How do Arts Leaders Become Community Change Agents?

Bill Cleveland: 00:00:01

Hey, there.

In this episode, Massachusetts Cultural Council director Michael Bobbitt reflects on the role of art as a survival strategy, the politics of creative work, and how ancestral knowledge shapes our social movements.

From the center for the Study of Art and Community, this is Change the Story, Change the World, A chronicle of art and community transformation, where activist artists and cultural organizers share the knowledge we need to thrive as agents of social change. My name is Bill Cleveland.

Now, in this show, we'll explore how cultural change work is inherently political, highly practical, and tied to liberatio, some lessons for activist arts organizations working towards real community change and the the importance of centering community truths, not institutional expectations.

Part one, Art as Survival.

Michael, welcome to the show. So where are you right now? Where are you hailing from?

Michael Bobbit: 00:01:15

Yeah, currently I'm in my home office in Watertown, which is a suburb of Boston, just west of Cambridge.

Bill Cleveland: 00:01:23

A beautiful area. So, Michael, have you ever imagined yourself having a handle or street name? And if you did, what would it be?

Michael Bobbit: 00:01:33

The one thing that always comes back for me and the thing that keeps me centered and focused on the work that I do is this term I call little Michael Bobbitt, which is really about that little kid who came from a broken home with lots of unhealthy people around and was saved through arts and culture.

And so he's in my mind all the time, and he's the thing that wakes me up and go, you have to get to work, because there are so many other little Michael Bobbitts out there that need you to make the art sector stronger so that more little Michael Bobbitts can be saved with arts and culture. So that'll be my handle. Little Michael Bobbitts.

Bill Cleveland: 00:02:10

My life path, though very different, also took a life healing turn when I stumbled into the creative process. So what a gift, eh?

Michael Bobbit: 00:02:21

Yeah. I feel for those that haven't had the opportunity to see what arts can do for them or people that are afraid of it, but.

Or people that are challenged by whatever life circumstances they're in that also could be unchallenged because they have the chance to get the things that are inside their bodies out by experiencing arts and culture. So we're lucky.

Bill Cleveland: 00:02:44

We are lucky.

And the place where this became most apparent to me was working in the California prison system, where I had the privilege to offer opportunities to incarcerated men and women for just that. A chance to work on changing their story by creating things, by making things. It was like water to a seed. And they. They taught me a lot.

Michael Bobbit: 00:03:11

Yeah, I mean, I have worked with lots of kids in My life. And sometimes those kids were labeled bad kids.

And then you get them in a dance class, and they all of a sudden become the most wonderful, loving kids. They become more focused on school. And so I. You know, the value of the arts is so vast. To me, it's like technology.

It infuses itself in everything that we do, but to a place where it enhances all the stuff. And so my goal is to get people to see that this is an essential health and human service.

Bill Cleveland: 00:03:43

Absolutely. Wonderful to hear that. So now the hardest question. You're sitting across the table from a bunch of folks that have no idea what your story is.

How do you describe what you do in the world?

Michael Bobbit: 00:04:01

I have found that it is stories that connect us to each other. We're so obsessed with stories, we actually tell ourselves stories while we're sleeping.

We travel from here to there, and we don't remember how we got to where we're going because our brain is churning stories. And so I've learned that my story is something that people can find a way to relate to.

And so I tend to be super vulnerable when I tell my whole story that I'm poor black child, born and raised In Lower Northwest D.C. every single adult that I knew and grew up with were struggling with addictions and mental health issues.

Almost all of the men were in and out of incarceration, joblessness.

And somehow, as the highest ranking government official in arts and culture here in Massachusetts, I think it brings me down to a human level when I can have a real conversation with someone and then the conversation flows. So I choose vulnerability. Every single time.

Bill Cleveland: 00:05:04

You gave a TED Talk and you talked about the trauma fetish that happens when we get into conversations about who we are, where we are, where we come from. And one of the easy paths seems to be, show me your wound or what's your broken part?

And you made the point that there's a lot more to the story than that.

