Culture Under Fire: Storytelling for Public Power

Event ID: PP1162231

Thu, Mar 12, 2026 | 9:00 PM - 10:00 PM

Venue: Salon E (Hilton Austin Downtown)

View on Official SXSW

Summary

Public libraries, theaters, and arts institutions face growing threats from budget cuts, censorship, and consolidation—but remain vital to civic life. This panel unites the Future Film Coalition (FFC), American Library Association (ALA), and Americans for the Arts (AFTA) to share concrete strategies for defending public cultural infrastructure. From local advocacy to national coalition-building, panelists will offer tools to help artists and communities protect access, uphold free expression, and strengthen an equitable media ecosystem.

Contributors

Raw Event JSON

Large nested arrays are compacted for page readability. Full payload remains in dataset files.

Open JSON payload
{
  "id": "PP1162231",
  "track": "Culture",
  "focus_area": null,
  "category": "Panel",
  "event_id": "PP1162231",
  "event_type": "panel",
  "format": "Panel",
  "genre": null,
  "subgenre": null,
  "name": "Culture Under Fire: Storytelling for Public Power",
  "presented_by": null,
  "publish_at": "2026-01-28T13:06:00.000-06:00",
  "reservable": true,
  "reservable_id": "PP1162231",
  "reserved": false,
  "date": "2026-03-12",
  "end_time": "2026-03-12T17:00:00.000-05:00",
  "start_time": "2026-03-12T16:00:00.000-05:00",
  "message": null,
  "image": null,
  "credentials": [
    {
      "name": "Platinum Badge",
      "type": "platinum"
    },
    {
      "name": "Innovation Badge",
      "type": "innovation"
    }
  ],
  "contributors": [
    {
      "id": 90894,
      "company": "American Library Association",
      "credential_types": [
        "innovation"
      ],
      "entity_id": 2253509,
      "name": "Lisa Varga",
      "speaker_types": [],
      "title": "Associate Executive Director, Public Policy And Advocacy",
      "image": null,
      "speaker_type": "Speaker",
      "details": "Lisa R. Varga is the Associate Executive Director of Public Policy & Advocacy at the American Library Association’s Washington Office. In 2024, she was named Library Journal’s Librarian of the Year. Prior to her work at ALA, Lisa had spent 15 years as the Executive Director of the Virginia Library Association, and speaks nationally on a variety of topics, including Intellectual Freedom.",
      "links": {},
      "type": "person"
    },
    {
      "id": 89306,
      "company": "California Common Cause",
      "credential_types": [
        "innovation"
      ],
      "entity_id": 2251792,
      "name": "Maya Chupkov",
      "speaker_types": [],
      "title": "Media & Democracy Program Manager",
      "image": {
        "alt_text": "Maya Chupkov",
        "credit": null,
        "url": "https://images.sxsw.com/GjAh_k3Cm9vQNj1r4zS_UljZLrM=/0x104:905x1009/600x600/images.sxsw.com/48/1c3a4f5b-4975-4766-88eb-f31f00c9e4b9/pcid-1637831"
      },
      "speaker_type": "Speaker",
      "details": "Maya Chupkov is a filmmaker and public-interest policy\nstrategist whose work bridges community-rooted storytelling,\ndisability advocacy, and democracy reform. Across film, audio,\nwriting, and policy, she advances ideas that touch on the\nunderrepresented voices in the speech diversity communities. In\naddition to overseeing the media policy program at California Common\nCause, she is working on a documentary that intersects with\nstuttering, race, and the Deep South, and follows Issac Bailey, a\nblack man with a severe stutter from St. Stephen, South Carolina.",
      "links": {},
      "type": "person"
    },
    {
      "id": 79404,
      "company": "Americans for the Arts (AFTA)",
      "credential_types": [
        "innovation"
      ],
      "entity_id": 2240523,
      "name": "Erin Harkey",
      "speaker_types": [],
      "title": "Executive Director",
      "image": null,
      "speaker_type": "Speaker",
      "details": "Erin Harkey has over 20+ years experience helping individuals and communities succeed through the arts. Erin was the Commissioner of the Chicago Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE). Harkey served the City of Chicago as Projects Administrator, then Deputy Commissioner for Programming and First Deputy Commissioner. In her dual role as Senior Policy Advisor for Arts in Culture in the Mayor’s Office, she advised on cultural policy and arts strategy across all City departments and agencies. She previously managed public art programs at Los Angeles County Arts Commission and the Arts Council for Long Beach. Harkey holds two master’s degrees in Public Art Administration and Urban Planning from the University of Southern California (USC) and a bachelor’s degree in Marketing from Howard University.",
      "links": {},
      "type": "person"
    },
    {
      "id": 10954,
      "company": "Future Film Coalition",
      "credential_types": [
