The Arts Incubator Story

Because no two communities are alike, we offer six critical principles for replication that transcend the particulars of Arlington, Virginia. They are intended to help any municipality incubate the arts in its own unique way.

Like many others, the community served by the Arts Incubator--the Northern Virginia suburb of Arlington County--has undergone a transformation over the last 20 years. Once the population was largely homogeneous, now one in four residents is foreign-born; there are more than 30 languages spoken in the area. Yet before the project's inception, the onetime Washington, D.C., bedroom community was a changing metropolis with an unchanging arts program, one that had remained essentially the same since the 1960s.

A county government reorganization in 1986 established a Cultural Affairs Division as part of the newly created Department of Parks, Recreation and Community Resources. A year later the county appointed a citizens' advisory committee to help division staff determine the direction of arts development in the county; a modest investment in cultural facility renovation was made and a Commission for the Arts was formed. A new policy was developed that made it possible for any Arlington artist or arts organization--amateur or professional--to be supported by the county through a competitive grants process.

The division's mandate was changed from serving the needs of a small number of non-professional artists and arts organizations to serving the cultural needs and interests of the entire community. By adding professional artists to the mix, the new division's administrators sought to bring higher quality, greater quantity and a wider range of arts offerings to the area. They hoped to shape a program that would attract artists--from inside and outside the community--who could respond more effectively to the interests of Arlington's diverse population.

In 1990, an Arts Incubator utilizing the new policies and facilities was established. A cost-effective strategy for providing what artists and arts organizations need to create and present their work, the program centers on a way of thinking rather than a way of spending, on reimagining an assortment of untapped government resources such as underused public- and private-sector space. This approach yields substantial dividends: although the county's grants program is small--$98,000 in 1997--the annual savings in rent to organizations using county-subsidized spaces exceeds $400,000.

As a result of the Arts Incubator program, the number of arts groups in Arlington grew from 11 to 25 between 1990 and 1996. The number of arts events increased over 500 percent--from 200 to 1,300--during the same period, while the area's arts audiences increased threefold. (The county's annual arts audience is now almost twice its population.) It is estimated that the local arts industry has gone from generating $1 million to $5 million annually.

Not all of the program's achievements, however, are quantifiable. Unlike other jurisdictions of its size, Arlington can boast a professional symphony orchestra, a resident opera company and numerous theater, dance and choral groups. Arlington artists and craftspeople show and sell their work on a continuing basis. Arts activities in the area receive extensive media coverage and positive reviews. The county has become known regionally as a place to go for quality arts experiences.

Washington City Paper theatre critic Bob Mondello, an early champion of the program, recalls the first show he saw at Arlington's Gunston Arts Center. "Quite literally, I had never been to Virginia for a show," he says. "It was mind-blowing, and it was this little tiny company." Arlington's theatrical troupes have received over 60 Helen Hayes Award nominations (the equivalent of Broadway's Tonys) since 1990; they had received none before.

"The Arts Incubator has accomplished a multiplicity of goals," says David Briggs, chairman of the Arlington Commission for the Arts, "most notably expanding the number and diversity of arts available in Arlington and improving outreach to and services for visual artists." These days, says Briggs, who has been on the commission since its inception in 1990, many of Arlington's performing arts offerings "are as good as those at the Kennedy Center--and for a significantly lower price." More important, many of these artists and arts organizations are closely involved with the community through their work with at-risk populations in the county's schools, recreation and senior centers and residential programs.

In December 1996, the Arts Incubator program was one of 10 winners nationwide of the "Innovations in American Government" award given each year by the Ford Foundation and the John F. Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. It is the first arts organization to win the award, which singles out programs that have conceived innovative ways of "enhancing the operations and processes of American government."

In conclusion: in Arlington, the Arts Incubator transformed a lackluster arts program focused on serving the needs of a few participants into a dynamic, nationally recognized arts-funding model that serves the county's diverse population. It can do the same in your community. This model of arts support is infinitely adaptable, and can be replicated by any locality willing to adopt an approach to arts funding that relies as much on creativity and inspiration as art itself.

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