Michael Bobbit: 00:05:29

Yeah, I think that when I do tell my story, I think people see a healthy, happy person telling the story of trauma. And somehow the balance is made because they see the result. They see that I'm not my trauma. The trauma is just a portion of my story.

That TED Talk, it touched a lot of people. It brought to life what a lot of people were thinking.

I recently went to a museum about the history of black people, and I had to leave the museum three times before I got through it because it was so heavy. And I got a call from someone and it wasn't the right time for the Call. And I felt myself getting. Getting angry at this person.

And I realized it's because going through this museum and I was just being re traumatized by this museum. And the thought I had at the very end was when someone designs the Museum of Black Joy, they will make a gazillion dollars.

Most stories about marginalized people focus on the thing that makes them marginalized. And that's not my full experience experience. And I want people to feel the full experience.

And I think again, when we learn the real stories, we can connect more with each other. And maybe that's what's missing in this polarized world. Right now we only focus on the bad parts as opposed to the great parts. So.

Bill Cleveland: 00:06:50

There's an organization called Alternate Roots, if you may be familiar with it.

Michael Bobbit: 00:06:55

I'm not.

Bill Cleveland: 00:06:55

There's a lot of kindred spirits there. I think you would find them inspirational and comforting. And they have spent 50 years. They're in their 50th year.

They started out as a collective of non traditional theaters in southern 14 states and have evolved to become, I think, one of the most openly maturely engaged, anti racism artistic collectives in the country. And at the center of their work, in addition to the heart stuff, is the joy part.

Michael Bobbit: 00:07:34

Yeah.

Bill Cleveland: 00:07:35

And they have an annual gathering every year. And if you're not ready for some joy, you're gonna be blown away.

Michael Bobbit: 00:07:44

Oh my gosh, I'm gonna find them.

Bill Cleveland: 00:07:46

Actually, their 50th is going to be celebrated with a book that is going to be published by New Village press. And it's 50 stories from people who have lived through that whole history.

And woven all through it are these combinations of celebration, tragedy, grief, joy, and art making. And it's a wonderful testimony to persistence and the vitality of the creative spirit. It really is.

Michael Bobbit: 00:08:22

Yeah. That museum that I was going through as you left, there are murals of smiling kids. But it felt a little too late.

And I wonder what have happened if we broke up the traumatic parts of our story as black people with the joyful parts. I looked around the room and it just was heavy. And this is white people and black people.

So I wonder what would happen to those folk if the curation of that museum had that balance throughout. We need joy.

Bill Cleveland: 00:08:54

We do. It's clear that the path in your life has been about making, creating, incubating a lot of joy. So what's the story of your coming to this work?

Michael Bobbit: 00:09:06

So it's very interesting.

I remember several arts experiences in the very early part of school, but the one that sticks out in my Mind the most is I was Hansel in the third act. In the third act of Hansel and Gretel at my elementary school in D.C. public Schools, there were three Hansels.

My mom did think I was the best of the three Hansels. And she has absolutely no biases. But I remember very closely. It's visceral.

I remember there was a moment in this act where I'm in the cage that the witch locked me in. And I'm grabbing onto the bars.

I know that image of itself, but I'm grabbing onto the bars, which I remember were like wood and they may not have even been dried by that point. And I said something and the whole audience laughed.

I even looked over at the Gretel and the witch, who at this point was staged face down and ass up in the fireplace. And I remember they both laughing too. And there was something about. I was like, there was something happened in me, something clicked or snapped.

Like the power of making a whole room of people laughter. This clicked at 6 years old. And I was like, oh, I need to recreate that.

And it made all the bad things that I remember, I think the night before I had a big fight with my brother and the week before that there's a fight with my uncle and my grandmother. And like there was so much drama and trauma in the house in that moment of making that whole audience laugh.

I just felt something different and new while I was pretending to be this Eastern European child. And I was like, I gotta keep doing this. And so I found my way into music, into dance, into into band. And I just kept doing it.

And I didn't know it was going to be something I pursued as a career.

It just was the thing that got me out of the house in the morning, got me to go to school, because at some point in school I had some arts activity and it kept me away from the house. So there were always after school programs that I went to. And I just kept doing that throughout high school.

