The first meeting of the Any Given Child Indy Community Arts Team, led by the Kennedy Center, was dizzying, exciting, and inspiring. There is a great deal of data-driven work ahead, and we have the right people on this team to dream big in order to make big things happen for the children of Indianapolis Public Schools. Today, we broke up into three survey development groups: (1) School Arts Mapping group; (2) School Personnel Survey group; and (3) Arts Organization/Artist Surveys group. We also defined the Working Group – the six individuals who will do most of the implementation work between the monthly meetings of the Community Arts Team. The six Working Group members are: Andrew Black, CICF; Ernest Disney-Britton, Arts Council of Indianapolis; Rilyn Gibson, Statistician; Kristin Hines, Office of the Mayor; Dr. Wanda LeGrand, Indianapolis Public Schools; and Gayle Thomas Strong, WFYI. The next step is to fine-tune the surveys developed today; and then to launch the survey process at the end of November.

The homework assignment for the entire Community Arts Team was to read: Channeling Change: Making Collective Impact Work and we will reassemble in November.

Ernest Disney-Britton, Arts Council of Indianapolis, Director of Grant Services & Arts Education