00:00Hollywood stars, executives, and policymakers are coming together to fight for the arts.
00:05I'm Tiffany Taylor for The Hollywood Reporter here at the Creative Coalition's National Arts
00:10Advocacy Summit, where 50 leaders from across the worlds of entertainment and business,
00:15as well as policymakers, have gathered to craft actionable strategies for the advancement of
00:19arts education, funding, and policy. This is a dream. It's a dream to have business,
00:25industry, policy, and artists together rolling up their sleeves and working.
00:32Attendees spoke to THR about why participating in this summit in Summerlin, Nevada is important to
00:37them. Because the arts are at risk. You know, I think our art is extremely powerful to our
00:43humanity, to our connectivity, and the only way art stays alive is if we stay engaged.
00:48So getting together with a group of people who are passionate about keeping art engaged,
00:52keeping art alive, keeping art funded, keeping art available for our communities,
00:57it's the least I could do is to show up right now.
00:59I always want to be a part of anything Creative Coalition does, and that's not
01:02just me being nice or sucking up. I legitimately love this organization,
01:05and every single thing I've gotten to do with them has just been the time of my life. I just
01:08get to work with these cool, awesome people who are so good in whatever their field is,
01:12and it's such a diverse group of people too. The Creative Coalition, formed in 1989,
01:16has long advocated and lobbied for funding for the National Endowment of the Arts.
01:20But this summit marks the first time the coalition has assembled a group of thought
01:24leaders to help draft the plan they'll present in Washington, D.C. this year.
01:28They shared what they plan to accomplish by the end of the summit.
01:31To have the great minds in the room that we're going to have, the combination of business folks,
01:35artists, et cetera, hopefully it becomes a catalyst, a catalyst for positive change,
01:40a catalyst for great ideas that we can go out and execute on and make some
01:43meaningful changes for years to come. We're going to have a blueprint. We're
01:46having a blueprint. We're going up to Capitol Hill and to the White House in April
01:49with a strategic blueprint that will speak to and be a relatable blueprint to our policymakers.
01:56The arts have been in the headlines this week as President Donald Trump was elected the chairman
02:00of the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts after he removed members of the organization's
02:04board who were appointed by the Biden administration and replaced them with
02:08White House officials from his administration, family members of administration officials,
02:12donors, and their spouses, all in an effort to move the Kennedy Center away from what he views
02:16as, quote, woke culture. Those attending the summit weighed in on the state of the arts in
02:21the current political climate. Right now we're facing potential headwinds
02:27art-wise with the new administration. We're going to see where that goes as well. But
02:31it's quite possible that those headwinds will disappear and we'll have a nice ride over the
02:35next four years. You never know. I don't believe that arts should be a part of a political
02:39conversation. Arts are above politics. At least they should be. But I guess I believe
02:47sure there's politics in everything. But arts should be outside of that sphere
02:54of rhetoric because this is about humanity. For more on the Creative Coalition's National
03:00Arts Advocacy Summit, go to THR.com. For The Hollywood Reporter News, I'm Tiffany Taylor.
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