Erin Harkey: Arts, Culture, and a Healthy Democracy
Editor’s Note: This episode was recorded in April 2026, before the City of San Diego released its initial FY27 budget proposal. That proposal has since raised urgent questions about the future of public arts funding in San Diego, making this conversation with Erin Harkey especially timely.
Erin Harkey is the President and CEO of Americans for the Arts, the nation’s leading nonprofit organization for advancing arts and culture. She helps shape the national conversation about public arts funding, creative workers, cultural policy, and the future of the arts ecosystem. Before joining Americans for the Arts, Erin held major arts and civic leadership roles in Chicago, including serving as Commissioner of the Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events. Her career also includes work in Los Angeles and Long Beach, giving her a perspective that spans local practice, regional systems, and national advocacy.
This Episode:
How do arts and culture help build a healthy society?
Erin and Grant explore the arts as both a reflection of community health and a force that helps create it. Erin points to a striking statistic: 76% of Americans say the arts are personally important to them. That shared value matters, especially at a time when artists and cultural organizations are facing real pressure from shifting funding, policy uncertainty, and broader instability.
Erin reminds us that culture is everywhere: in museums and theaters, state fairs, classrooms, community centers, faith spaces, neighborhood traditions, and the things people do together every Saturday. Seeing the arts this way helps communities recognize the creative life already around them and understand why public funding matters.
They discuss how arts and culture are “both an indicator and facilitator” of a healthy society, shaping quality of life, economic vitality, mental health, civic dialogue, democracy, and the ways communities express who they are.
At a moment when San Diego is weighing the future of public arts investment, Erin’s national perspective brings the issue home. The work ahead, she argues, is local: protect creative expression, strengthen the conditions artists need, and recognize that when the arts flourish, communities do too.
Key Moments:
- [14:05] Why public arts funding reaches communities that other funding often misses
- [16:43] Why the arts remain a rare point of broad public agreement
- [19:15] How culture lives everywhere, from major institutions to everyday community life
- [24:00] Why arts and health may be one of the most resonant arguments for public support
- [40:09] Why the arts are essential to a healthy democracy
Resources Mentioned in This Episode:
- Americans for the Arts – National organization advancing arts and culture through research, advocacy, policy, and field-building.
- Arts & Economic Prosperity Research – Americans for the Arts’ research on the economic and social impact of the nonprofit arts and culture sector.
- Springboard for the Arts – Artist-centered organization known for community development work and guaranteed income efforts for artists.
- Prebys Foundation’s Healing Through Art and Nature – Grant initiative focused on how arts and nature can support mental health, connection, and well-being.
Take Action:
- Support Public Arts Funding – Follow local budget conversations and speak up for arts and culture as essential civic infrastructure. Resources at sdartmatters.org.
- Recognize Culture Everywhere – Notice the festivals, murals, performances, traditions, and community spaces that shape daily life.
- Support Artists and Cultural Workers – Attend events, buy work, share opportunities, and advocate for the space, funding, and conditions artists need to thrive.
- Connect Arts to Health and Belonging – Look for ways arts and culture can support young people, mental health, connection, and reduced isolation in your community.
- Protect Creative Expression – Treat the arts as part of a healthy democracy: a way people share stories, encounter different perspectives, and imagine what comes next.
Credits:
This is a production of the Prebys Foundation
Hosted by Grant Oliphant
Co-Hosted by Crystal Page
Produced by Adam Greenfield, Tess Karesky, Edgar Ontiveros Medina, and Crystal Page
Engineered by Adam Greenfield
Production Coordination by Tess Karesky
Video Production by Edgar Ontiveros Medina
The Stop & Talk Theme song was created by San Diego’s own Mr. Lyrical Groove.
Download episodes at your favorite podcatcher or visit us at StopAndTalkPodcast.com
Special thanks to the Prebys Foundation Team
If you like this show, and we hope you do, the best way to support this show is to share and subscribe.
This is a production of the Prebys Foundation
Hosted by Grant Oliphant
Co-Hosted by Crystal Page
Produced by Adam Greenfield, Tess Karesky, Edgar Ontiveros Medina, and Crystal Page
Engineered by Adam Greenfield
Production Coordination by Tess Karesky
Video Production by Edgar Ontiveros Medina
The Stop & Talk Theme song was created by San Diego’s own Mr. Lyrical Groove.
Download episodes at your favorite podcatcher or visit us at StopAndTalkPodcast.com
Special thanks to the Prebys Foundation Team
If you like this show, and we hope you do, the best way to support this show is to share and subscribe.
