An important principle related to community engagement work is that things in your own back yard can be just as meaningful as those from exotic (or distant) locales. I won't make a habit of touting the Piedmont area of North Carolina, but a recent article in the Winston-Salem Journal was too good to pass up. The Yadkin Arts Council in Yadkinville, NC (population 3500) has a new arts center that is celebrating its first birthday. As the result of … [Read more...]
Winds of Change: Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Yerba Buena Center for the Arts is taking community engagement seriously and to an extremely individual level. The Center's YBCA: YOU program provides one-on-one introductions to YBCA and contemporary art. (Once again, and clearly not for the last time, I am indebted to Nina Simon's Museum 2.0 for highlighting an important aspect of community engagement. Guest blogger, Laurel Butler, Education and Engagement Specialist at YBCA, wrote the post … [Read more...]
Under the Radar-2
For over a decade, the Community Arts Network was the world's single most comprehensive website devoted the potential that the arts represent for community growth and improvement. It will be shocking to some that I include it in the "Under the Radar" category. For those of us vitally interested in the work of the arts in communities, CAN is (was-more on that in a second) the shining beacon on a hill illuminating all that was wonderful about … [Read more...]
CAT Institute
Last year I had the good fortune to attend a conference, At the Crossroads, hosted the Regional Arts Commission of St. Louis. There I met or got re-acquainted with a number of people active in the community arts movement. I also had the opportunity to get some first-hand insight into a unique program, RAC's Community Arts Training Institute. CAT, begun in 1997, provides participants intensive training over five long weekends in how to connect the … [Read more...]
Winds of Change-2
Some rights reserved by m.prinke Bit by bit, engagement–as a real commitment rather than lip service or a funding ploy–appears to be entering the mainstream of the arts establishment. I have been waiting for years to see this kind of awakening begin. In an earlier post I mentioned how many good articles about engagement there were in the latest issue of Symphony from the League of American Orchestras. [Symphony Magazine-Summer 2011] I love … [Read more...]
Under the Radar
Last week, in Winds of Change, I began a series of posts sharing examples of established arts organizations committed to substantive community engagement. This week I am introducing another category for your consideration. The arts began engaged with the communities they served. That's the history of the field. The disconnect that is a foundational concern of this blog is 1) comparatively new, 2) a function of socio-economic evolution, and 3) … [Read more...]
Winds of Change
Some rights reserved by m.prinke In my last post, "Click," I wrote about awakening to a disconnect between arts organizations and their communities. There has been little in the arts infrastructure that has encouraged commitment or relationships that went beyond the bounds of the arts establishment. And yet boundary-busting has been the norm in the community arts movement–a grassroots movement focused on community betterment largely unheralded … [Read more...]