarching concerns are:
how artists and municipal entities bring their respective power into play in positive, collaborative, and productive ways;
how common negative power dynamics can be avoided with forethought or addressed through honest dialogue;
how power differentials can be brought into an acceptable balance.
Negotiating the power dynamics of multiple partners and participants can be one of the most challenging aspects of M/A partnerships. Conflicts often arise regarding project ownership, decision-making power and authority, and distribution and control of resources.
Being good partners means striving for conditions in which power is shared, and addressing incidents of imbalance or misuse of power. It means examining situational power, for example that each partner has its own capacity, resources, relationships, or influence in a particular situation to get to the desired result. The questions below should be asked in any M/A partnership.
“Power with has to do with finding common ground among different interests and building collective strength. Based on mutual support, solidarity and collaboration, power with multiplies individual talents and knowledge.”
Lisa VeneKlasen and Valerie Miller, A New Weave of Power, (Practical Action, 2007)
The questions below should be asked in any M/A partnership.
Convening Power
Q. What is each partner’s unique power to bring people together?
Both artists and municipalities have abilities to draw people into a project. Municipal agencies have official power to convene people and groups, and can provide access to space and communication mechanisms. Artists who are already connected to a specific community can use the power of their insider status, as well as their status of being outside of government, to engage people who may not otherwise participate.
Knowledge Power
Q: What knowledge does each partner have that can inform project strategy and choices?
Artists build knowledge through deep inquiry into an issue, and their research with participants including municipal workers, community members, and stakeholders. They may already have inherent knowledge by virtue of being part of a community, and from their own cultural traditions or heritage.
Municipal agencies create and have access to a huge amount of data, including historical, demographic, economic, and technical that can provide critical context to projects. Veteran municipal workers have a wealth of experience about the idiosyncratic workings of local government and a deep understanding of political relationships.
Community partners and stakeholders, of course, have expert knowledge about their own communities. Partners should recognize, honor, and apply this knowledge in purposeful ways. (For ideas on how to tap into community knowledge, see this resource on Participatory Action Research)
Example
The City of Minneapolis’ Regulatory Services Department partnered with artists Mankwe Ndosi and Reggie Prim on “Hearing Tenant Voices,” which aimed to transform agency culture so that housing inspectors could more equitably interact with and listen to low income tenants. The artists led interactive workshops for department inspectors that used Theater of the Oppressed techniques to promote deep personal reflection and dialogue around power structures and build intercultural competency. They led workshops for tenants to understand the regulatory landscape from their perspective. They also led workshops with inspectors and tenants which revealed the depth of the power imbalance between the two. The partnerships’ goal was to shift inspectors’ awareness around power, equity, and race and change the tenor of their interactions with tenants. At the first stage of the project, staff reported being more comfortable with difficult conversations around race, increased empathy for residents, and an increased willingness to advocate for residents.
Minneapolis, MN
Creative CityMaking
Office of Arts, Culture, and the Creative Economy; other City departments & local artists
The Equity Pulpit, part of a project by D.A. Bullock and Ariah Fine, in collaboration with the Neighborhood and Community Relations Department.
Photo: Alizarin Meninnga, Office of Arts, Culture, and the Creative Economy, City of Minneapolis
Part of a creative asset mapping of the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood by artists E.G. Bailey and Shá Cage.
Photo: Justin Sengly, Office of Arts, Culture, and the Creative Economy, City of Minneapolis
Part of a creative asset mapping of the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood by artists E.G. Bailey and Shá Cage.
Photo: Justin Sengly, Office of Arts, Culture, and the Creative Economy, City of Minneapolis
Tenants participating in a “Hearing Tenant Voices” workshop with artists Mankwe Ndosi and Reggie Prim, in collaboration with the Regulatory Services Department.
Photo: Rebecca Crisanta de Ybarra, Office of Arts, Culture, and the Creative Economy, City of Minneapolis
Housing inspectors participating in a “Hearing Tenant Voices” workshop with artists Mankwe Ndosi and Reggie Prim, in collaboration with the Regulatory Services Department.
