Excerpt:
INTRODUCTION & SUMMARY REPORT
Ohio is a state of great artistic talent in many areas. However, too many artists, of greater talent than the recognition they get, work in isolation from each other and from arts resources such as the ones that are available from the Ohio Arts Council (OAC). Many Latino artists especially have added challenges by having cultural and linguistic barriers, unfamiliarity with grant culture and application processes, and so far, a lack of strong leadership or sense of empowerment within the Latino community.
Any work to increase the interactions among artists, and between artists and the OAC, will only lead to a more thriving arts community, more awareness, more support, and more opportunities to improve the quality and the amount of art produced in the State. The Ohio Arts Council can, and should, make a pro-active effort to become a catalyst to form increased networks and leadership, and to develop these by supporting Latino artists and by instigating and publicizing their success stories of collaboration with the OAC. We can expect that this type of grassroots work will build trust in the artist community, demystify the process and motivate others to follow suit.
One important step that OAC has taken to initiate a higher level of support for Latino artists was the collection of information about the presence of Latino artists in Ohio in 2009. With funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, the OAC hired me to conduct a 25-day field research project aiming to identify folk and traditional artists in the State, to create an Ohio Latino Artist Directory, to document some of the artist’s work, and to poll their opinions about the state of Latino arts in Ohio and the kind of 2 support they would like to see coming form the OAC.
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