And then it was time to go to college and I thought, oh, this is what I want to do. I actually went to college to study the trumpet. I was going to be a trumpeter.

Bill Cleveland: 00:11:34

Wow.

Michael Bobbit: 00:11:34

And then found my way in the classical dance world until I realized I was 62 and 220 pounds. That ballet was not meant for me. So I shifted over to musical theater.

And then it's been really theater for most of my life until I happened upon being a bureaucrat at Mass Cultural Council.

Bill Cleveland: 00:11:53

That's quite a shift from the art making trenches to being A behind the scenes facilitator, manager. But somewhere in there, between your stage work and your state work, you ran one of Massachusetts most successful children's theater companies. Right.

What was that transition like?

Michael Bobbit: 00:12:13

Yeah. So an odd turn, an odd way to get there.

And I also think that because of my experience as a child the last sort of 10 years or so of being an arts leader of a nonprofit arts organization, I preferred being outside of the room, making the room available for artists to be artists and just getting the word out to everyone I can about the great work we were doing rather than being in the room making the art. I had much more impact being outside of the room.

And so when the opportunity to be the executive director of Mass Cultural Council and support a whole state and maybe influence other states, I just, I couldn't pass it up.

Bill Cleveland: 00:12:57

Well, as you know, there's a disease in arts administration in that so many arts administrators do rise up from the stage or the studio and then end up resenting it.

So you're one of the lucky ones that loves the creative process and all of the stuff that it takes to incubate and gestate and present the work that makes it possible for other people to do their work.

Michael Bobbit: 00:13:27

Yeah, it keeps me humble too, because I remember hustling for grants and dollars and contracts, and so I understand what artists go through. The other thing that being an artist has helped me with is that there's not a room that I can go into.

You know, I'm in climate rooms and housing rooms and transportation rooms where state leaders are gathering to talk about the issues of the state all the time. And my brain is just churning with ideas, just churning. And so that skill set.

I talk a lot about creativity as a professional development tool that I think the general workforce overlooks.

And even though there's all this data out there from McKinsey and Deloitte and Forbes and Adobe and the World Economic Forum saying creativity is what we all need right now. It hasn't been operationalized, but. So I'm so grateful for my chance to be an artist and now to be an arts leader. It's really fantastic.

Bill Cleveland: 00:14:24

Part Two, Cultural Work is Political Work.

Now, in: 2024

Speaker C: 00:14:47

What's up, bulldogs?

Michael Bobbit: 00:14:50

All right.

Michael Bobbit: 00:14:51

ns to Dean College's Class of: 2024

Imagination is seeing the world differently. Creativity is bringing the imagination to life. And things like art, technology, and solutions are the product of creativity.

But what Dean has charged you with is to reach beyond the imagination to the unimagined. What would happen to our world if we tapped into the unimagined? Some might say this is impossible.

Michael Bobbit: 00:15:37

Oh, but what? Wait.

Michael Bobbit: 00:15:39

There is a tool mentioned before that makes those unimaginable heights absolutely realistic. A tool that this world has underutilized and often underestimates. It's a tool that we all have. A magical and powerful tool.

The power to see the future, to make us freeze in our tracks, to remember the past, to alter minds, to cause strangers to emote, to concentrate vibrations, bend energy and send them out into the world, to see things that don't exist and make them come to life, to heal sickness, to elicit joy, to make people come together from all over the world in an instant, to solve problems, to hold down, to twerk, and to shake that ass. I love that. Someday in the future, someone will read this part of my commencement speech and say, shake that ass. Repeat after me, shake that ass.

My friends, this superhuman power is the power of creativity.

Bill Cleveland: 00:16:48

That's great. So you called upon those students to sit up and pay attention and make use of their creative power.

And I have to say that I think that kind of encouragement to exercise and discipline and practice and make use of those imaginative muscles is sorely missing from the everyday K12 educational path that delivered those students to the college they were just graduating from. I think this is a big problem. I think it's one of the things we're suffering from in this country.

In particular, a failure of those creative muscles, a failure of imagination that we need to respond to some enormous challenges. What do you think?