Photo: Rebecca Crisanta de Ybarra, Office of Arts, Culture, and the Creative Economy, City of Minneapolis
Minneapolis’ Office of Arts, Culture, and the Creative Economy (ACCE) leads the Creative CityMaking (CCM) program since 2013. CCM advances the City’s goal of improving economic and racial disparities through systems change, and by creating better engagement and services for communities. CCM places experienced community artists into collaboration with staff in City departments which have included Community Planning and Economic Development, Regulatory Services, Information Technology, Neighborhood and Community Relations, City Clerk’s Office, Public Works, and the Office of Sustainability. Projects have focused both on internal concerns, such as transforming agency culture, and on agency work within communities.
CCM is grounded in ideas of equity. Teams have participated in dialogue that included deep personal reflection and often emotional conversations about the City’s and departments’ historical and current patterns of inequity. They have worked to understand the specific contexts of the department and the community that they engage. Artists have been particularly adept at identifying disconnects between the departments’ intentions for community engagement, and the reality of their practices. These conversations, though difficult at times, created a space for both team and project growth.
Three structural aspects of CCM were key to its continued success:
A strong third-party partner was critical to establishing CCM. Nonprofit Intermedia Arts (now defunct) partnered with ACCE to initiate the program, which was funded by an Art Place grant. Intermedia Arts (IA) was the grant recipient in order to have outside control of resources and safeguard against any potential political interference with the program. IA and ACCE collaboratively designed and launched the program with the intention that ACCE would assume administration of the project. IA served as intermediary between artists and City departments.
ACCE engaged an outside evaluator, Rainbow Research, to produce a Developmental Evaluation of CCM. The evaluators were “embedded” early on and provided ongoing feedback and reflection to teams so that projects could adjust in real time to get the best results. For more on this, see the Evaluation in Action profile.
ACCE developed a plan to sustain the program. While the Art Place grant stretched over the three year pilot phase, ACCE contributed departmental matching funds for the second and third years. They then secured an NEA grant to match those funds. ACCE also hired a program manager to support the partnerships and ensure future capacity for CCM.
Q. Who holds decision-making power within levels of government? How can the artist understand and navigate this hierarchy?
Both artists and municipalities have abilities to draw people into a project. Municipal agencies have official power to convene people and groups, and can provide access to space and communication mechanisms. Artists who are already connected to a specific community can use the power of their insider status, as well as their status of being outside of government, to engage people who may not otherwise participate.
“Partnership means partners are on equal footing. Artists never imagine or see themselves on equal footing because [their partner] is the power structure of the city.”
D.A. Bullock, Artist, Creative CityMaking, Minneapolis
Decision-making power is present and interacts at all levels of government, from the mayor or city manager to city council to individual agencies. Where this power is located differs depending on the municipal structure. Mapping lines of authority and influence, chains of command, and governmental power dynamics is no easy task. The burden should not be on the artist to figure out decision-making hierarchies that affect partnership work. The municipal partner should make this transparent, and the municipal liaison should help the artist navigate these power relations.
“We [the artists] both come from organizing, so we’re thinking of who we can influence and engage. But make it transparent...What does the power map of individuals and institutions look like?…What’s the chain of command? Whose boss is whose? Layers of bureaucracy make partnership more complicated. [However] as artists in these spaces, we have a perceived naivete that can be useful: ‘I didn’t know you guys don’t talk to each other.’”
Mark Strandquist and Trey Hartt, Performing Statistics, Richmond
Richmond, VA
Performing Statistics
Art 180, Mark Strandquist & Richmond Police Department
Photo: Mark Strandquist, courtesy of Performing Statistics and ART 180
Performing Statistics was initiated in 2014 by artist/activist Mark Strandquist and Trey Hartt of Art 180, a non-profit organization that provides art programs for youth “living in challenging circumstances,” in collaboration with the Legal Aid Justice Center. In 2019 Performing Statistics became an independent non-profit.
Performing Statistics is a youth-centered cultural organizing project. It works with youth who are incarcerated or otherwise involved with the juvenile justice system to use creative expression as a way to reimagine the system. Key goals are to reduce police interactions and arrests, and to work towards police-free schools. Some of the many projects created by youth over the past five years include art works such as self-portraits and protest posters; radio spots featuring the voices of incarcerated youth; a justice parade; a number of exhibitions; and an educator curriculum.
The Performing Statistics team used these art projects to create a training workshop for Richmond Police officers, in collaboration with former Chief of Police Alfred Durham. The training includes activities that promote empathy building, trauma-informed approaches, family perspectives, and ideas for how police officers can reduce negative interactions with youth and disrupt the school-to-prison pipeline. The training was given to new recruits, seasoned police officers, and school resource officers. Due to its success, it is now required for all 700 officers in the Richmond police force. See this blog post for a description of one training.
