I am attending a conference in St Louis hosted by the Regional Art Commission of St. Louis and the Community Partnership for Arts and Culture of Cleveland. The conference’s title is Rustbelt to Artsbelt: At the Crossroads, Arts-Based Community Development Convening. I attended the initial At the Crossroads conference two years ago and found it a fascinating opportunity to connect with grassroots community engagement activity around the … [Read more...]
Shut Up and Listen
In this blog I attempt to highlight essential principles of effective community engagement work. In my recent posts Lead or Follow? and Equality in Engagement, I have tried to make the point that communities have valuable things to tell us when we work with them–not just about topics or issues to be pursued but about content, form, and media of the art that comes out of the collaboration. In the last week two things have gotten me focused even … [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...]
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...]