Arts Think Tank

After reading Scott Walters and Tom Loughlin for awhile now, it has occurred to me that perhaps an advocacy think tank for the arts is in order. Advocacy think tanks, unlike older (supposedly) non-partisan ones combine ideological bent with aggressive salesmanship in an effort to influence current policy debate. Then I'm reading Michael R. Gagliardo's post on ARTSblog, and walla! He's talking about Influencing policy at the local, state, and national levels Sounds a lot like think tank speak to me. It's great to read all these new ideas (localization, arts education etc.) in the blogosphere, but perhaps it's time for a definitive paper that delineates these ideas on paper and an effort be made toward making the media and public aware of them. After a quick check on the net, I see Collective Arts Think Tank which is encouraging because they have had meetings that include presenters, a critic, artists, service organizations and grant-makers. I know Paul Mullins had spoken of a discussion recently with the comment that talk is cheap, so perhaps creating a think tank in Seattle with various representatives of the artistic community would be more influential. Perhaps steps have been made out there that I am not aware of. I would be happy to hear about these initiatives.