Mary Eileen Fouratt is the Executive Director of the Monmouth County Arts Council which is well known in the arts community for its forward-thinking inclusiveness of local government, businesses, art groups and nonprofits to promote cultural opportunities in Monmouth County, New Jersey.
The Monmouth County Arts Council defines “sustainable” as the notion of health over time. For example, we talk about how we sustain a community of artists – both arts organizations and individual artists. As funding is always going to be an issue, what else is needed to keep an organization healthy and developing?
One specific way we’re working toward sustainability is with a partnership with the [Monmouth] County Planning Board, who is helping us to do GIS mapping. We’ll use this data as a marketing tool on our website to lead people to arts organizations and cultural events. We will also use the information for our internal use: where are all of the arts groups in Monmouth County, and are we serving them all? As communities are developing in the Bay Shore area and the coastal area, for example, we have to make sure that the arts are an integral part to those communities. We help towns understand that the arts are an important economic engine, and also recognize the intrinsic value of the arts and see the benefit to their residents.
At the same time, we have to continue working to connect across sectors and connect with as many different groups as we possibly can. For example, I participated in Leadership New Jersey, and stayed in touch with a fellow participant, Lois Greco of the Wachovia Regional Foundation. During our class she had been saying, “Why don’t I have any projects in Asbury?” The Arts Council has done a lot of work in Asbury, so I gave her some groups she should get in touch with. Later, she called me and asked me to come meet with a group called Interfaith Neighbors, which was not a group we were familiar with (nor were they familiar with us). Now, we’re working with them on a public art center, which may include a black box arts space or some shared office space, we’re not sure yet, but SOMETHING important is going to come out of that original meeting between two groups who didn’t know each other.
As we look to the future, we have to continue raising awareness about the importance of arts in our communities, in our schools, for our kids. Through the Arts Education Census, we are able to see which schools don’t have access to arts, or don’t have very good access to arts. We also want to be making connections between arts groups who have high quality education programs and schools who need them. We don’t want children to miss out on arts education in school and not even know what they were missing.
We received a Building Arts Participation grant from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts to expand our Teen Arts Connection. We worked with 15 to 18 kids a year for 4 years. It was great for them and they got to meet professional artists; we took them to New York - some had never been - and we took them to different art events around here. They got to DO art, and they got to meet other kids who were artists. But we couldn’t expand the program because of the logistics of trying to get kids from other parts of the county. Our Arts Education director was physically going around picking up kids to get them together. Now, with a new grant, we’re going to expand it to have an online community and then connect them with the arts groups throughout the county.
Happily, Monmouth County has 12 local arts councils who are part of our network. If a kid in Howell really likes theatre, for example, we’ll let him know that he can apply for the Two River Theatre summer program, and that he might also like the Center Players, which is closer to home. Additionally, Teen Arts festivals have been our entrée to art teachers, and we’re working to expand those connections as well as better connections with local colleges.
Sustainability is also a word we use in our own staff conversations, because sustaining the staff is a challenge, too. Individual situations can have a huge impact on an organization. When you lose somebody in a small organization, there’s a really big impact, and it’s hard. The other aspect I worry about is succession planning. Some staff members are able to work at MCAC because they have a partner with a higher paying job. Staff members who rely on their MCAC job for their total support are under increasing strain trying to live in New Jersey. But if someone left, would I be able to hire somebody who could afford to take what we’re paying? It’s a huge issue for us, and I am sure it’s a huge issue for most arts organizations.
Peter Forbes
Photograph by McKay Imaging