Michael Bobbit: 00:17:33

Yeah. Yeah. And I will also say that there are some people right now in the political world that are very creative, extremely creative.

I'm blown away by their creativity. Right. And they're using their creativity for things that I think are evil, but they are still using creativity.

And those people have an arts background. So it can be used for darkness. Right?

Bill Cleveland: 00:17:55

Certainly can.

Michael Bobbit: 00:17:56

But all the top researchers, as I mentioned, have talked about the impact of creativity as a professional development tool. And the arts are a tool to help you expand your mind creatively, just like sports are a tool to help you learn about teamwork. Right.

Most of the people that participate in the arts are not going to be artists. Most of the people that participate in sports are not going to be athletes. Right.

But that experience and that practice of it helps your mind learn those muscles. And so it's a loss to your business. It's a loss to the kinds of things we want to do in our governments.

It's a loss to building democratic muscles because art is an ultimate democratic tool that can bring people together. When we're in debates with each other, we're on polar opposite ends.

It is creativity that can help you see opposition as an asset to help you get to the right decisions. Right. But because we don't cultivate that, because we're not not giving it to our kids, then we miss out. And I.

The other thing I will say is that maybe the sports have been very organized when it comes to getting government support and government understanding, and the art sector is a little less organized. And so we haven't designed this creativity as a product that requires intervention and support from government.

We focus on just funding as opposed to all the other things that government can do for a sector. So that's a big part of, I think, why creativity isn't part of the zeitgeist.

Bill Cleveland: 00:19:37

Yet you spoke about, I think it's one of your blog posts talking about something that has been my soapbox for a long time, which is, as I said before, many people who rise to management in arts organizations have no management experience and they're trying really hard to keep their head above water. But the nonprofit industrial complex is a difficult place to manage anyways.

And you talk about outdated management models, you talk about undervaluing labor and separating ourselves from possible cross sector, cross community relationships, and particularly giving short shrift to the skill set one needs just to make an organization function well and also partner with other aspects of the economic ecosystem that we all work in.

Michael Bobbit: 00:20:37

Yeah, yeah. Here's a big provocative statement. All the things that the art sector is suffering from from is the art sector's fault. We've done it to ourselves.

You can get a degree in art and never have to take a business class. We again, we self segregate. We will not reevaluate a business model that contributes to our insolvency.

We will double down on it and we'll keep doing it for years and years. And it's a strange thing because we are extremely creative and innovative.

So one would think that we could easily look at a something that's not working and design something new. But there's a weird conservativeness in our sector.

There's a weird allegiance to what we call best practices, which I don't actually think are best practices because I can't imagine they were beta tested by scientists and the best thing was pulled out.

And I think they're most common practices and often designed by large institutions, pretty significant donor bases, and then the rest of the sector just follow suit and it doesn't necessarily work for them.

Bill Cleveland: 00:21:47

Right.

Michael Bobbit: 00:21:47

And so, so it's a big problem. And often when you start talking to people, you get to the core of why they don't learn these tools, these business tools, because they're afraid.

It's scary.

It's scary to think about learning basics of finance and basics of innovation and the things you need to know for supply and demand and venture capital and all that kind of work. It's scary. But I often say to them, so is standing on a stage and singing in front of 500 people, yes, it is.

So is a triple pirouette or putting up an art show. It's scary and hard. But there's something in us that makes us persevere and do it and do the thing that makes us uncomfortable.

If we, the art sector can take our skills that we have, like the critical thinking skills and creative skills and innovative skills, and marry it with sound business acumen, we would be unstoppable. Unstoppable. And some of that means to stop self segregating.

Like, I was meeting with a group of people that were talking to me about their housing issues. The Artists Arts Organization, they have housing issues. Housing issues. And I said I was at five housing convenings in the last month and a half.

Where were you? Why weren't you in the room? You want me to go to the state and talk about housing for the art sector, but you're not in the room.

Helping to solve the state's housing issue. Same thing with transportation and climate. And so we do it to ourselves. Oftentimes they'll say, well, they're against us.

And I haven't met someone out there in a leadership position that's like, I hate the arts. I'm going to destroy you.

