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Lt. Governor Lawton Joins National Leaders at Sundance Preserve to Discuss the Role of the Arts in Fostering Civic Engagement

Robert Redford’s Sundance Preserve and Americans for the Arts Convene 3rd Annual National Arts Policy Roundtable in Utah

Lt. Governor Barbara Lawton traveled today to the Sundance Preserve in Utah to join roughly forty distinguished national leaders serving at the highest levels of business, philanthropy, higher education and the arts for the third annual National Arts Policy Roundtable.

As the pinnacle arts policy convening in the United States, the forum –called by some “the Davos for the arts”— will focus on the topic “The Arts and Civic Engagement: Strengthening the 21st Century Community.” The conference is cosponsored by Robert Redford’s Sundance Preserve and Americans for the Arts, the nation’s leading organization for advancing the arts in America.

“As its Chair, the Wisconsin Arts Board again receives national recognition with this invitation to bring our innovative work with the arts in strengthening citizen participation in the design and construction of vibrant communities and a healthy democracy,” Lawton said. “I bring that expertise to inform the work of this impressive roundtable as we generate new ideas and policy proposals to support broader and more effective engagement of the arts and culture sectors to enrich the civic realm of American society.”

“Our need for a higher level of civic engagement stands out in stark relief today as we begin to take stock of this economic crisis and other complex circumstances and issues that will necessarily shade our response,” Lawton said. “The arts become powerful tools that encourage people to see things in new ways and stimulate creative thinking as we develop a strategic plan.”

Lt. Governor Lawton will work with top executives from such varied organizations as NASDAQ, Hitachi and Dreamworks Animation in the private sector; and with the American Express Foundation, Bank of America Foundation, and Pew Charitable Trusts to design policy options to support strengthening communities through the arts and civic engagement.

The three-day event will take place from Thursday, September 25 to Saturday, September 27 at the Sundance Preserve in Utah, at the base of Mt. Timpanogos.

This will be the second Sundance Roundtable Lt. Governor Lawton has attended. In 2007 she attended the Roundtable that focused on the topic “Thinking Creatively and Acting Globally – The Role of the Arts in Building the 21st Century American Workforce.”

Lt. Governor Lawton’s travel, meals and lodging expenses are paid for by Americans for the Arts.
 

Updated: September 26, 2008