As of October 2009, a new chapter in Austin Circle of Theaters’ 35-year history opens as it restructures its organization, expands its services and embraces a wider mission to serve Austin’s richly diverse and adventuresome creative community across all sectors as the Greater Austin Creative Alliance.

Forming a community-based Creative Alliance to provide essential services and networking opportunities to artists and creative individuals, organizations, and businesses is one of the key recommendations of the CreateAustin Master Plan. It is a recommendation that repeatedly emerged from many different task forces that met in our city’s 16-month cultural planning process. It is a recommendation that Austin Circle of Theaters immediately took to heart.

Our creative community cited the need for advocacy, collaboration, marketing, professional development and capacity building — all services ACoT was providing within the performing arts community. Could ACoT provide those services to others?

A study group of key community stakeholders in different disciplines was formed. Nationally respected experts in arts management such as Kevin McCarthy (Arts and Culture in the Metropolis: Strategies for Sustainability) Stephen Tepper (Engaging Art: The Next Great Transformation of American’s Cultural Life, with Bill Ivey), and Tom Kaiden, COO of Philadelphia Cultural Alliance were brought in for conversations with the study group and the wider arts community. The group also explored successful models in other cities such as the Philadelphia Cultural Alliance and 1st Act Silicon Valley.

In the same time period ACoT established NowPlayingAustin.com, a community arts and cultural portal that now serves more than 900 organizations in the greater Austin region, and attracts 20,000 visitors per month; it expanded its ticketing services to increase its earned income; it instituted a city wide celebration of Arts, Culture, and Creativity in honor of National Arts and Humanities Month called Get Your Art On that has more than 200 organizations participating; and it doubled its staff.

Simultaneously the CreateAustin Leadership Team reconstituted several task forces, including the Creative Alliance, and encouraged an open and collaborative relationship with ACoT and its efforts on behalf of establishing a Creative Alliance.

This past summer Andrew Taylor, Director of the Bolz Center for Arts Administration (artfulmanager.com) came to be with the performing arts community and wider arts community and CreateAustin stakeholders. He presented on the theme of “Considering the Creative Ecology.” The message: What are you waiting for? The Alliance is already here. It is all of you.

So now we begin — all of us.

The mission of the Greater Austin Creative Alliance is to advance, connect and celebrate Austin’s creative life in order to strengthen our creative economy and benefit the well-being of our community. Join us.

The following is an excerpt from the awesome article in the Austin Chronicle on September 25, 2009.

Plan, Be

The citizens who spent years dreaming up CreateAustin are now working to make it real
by Robert Faires

This plan was supposed to be different.

The CreateAustin Cultural Master Plan, commissioned by the city of Austin three years ago to map out where the city’s creative industries and activities should be in 10 years, was supposed to be that long-range plan that didn’t wind up ignored and gathering dust on some bureaucratic shelf.

So here we are, almost 16 months after consultant Bill Bulick and a citizen task force delivered the plan to City Council, and it has yet to be adopted by that body. Now, if the governmental entity that generated the plan in the first place hasn’t even signed off on it, is CreateAustin really so different after all?

Read the rest at the Austin Chronicle.

Austin, TX -  For the first time, Central Texas will have a new support service and advocacy organization for our entire creative community. Building on its 35 years of work to create greater public awareness, appreciation, and support for Austin’s performing arts community, Austin Circle of Theaters will change its name to the Greater Austin Creative Alliance and expand its services to embrace the full spectrum of our region’s expressive and creative activities across all disciplines and sectors— especially as it relates to strategy, action and engagement at all levels of civic life. The name change becomes effective October 1, 2009.

The mission of the Greater Austin Creative Alliance is to advance, connect and celebrate Austin’s creative life in order to strengthen our creative economy and benefit the well-being of our community.