I mean, we have maybe had some of that in now and again, but that, that, again, I could tie that to our lack of putting pressure on them as an organized sector. Right. So yet I haven't found the thing that's coming from the outside that's contributing to our instability.

It's all coming from dated business practices.

Conservativeness, unwillingness to try new things or learn new things, Convening and calling it professional development when it really is an Affinity space. We're not really actually evaluating or learning new skills. We are double downing on the skills that we have.

And often in those convenings, I'm seeing one broke theater company sharing best practices with another broke theater company, confused as to what the outcome is supposed to be.

Bill Cleveland: 00:24:21

Well, but you also just look at the data on the longevity of people in ed positions in nonprofit arts organizations. It's between two and a half and three years.

So I mean, here today, gone tomorrow, passing the buck, whatever you want to call it, burnout, all that stuff.

One of the things that you've done at Mass Council, and I think it occurs to me that you've done it throughout almost your whole career, which is the opposite of what you're talking about, which is that you don't see the walls. You see opportunity when you see somebody who might actually resonate with a script, a play, a topic. Not necessarily even in the arts community.

I mean, Culture Rx is a perfect example of two sectors. One small and fairly weak, the other one incredibly robust, but desperate for answers to very difficult questions.

Finding each other in Massachusetts with you as the interlocutor. Could you talk about that?

Michael Bobbit: 00:25:30

Yeah. Again, the little Michael Bobbitts out there that are coming from worlds that are not near the arts but don't know.

They need the arts, but they need the arts.

And so the Culture RX program, which we're now really calling Arts Art Prescriptions, is a program whereby health care providers, this includes doctors and social workers and school counselors, but health care providers can prescribe 12 doses of arts and culture to their patients, which comes with a companion ticket and transportation if you need it. And all of this is funded by third party payers, including insurance companies, managed care providers, housing authorities.

We just got some of the opioid settlement money to go to this program. We're talking to the gaming commission about using it to mitigate gambling addiction.

But can you imagine, I mean, healthcare has a lot of money, right? And it's a massive sector in Massachusetts. It's 40% of the budget and it's getting more and more costly.

And here we are, this large sector of Massachusetts, the art sector, that has a solution. We have a solution. Sometimes people are not sick, they're just lonely. Sometimes people are sick, they still need the arts.

And so I'm excited about that. And it's growing, it's growing. There's lots of other states that are now starting to have those conversations.

I hope it will be part of mainstream in two to three years so that when you Go to your doctor. They ask you about your sleeping habits, your eating habits, your exercise habits, and your arts participation.

There's data out of Canada that says for every dollar invested in social prescribing, which is the umbrella term for arts prescribing, for every dollar invested, we save healthcare $4.43.

Bill Cleveland: 00:27:21

back in January of: 2024

Well, your Rx story reminds me of something I know you've been through sitting in front of the legislature. In my case, it was a state senate hearing and we were making the case for arts and corrections.

We're saying we're going to save you a ton of money in our prison system that's already breaking the budget with just this little infusion of art and some space and some materials.

Of course, they didn't believe us, so we did the research and that's what allowed us to grow the budget for 22 years and get every joint in the entire state with a full time arts program and a civil service artist facilitator and lots of connections to the community. So those partnerships are there to be had.

Michael Bobbit: 00:28:34

Yeah.

Bill Cleveland: 00:28:35

There's a strategy, though. I mean, you're looking for those partners. It's like part of your DNA. Right. You can see them out there.

I mean, every artist that I hired to work in the prison, to coordinate each prison's program, they were trained to go in and sit down with a warden and say, what are your three biggest problems? Right. Not, I'm the artist and I'm going to do great things. I'm here to help solve problems, man, and I've got the goods.

The creative process is going to make waves here in this joint and most of them will go, you're out of your mind. And at the end of the day, the proof is in the pudding. It really worked that way.

Michael Bobbit: 00:29:15

Yeah. I mean, not only does it save the state money, but it actually creates jobs for artists. So you're actually getting two benefits.

Bill Cleveland: 00:29:25

Yeah. And eventually we were the largest employer of artists in 14 California counties.