Some of the structural factors at the heart of this partnership include:
Alignment of project goals with Police Department policies, including an emphasis on community policing, a departmental focus on youth engagement, and a Police Chief who actively sought new strategies to improve police-community relations.
Building relationships with decision-makers.
“Reaching the personal level has built the structural relationship for the project. If it wasn’t for our Police Chief coming to our exhibition and being moved by the words of the youth, then spending time [after] time talking with him, we wouldn’t be training police.” Trey Hartt, Project Director
Scaling up a grassroots, arts-based, community organizing model.
Q. Who holds the purse strings for partnership projects?
Most often, the municipality or a third-party partner receives and administers the funding that supports the partnership. Most artists are not set up to receive and manage large sums of money, nor do they necessarily want to. However, who has control of resources may depend on who has secured them.
A third-party partner can assure some measure of financial control for the artist. Public Art Saint Paul is the intermediary for the City Artist program. It secures grants and uses some Percent For Art funds to support project expenses, including compensation for artists who are embedded in City agencies.
Saint Paul, MN
City Artist
Public Art Saint Paul, City of Saint Paul & local artists
Amanda Lovelee’s Urban Flower Field transformed a vacant lot with a spiral plot of flowers that remove contaminants from the soil.
Christine Baeumler’s project Bee Real Bee Everywhere created “high rise” sculptural homes for bees; and gives out pollinator seeds and education at local parks.
Christine Baeumler’s project Bee Real Bee Everywhere created “high rise” sculptural homes for bees; and gives out pollinator seeds and education at local parks.Credit: Carrie Thompson
Amanda Lovelee’s Pop-up Meeting offers popsicles in exchange for thoughts and feedback about the City.
Photo: Colleen Sheehy
Amanda Lovelee’s Pop-up Meeting offers popsicles in exchange for thoughts and feedback about the City.
Created in 2005, the City Artist integrates artists into the daily and long-term workings of the city. Program goals are to shape public spaces, improve city systems, and deepen civic engagement. Artists advise on major city initiatives and lead their own artistic and curatorial projects.
City Artist is a partnership between the City of Saint Paul and non-profit organization Public Art Saint Paul (PASP), which oversees public art programs for the city. Artists are part-time employees of PASP, and receive health and retirement benefits. This also allows for a more open-ended tenure for the artist rather than one that is restricted by the City’s time-limited contracts. This has proven valuable in terms of artists having extended time to build relationships, gain understanding of department opportunities and systems, and to develop projects with sufficient time to ensure impact.
Artists are embedded in City Hall and have dedicated work space within the Department of Public Works. In this way they can collaborate across city agencies. In addition to their own creative work, they advise on everything from city initiatives, planning studies, and capital project design, to ongoing street and sidewalk maintenance. Projects have included poetry stamped into concrete sidewalks, a vacant lot transformed by spiraling plots of flowers, and a civic choir.
Amanda Lovelee, former City Artist, described this structure as having given her autonomy and flexibility in developing projects. The City of Saint Paul does not provide compensation for artists but occasionally covers expenses for projects that dovetail with existing City initiatives.
Municipal partners need to be conscious of and transparent about how fiscal policies and procedures can impact the artist, other community partners and participants, and the project’s potential for impact. Although the artist may not be given full authority over how funds are allocated and used in a project, the partners should develop project budgets together and give artists some flexibility and decision-making power in areas related to their creative and engagement work.
Q. Is the artist expected to raise money for the project?
Municipal government and agencies, artists, and third-party arts organizations will have access to funding streams that the other partner doesn’t. (For more on this, see Funding.) Artists and arts agencies can be effective in identifying and raising funds for municipal projects, however securing funding should not be expected of artists. Artists have limited time and resources to fundraise, while municipal agencies most likely have access to development and other paid staff who can do this work.
Q. How can partners address equity and fairness in the use of funds?
Measures to ensure fair compensation should be built into the project plan so as not to perpetuate harmful patterns of disinvestment or exploitation. Municipalities should consider:
Is the artist being compensated at a professional rate commensurate with experience and on par with other skilled contractors?
Both artists and municipal agencies should consider:
Are community partners who give their expertise, advice, and hands-on work being compensated?
Are community participants who give their time to the project compensated with stipends, meals, or other meaningful manifestations of appreciation?