        "innovation"
      ],
      "entity_id": 1955463,
      "name": "Jax Deluca",
      "speaker_types": [],
      "title": "Executive Director",
      "image": {
        "alt_text": "Jax Deluca",
        "credit": null,
        "url": "https://images.sxsw.com/ZjPy5MBf4rNMSi3Ldp2a4aBHUx4=/600x600/images.sxsw.com/48/c57ad592-d8d7-7018-8c6f-cf13b3d84a39/pcid-877137"
      },
      "speaker_type": "Speaker",
      "details": "Jax Deluca is a cultural strategist with over two decades of leadership across public service and nonprofit arts organizations. Currently, she is the interim director for the Future Film Coalition, advocating for the independent film sector by uniting independent film professionals and organizations to build collective power and shape field-wide efforts to secure visibility, resources, and public policy protections that will fortify the independent ecosystem and ensure audiences benefit from a diverse and thriving cultural landscape for generations to come. \n\nIn her previous role as the Director of Film & Media Arts at the National Endowment for the Arts (2016–2025), she oversaw a federal funding portfolio, spearheaded national initiatives, such as the Independent Media Arts Group (IMAG) in partnership with Sundance Institute and BAVC Media, and produced research offering critical insights into field-wide infrastructure needs, creative technology practices, and high-level challenges facing the independent film ecosystem. She is a 2025-26 Documentary Film in the Public Interest Fellow at the Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy.",
      "links": {},
      "type": "person"
    }
  ],
  "venue": {
    "accessible": false,
    "age_policy": null,
    "floor": "4",
    "id": "V0377",
    "indoor_outdoor": "INDOOR",
    "name": "Salon E",
    "parent_id": "V0365",
    "parent_venue_name": "Hilton Austin Downtown",
    "venue_entry_info": null,
    "formats": null,
    "location": {
      "address": "500 E 4th St.",
      "lat_lon": [
        30.2651364,
        -97.7381904
      ],
      "city": "Austin",
      "postal_code": "78701",
      "state": "TX",
      "name": "Hilton Austin Downtown"
    },
    "root": {
      "accessible": null,
      "age_policy": null,
      "floor": null,
      "id": "V0365",
      "indoor_outdoor": null,
      "name": "Hilton Austin Downtown",
      "parent_id": null,
      "parent_venue_name": null,
      "venue_entry_info": null,
      "formats": null
    },
    "events": "[omitted 5 venue events]"
  },
  "description": "Public libraries, theaters, and arts institutions face growing threats from budget cuts, censorship, and consolidation—but remain vital to civic life. This panel unites the Future Film Coalition (FFC), American Library Association  (ALA), and Americans for the Arts (AFTA) to share concrete strategies for defending public cultural infrastructure. From local advocacy to national coalition-building, panelists will offer tools to help artists and communities protect access, uphold free expression, and strengthen an equitable media ecosystem.",
  "experience_level": "Beginner",
  "accessibility": [],
  "accessible_venue": false,
  "add_bcl_url": false,
  "add_slido": false,
  "age_policy": null,
  "american_sign_language": false,
  "apple_url": null,
  "audio_description": false,
  "caption_url": null,
  "closed_captioned": false,
  "cpe_credit": false,
  "has_subtitles": false,
  "hash_tags": [],
  "high_sensory_experience": false,
  "live": false,
  "long_description": "Public libraries, theaters, and arts institutions face growing threats from budget cuts, censorship, and consolidation—but remain vital to civic life. This panel unites the Future Film Coalition (FFC), American Library Association  (ALA), and Americans for the Arts (AFTA) to share concrete strategies for defending public cultural infrastructure. From local advocacy to national coalition-building, panelists will offer tools to help artists and communities protect access, uphold free expression, and strengthen an equitable media ecosystem.",
  "meeting_url": null,
  "meeting_url_live": false,
  "mentorly_url": null,
  "mobile_audio_url": null,
  "open_captioned": false,
  "playlist_tag": null,
  "rebroadcast": false,
  "recommended_ids": [],
  "search_conversions": null,
  "short_program": false,
  "slido_url": null,
  "sort": "CULTURE UNDER FIRE: STORYTELLING FOR PUBLIC POWER",
  "source": "Official",
  "squad_up_url": null,
  "stream_embed": null,
  "stream_id": null,
  "stream_url": null,
  "strobe_warning": false,
  "subdiscipline": null,
  "summit": null,
  "summit_display_name": null,
  "tags": [],
  "talent_attending": null,
  "title_only": false,
  "track_display_name": "Culture",
  "trailer_id": null,
  "trailer_url": null,
  "video_on_demand": null,
  "vimeo_id": null,
  "vod": false,
  "xr_project_type": null,
  "youtube_id": null,
  "related_sales_client": null
}