Michael Bobbit: 00:29:32

You're getting income tax back and you're saving dollars, and that's for many sectors. I mean, we talked about the arts prescription and what arts can do for health care, but. And the prison system, youth services.

All these people out here trying to solve youth problems when sometimes they just need to be in a poetry class.

Traffic calming art, whereby it's expensive to put in traffic lights and even stop signs, but not that expensive to put a mural into the intersection where people are getting routinely hit by cars. It makes the area more beautiful.

Having conversations with our recreation department that has a ton of sort of cottages and venues in their parks that aren't being used. Cost them a lot of money in the permitting process. But what if we lease those out to artists that need studio space?

How can you create an open studio where, like, people get out of their homes and go into the parks and get fresh, fresh air and exercise because they know their artists are in the parks? We want to reduce the carbon footprint created by cars.

And so one of the best things about New York City subway station is that it's an experience because you're going to see art and artists on the subway performing. Right? And those are approved by the mta. So we can get people out of cars and make the rider experience, experience for public transportation better.

We can help better message climate issues. I remember being a child of the 80s and how much arts were used to bring awareness to major world issues.

We were inundated with We Are the World and Hands Across America and Live Aid and Farm Aid, and we're not seeing that kind of work now. But like, we're here, we're an essential health and human service. We are a tool to solve so many problems and to save government's money.

Bill Cleveland: 00:31:24

So, Michael, do you feel you've made your case in a way that what you have just articulated is being heard and respected by the state's elected officials, particularly now that the federal government has the cultural sector on its enemies list?

Michael Bobbit: 00:31:40

I do, but I think that the sector in Massachusetts can organize more and get to know their leadership a lot more so that the leaders know how many arts and culture organizations and people are in their communities and districts.

I will tell you at the Joint Committee for Ways and Means last week at the end of the day, and it's always a long day of lots of testimony, but I did get applause from the committee, and apparently it was the only applause of the day and a very rare thing that happened.

So I think they're hearing me, and I think that the work I've done at Mass Cultural Council has opened people's eyes more to the abilities of the art sector and how we need to rethink our mindsets about the art sector and the impact it can have. So I have lots more thoughts now, more clarity, and I'm getting into a lot more rooms now.

We had a lot of grant programs, or we have consolidated those grant programs, which has freed up time for us to do what I'm calling advancement work, where we're thinking about advancing the whole sector and specifically focused on people that don't get grant money from us. And that's given us a new focus and new motivation.

Bill Cleveland: 00:32:58

Part 3: Cookies and Beats Working Outside the Frame.

So, Michael, you've had a lot of years in front of and behind the limelight. Is there a story or stories that you think personifies your best work?

Michael Bobbit: 00:33:17

I will tell you two stories that I think personifies my personal motivation. So my theater was doing a production of if you give a mouse a cookie. It's a adaptation of a very popular children's book.

Bill Cleveland: 00:33:33

Was that adventure theater?

Michael Bobbit: 00:33:35

Adventure theater, yeah.

Bill Cleveland: 00:33:36

Yeah.

Michael Bobbit: 00:33:36

And I got a call from a parent that just said she was really happy to see we were doing this play. And I asked her when she was coming, when she and her son were coming.

She said, well, we're not going to come because my child has autism and I don't want to disrupt other people. And I said, well, that is unacceptable. Hang on tight.

And so I put her on hold and I walked back to the dressing room and I asked the actors if they would do the show for that parent and her child. And the actor said yes. And I got back on the phone with the lady and said, hey, the actors want to do the show for you and your son.

And she was like, oh, my God. Oh my God. Can I tell other families like mine? And I said, that would be great. Let me know how we can support getting that word out.

And she said, great, we'll be back in touch. And so she called back and said, I have about 150 people that want to see the show. The theater had a capacity of 170.

And so then I thought, oh my gosh, I need to do a response responsibly. Let me bring in an autism specialist. So we brought in a specialist.

He made some adjustments to the lights, to the sound, had some conversations with the actors, some lobby sensory experiences. And we launched the first ever sensory friendly production of a show. And the show, it sold out.

s still does it. And that was: 2009

And then about six months later, I was talking about this on a panel and I remember in the back in the room there were some people that perked up. Turns out they were from this group in New York called the Theater Development Fund.

