
Creative Santa Fe is proud to host a presentation by Clayton Lord, Vice President of Strategic Impact at American for the Arts and a panel discussion with local and state arts leaders in partnership with the New Mexico
Department of Cultural Affairs and the City of Santa Fe Arts and Culture Department. This community gathering is the start of discussions and action toward restarting the creative economy. The event was held on Wednesday, May 6 from 5:30-6:30 pm MST on Zoom.
The event began with a short talk by Clay Lord, A Vibrant Community Has Culture At the Core, addressing ways that arts and culture are critical community resources at all times, and now so more than ever. As our communities and our country work toward relief, recovery, and ultimately reconstruction, Lord highlighted the critical function of arts and culture for communities on a national, state, and local scale.
“All of our communities are in the middle of trauma right now, as we navigate the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic,” says Lord. “Our arts, culture, and heritage are central to getting us through it, but artists, creative workers, and
creative businesses often end up treated as “less than” in moments of crisis. I look forward to sharing research on the social impact of arts and culture, and discussing the role the arts can and do play in community relief, recovery, and reconstruction.”
Lord was then joined by Michelle Laflamme-Childs, Executive Director of New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs; Pauline Kanako Kamiyama, Director of the Santa Fe Arts + Culture Department, and Cyndi Conn, Executive Director of Creative Santa Fe. This panel discussed the ways that arts can be leveraged to rebuild our economy, community resiliency, and provide much needed inspiration and hope in these difficult times.
In his role at AFTA, Clayton oversees initiatives focused on cultural equity, diversity, and inclusion, including the Arts + Social Impact Explorer, the organization’s ongoing work around cultural equity, equity in arts leadership, and arts-based community development. Clayton also led the New Community Visions Initiative, a multi-year effort to better understand and support the changing role of the arts in American communities.
This virtual event was recorded:
https://youtu.be/_PBHqHY32bQ