New York State Council on the Arts
On May 1-3, 2000, the New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA)requested Dr. Barbara R. Collins, CEO of Positive Trends, Inc., to deliver a one-hour motivational keynote address as well as conduct two ninety-minute workshops entitled Creative Ways to Increase Diverse Audiences for Building Community Arts – DEC Retreat 2000. The retreat, which was conducted at the Minnowbrook Conference Center in Blue Mountain Lake, New York, was the first time this group of people met together.
The participants, over 50 DEC coordinators from throughout New York State, attended the retreat. The Decentralization Program, a regrant program of the State Local Partnership Program at NYSCA, provides local support for arts and cultural programming in the community. The purpose of the workshop was to assist the coordinators in developing a list of ideas to create diverse audiences. Dr. Collins included an intervention designed to educate coordinators on the meaning of diversity in the workshop. Since there was initial opposition among several of the participants, this was a challenging topic to facilitate in a short period of time.
We found Dr. Collins to be a proactive team player and consultant with willingness to meet our specific needs and concerns. Our outcomes for the retreat were achieved, and we look forward to working with Dr. Collins at the next retreat on May 2001
Steve Jones
State and Local Partnership Program
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