And they called me to New York and we went to see a production of the Lion King.

hey did. Sold out the big old: 1600

And now this model is being done all over the world. And it started at my little theater in Glen Echo, Maryland.

Bill Cleveland: 00:35:48

It sure did. Here's Charlotte Grumman, an accessibility consultant from Chicago's Goodman Theater, describing what they're up to.

Charlotte Grumman: 00:35:58

Every time I have a sensory friendly performance that I work on, at least three people come up to me and say, hey, I had no idea what this was about. And I just realized that my niece is finally going to come to the theater for the first.

The sensory friendly and relaxed performances are really, really important to me because as a person with sensory processing disorder, when I go see performances, I struggle to sit still. My hands are always shaking or my legs are moving. I usually am fidgeting with something.

And as a child, I loved theater, but I really, really struggled with my behavior as an adult in Chicago. It is so wonderful that I get the opportunity to experience theater in a way that I was never allowed to do before.

Some changes that we might make to a performance is bringing the house lights down. They're always still on. There is an ability to see your feet. You can stand up, move around, change your seats.

We also will limit the noise level, so we'll reduce loud sound cues, any jump scares. We also have sensory friendly items, so blankets. We have weighted toys, fidgets, which are great.

We have a quiet room or a quiet area that involves a bunch of activities. This quiet area is available for anybody who needs it to take a moment and take a step back from the performance, get a breather.

And also to know that it's okay to get up from your seat, to come to the quiet room and then return to the show. We're not policing that kind of behavior. Instead, we're encouraging audience members to interact with the way that they feel most comfortable.

Bill Cleveland: 00:37:38

That is fantastic. The experience of knowing, and particularly with your players who are improvisers, that this is a practice of constant change and adaptation.

A great opportunity to connect to these amazing kids.

Michael Bobbit: 00:37:55

Yeah.

Bill Cleveland: 00:37:56

And we're going to learn something in the process. Right?

Michael Bobbit: 00:37:59

It was Minimal effort on the theater's part and the artist's part. It was such a joy. And I'm so excited every time I see someone put on their calendar, sensory friendly production.

I think about that little kid that saw that production. If you give a mouse a cookie, it was just, just fantastic.

The other story I would tell you is that I, a few years later, got the rights to Bob Marley's estate of songs. I was reading an article that said music teachers were having trouble getting their kids on the beat. They tried all kinds of music, including rap.

And the one thing that worked was reggae music. Because of that sort of solid second. Absolutely. And so I thought reggae and kids. Let me just do some research.

And I discovered that through a former board member, that Bob Marley's daughter Cedella had adapted some of his songs into a children's book. And so I just reached out to the Marley family and said, hey, can I adapt Cedella's book into a play and use Bob's music as the score?

And they said, yes.

And so I wrote this brand new sort of modern fairy tale about Ziggy Marley, who was this very timid kid because he had experienced hurricanes and mongoose and the Jamaican boogeyman called Duppy. And so he would stay in his home watching the TV so he can. And the news so that he can know what was coming up and just protect his family.

So he was very shy, very cloistered. And it was opposite of Bob Marley's sort of ethos, which is, everything's going to be all right. Get out, enjoy the sun.

And so we wrote a whole play about that. And the bad guy in the piece was Duppy, the Jamaican boogeyman. And I decided that this duppy comes in many forms.

But this duppy gets his power from the hair of timid little children. And Ziggy had a hair full of beautiful locks. And so this duppy really wanted Ziggy's hair.

And so Ziggy is tricked out of his home, and then he has to combat his literal demon. And he, of course, foils the duppy.

But what I loved about that show is that it was about the celebration of black culture, where race was not a plot point and the trauma of race was not a plot point. It was a huge celebration.

Everyone loves Bob Marley, but what I really love was when I looked at the patron manifest, the multicultural names on the list were so beautiful. And I would peek into the theater often.

And it was the first show that I saw more dads cuddling up to Their kids watching this show and enjoying the show. And the show did really well. It sold out. It went to New York and transferred and sold out off Broadway and then went on a national tour.

