Community service

Afterimage, Summer, 1996 by Felicia Sullivan

With the inclusion of the National Coalition of Multicultural Media Artists (NCMMA) as co-sponsor of the 1996 conference "Rewiring Our Networks: Cultural Equity for the 21st Century," tensions over conflicting agendas were noticeably subdued and attendance noticeably diverse, a fact mentioned by numerous participants. Although a number of NCMMA's members are also members of NAMAC, the NCMMA has labored long to bring the concerns of communities of color to the larger NAMAC membership. NCMMA has a history of campaigning for a more active social mission for NAMAC and their co-sponsorship of the 1996 conference was evidence of this. Designed to confront issues of social, economic and cultural equity, and the use of media within these struggles, the conference agenda actively included social organizations such as the Women's Economic Agenda Project, the City of Oakland Office of Economic Development and Employment, and the California Foundation on the Environment and Economy. The participation of these organizations helped to define a series of dialogues among conference attendees that focused on the collaboration and partnership of media arts organizations with broader-based community groups and concerns.

The conference opened with a keynote address by Jeremy Rifkin, economist and author of The End of Work (1995), and a roundtable discussion. Joined by screenwriter, poet and novelist Thulani Davis and Native American environmental and community activist Gail Small, Rifkin charged conferees with the mission to assess changing work environments and the implementation of technology within these environments. Envisioning a possible future in which cultural and community workers would possess the prized skills for a revived civic-sector economy, Rifkin's ideas set the stage for subsequent conference sessions.

Plenary and breakout sessions focused on issues of culture as a major catalyst for social change, sharing resources as a necessary survival tactic against a decreasing funding base, forging alliances that strengthen the field and finding strategies that create a foundation for continued existence. Unlike NAMAC's 1994 conference in Chicago, where fear and uncertainty were the defining characteristics (due in large part to drastic NEA funding cuts), the Berkeley conference agenda clearly exhibited a commitment to thoughtful examination of the media arts and the field's ability to form strategic alliances and partnerships with community-based organizations. While many NAMAC member organizations still find themselves at the limit of their financial, material and personnel resources, the ground is stabilizing and creative solutions have begun to be implemented.

Corporate strategies such as downsizing, reorganization and accute attention to the bottom line are noticeable additions to media arts survival kits. Forming collaborations that share physical resources (like that of the FAF/NAATA/Cine Accion/Frameline media building in San Francisco) give media arts organizations a more powerful social and economic base. Building active networks with organizations that can advocate for the field on a policy level are yet another vital tool.

Increasing emphasis on social action and dramatic changes in communication technologies have also forced many in the media arts to rethink their traditional constituencies. How do we incorporate youth, low-income populations, schools and those not traditionally concerned with the media arts into the field? Ethel Long-Scott, executive director of the Women's Economic Agenda Project in Oakland, urged media artists to make it their cause to tell the stories of those closed out or misrepresented in the mainstream media. She challenged NAMAC and its membership to reach out and tell how communities are struggling, uniting and succeeding. Andrew Blau of the Benton Foundation, too, stated that we must envision our own future and act on it before it is defined for us.

Clearly, there is much work to be done. With an increasing focus and commitment to community-building, the role of the arts is shifting. The traditional artist as an individual creator is being redefined as cultural articulator, social activist and community developer. However, it is interesting to note that the presence of artists and their works at the NAMAC gathering seemed almost an afterthought. Few attended the planned evening screenings (although it could be that the closed-circuit narrowcast of these works kept people in their hotel rooms) and the one panel devoted to media artists seemed a sidebar to the other community-minded sessions. Yet, this underplaying of artists may be more a result of NAMAC's functioning as a national organization for media arts organizations, and not so much for media arts individuals.

Like the amorphic field it represents, NAMAC's organizational identity is still an open and contested space. With the announcement of executive director Julian Low's resignation effective in June and the relocation of the national office soon thereafter, NAMAC is poised for its next phase of activity. Hopefully, future plans will focus on an organizational mission that will include continued advocacy for the field and the strengthening of information networks among its membership. With the help of the arts consulting firm of Adams & Goldbard, NAMAC's board of directors is actively defining a future for itself - and consequently for the field. If only the field's multiple selves can come to an agreement on what that future will be.