The Creative Coalition’s National Arts Advocacy Summit in Summerlin, Nevada brought together 50 leaders from across the business and entertainment worlds, as well as policymakers, to craft actionable strategies for the advancement of arts education, funding and policy. The Hollywood Reporter spoke to attendees including LeVar Burton, Harry Hamlin and Dulé Hill about why it's more important to advocate for the arts now than ever before amid the current political climate.
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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.