And now it's licensed and there are productions that pop up all over the world. There's something special in this story.

It's going to attract people that wouldn't go to the theater and hopefully they'll become theater fans forever.

Bill Cleveland: 00:40:59

Part 4 Jazzed: So Michael, what are you jazzed about right now?

Michael Bobbit: 00:41:08

Sort of for the agency? I'm jazzed about the connections we're making across state government.

There's lots of eye popping, excited moments when we talk about the kinds of things we can do to help them with the things they are doing that also generate contracts and jobs. We are digging into a new perhaps product where we're looking at an arts benefit as part of employee benefits packages. It can do two things.

One, it could create an environment where creativity is weaved into your annual operating plans. I'm always surprised when people that do hiring don't vet their employees for creativity but then get mad at them when they can't solve problems.

Right, right. So we thought like an arts benefit. One is a wellness tool and it's also a creativity tool.

And so we're trying to figure out how to show the return the ROI on it. Hopefully we'll beta test it in the fall and then see if we can get this to go to go to scale. And then personally, I have two plays I'm working on.

One is a new farce adapted from Mother Goose Rhymes. I think this is the hardest piece I've ever written. And then I'm working on an adaptation of the Our Gang series, the Little Rascals.

It's a bit of a challenge because Those stories are 100 years old and, and so can how. How do you make them without changing them? How do you make them relevant for modern audiences? But it's a fun challenge. I love challenges.

Bill Cleveland: 00:42:46

You certainly do. And one of the challenges we all face as creators is time.

So I really appreciate your spending this time and I really appreciate your approach to your work. The field of arts and culture needs more naturally occurring creative nodes to spur the work. And you got one of them bubbling away in Massachusetts.

So thank you.

Michael Bobbit: 00:43:08

I appreciate that vote of confidence. It means a lot coming from you. And I know what I want the gravestone say about the work that I did when I was on this planet.

Bill Cleveland: 00:43:18

So what is it that you want on the gravestone? Mr. Bobbitt?

Michael Bobbit: 00:43:22

Yes, Michael Bobbitt. Made art for everyone.

Bill Cleveland: 00:43:26

Not a bad legacy and certainly not a bad way to finish this episode. So thank you Michael. It's really been a privilege sharing stories.

Michael Bobbit: 00:43:35

Thank you so much.

Bill Cleveland: 00:43:37

And now, before we close, I'd like to share a few things that rose up for me in this conversation that I think are particularly relevant to activist art making in these strange and turbulent times. Michael talked about how his cultural change work has always been an amalgam of politics and a deep commitment to the community imagination.

This is a bedrock of the community arts movement from way back.

Another way you can put it is, "With not for", which means that you create work with the community, not just for it, with the understanding that it is what people are already doing and the stories that come from that that deserves visibility.

Along those same lines, I appreciate Michael's emphasis that many people, especially black, indigenous and marginalized communities, create out of necessity, not privilege, and that artists working with communities need to reflect the vitality of lived realities, not aimed for institutional approval or grandizement.

Finally, as a believer in the tyranny of the arts bubble, I was inspired by Michael's insistence that arts organizations need to innovate institutionally and exercise and flex their own imaginative muscles as transformational resources in their community.

As you heard, there's a lot more wisdom contained in this episode, so if you're of a mind, please share it with others who you think might find it useful and inspiring. So there you go.

And please know that next week we'll be sharing our second in the ongoing series Art and Social Change Weather Report on the cultural climate for activist artists in the Trump era from none other than Michael Bobbitt reporting on the great state of Massachusetts. So please tune in next week. And please also don't forget to Click on the GoFundMe link that is in our show notes and consider making a contribution.

Change the Story, Change the World is a production of center for the Study of Art and Community. Our theme and soundscape spring forth from the head, heart and hands of the maestro Judy Munson. Our text editing is by Andre Nebbe.

Our effects come from freesound.org and our inspiration comes from the ever present spirit of ook235. So until next time, stay well, do good and spread the good word. And once again, please know that this episode has been 100% human.