Who: Invitees to the initial planning meeting included individuals and representatives of organizations from Georgia’s arts and cultural community.

What: A leadership forum for Georgia’s arts and cultural community to begin the conversation and to determine feasibility of an arts summit.

Why: To craft a public awareness and advocacy effort that, over multiple years, would improve the conditions for the arts and arts education in Georgia. To build powerful and positive relationships among leaders in the state’s cultural community, to enable more effective communication, collaboration and the establishment of mutual goals. To reinvigorate public advocacy on behalf of the arts and arts education in Georgia.

When: Planning meeting was held in January, 2012.

Where: Cobb Energy Performing Arts Centre

Goals: Beginning with the planning meeting, participants will craft an agenda and develop implementation steps to convene a statewide arts summit. The planning team was asked: 1) to identify specific goals for an arts summit, 2) to consider development of an invitation list of the state’s arts and cultural leaders, 3) to identify members for a working group, and 4) to map out the process to produce an arts summit.

Results: First decision was to forego calling it an arts summit; it will be referred to as the Georgia Arts Congress subject to further revisions during the ongoing planning process. Second decision was to establish a working group to outline a process for additional planning and to prepare a white paper on the specifics of implementation. The full Arts Summit Planning Report can be found at the link below.