The Greater Austin Creative Alliance will strive to achieve its mission through work in three main areas: Advocacy and Cultural Policy; Marketing and Communication; Membership and Services. Its tools will be conversation, collaboration, convening, research, innovative consulting and technology. The goal is to build an inclusive, transparent and responsive Alliance that can effectively serve and nurture Austin’s vibrant cultural ecosystem.

The impetus for ACoT stepping forward to lead this change comes from its active participation in the CreateAustin Cultural planning process and its many task forces, the dedication of CreateAustin Leadership, and its own vision and passion. Many task forces repeatedly cited the need for advocacy, collaboration, marketing, professional development and capacity building — all services ACoT had been providing in some measure for its own performing arts community for years.

“The CreateAustin initiative had created both a process and an opportunity for more significant work,” says Latifah Taormina, Executive Director of Austin Circle of Theaters, “It was up to all of us to seize the opportunity and make the work happen.”

A Creative Alliance Transition Team has been put together to assist in the next stages of ACoT’s metamorphosis. They will work with various sectors of our creative community to help surface issues, opportunities, and obstacles. They will also help with the job descriptions and qualifications for members and officers of the transition Board.

The Greater Austin Creative Alliance anticipates no immediate changes in staff and will present staff will continue the following services ACoT has been providing:

• NowPlayingAustin.com, popular arts and cultural portal for 900 plus creative organizations —and hundreds artists— across all sectors. (Part of the Artsopolis Marketing Partnership network of nonprofit sites serving 36,000,000 across the USA)
• AusTIX full and half price ticketing services, including its weekly e-minder to 10,000 ticket buyers.
• The Austin Arts Minute on News8, a weekly TV spotlight on events opening that week —  across all arts disciplines.
• Get Your Art On, an annual city-wide celebration of Austin’s art, culture, and creativity in honor of National Arts and Humanities Month every October.
• Member access to affordable health, liability and other forms of insurance artists and creative organizations need as well professional online training via its partnership with Fractured Atlas in New York
• Actor’s Equity Paymaster and Umbrella Services for non-Equity companies wishing to hire Equity actors for their productions
• Free Night of Theatre, Unified General Auditions, and the B. Iden Payne Awards
• Sponsored Project and Emerging Artist counseling and support
• Learning workshops and convenings with consultants such as Andrew Taylor
• Audience development initiatives and research

The Alliance will also continue its active participation and partnerships with national organizations and conferences that serve as effective pipelines to bring best practices to Austin:  Americans for the Arts, Americans for the Arts Emerging Leaders, The Association of Performing Arts Service Organizations, Theatre Communications Group, Fractured Atlas, The Artsopolis Marketing PartnershipNorth American Arts Marketing Conference (where we are also presenting in October.)

During the initial planning stages for the Alliance, ACoT brought in several nationally respected experts in arts management to Austin to meet with a Study Group ACoT had established as well as with key stakeholders in Austin’s creative community. These included  Kevin McCarthy (Arts and Culture in the Metropolis: Strategies for Sustainability) Stephen Tepper (Engaging Art: The Next Great Transformation of American’s Cultural Life, with Bill Ivey), Tom Kaiden, COO of Philadelpia Cultural Alliance and Andrew Taylor, Director of the Bolz Center for Arts Administration and a leading thinker on cultural dynamics and a systems approach to a region’s cultural ecosystem. The group also researched the work of innovative thinkers on the subject of creative cities — Landry, Markussen, Kreidler —and examined successful and innovative models in other cities: ArtSpace, the Philadelphia Cultural Alliance, and 1st ACT  Silicon Valley.

There are many ways to become engaged with the new Greater Austin Creative Alliance.  Purchase a membership, join the NowPlayingAustin A-Team, participate in Get Your Art On or Free Night of Theater.  Donate your time as a volunteer.  To find out how you can get involved in the Greater Austin Cultural Alliance, contact call (512) 247-2531, or email.

Look for more information on The Greater Austin Creative Alliance website, austincreativealliance.org, which will also go live October 1, 2009.