Arts and Community Development

In his foreword for The Haas Institute’s "Notes on A Cultural Strategy" report, director john a. powell writes that "culture can move people in a way that policies cannot. People largely organize themselves and operate around stories and beliefs, not around facts."

Theater artists & activists John Malpede and Henriëtte Brouwers and designer Rosten Woo are creating a project that aims to achieve “Skid Row Now & 2040,” a community-generated alternative development plan designed for and by the Skid Row neighborhood of Los Angeles.

In a recent blog post on Nonprofit AF, Vu Le reflects on how he has been seeing more signs of diverse communities "being treated like children who don’t know what’s good for them." Le writes that, even though he doesn't think that it is conscious or intentional, "it is still frustrating."

Patrisse Cullors, Black Lives Matter co-founder and performance artist has created a new online MFA program, the Social and Environmental Arts Practice, that combines art, social justice, and community organizing at Prescott College in Arizona, the Los Angeles Times reported.

Seven colleges and universities across the United States are receiving nearly $2M from ArtPlaceAmerica (ArtPlace) to support creative placemaking teaching, learning, and research for undergraduate, graduate, and professional programs.

In a corner of the reading room in a public library near downtown Brooklyn, an artist/educator guides a group of children through the process of grinding up insects with a mortar and pestle and then using a muller to mix the resulting red powder with water. “By crushing the cochineal beetle,” she says, which lives on cacti in arid regions of Mexico and is still used as a natural food coloring for ketchup and many other processed foods, “medieval and early modern artists could produce this wonderful red color for their paintings.”

Main streets in rural Colorado are getting a jolt of creativity and economic vitality thanks to an innovative partnership between the State of Colorado, philanthropic funders, local leaders, and a nonprofit housing developer. The Space to Create Colorado initiative, launched in July 2015, is transforming rural communities throughout the state by providing affordable housing/workspace as well as community spaces for creatives.

In 2001, activist Sadie Roberts-Joseph founded the Baton Rouge African American Museum "after Baton Rouge refused to make black history a mandatory part of schools' curriculum," as CNN reported. Last month, Roberts-Joseph was killed, and in August, a month following her tragic murder, the museum has been vandalized, part of larger anti-justice movements in a polarized country.

Colorado Media Project (CMP) seeks to meet the information needs of Coloradans by working to strengthen Colorado’s diverse local news ecosystem, as the project's website explains. CMP is a grant-funded organization orchestrated by the University of Denver and the Gates Family Foundation, a local Colorado foundation, among others, including Bonfils-Stanton Foundation, as Nieman Lab reports.

“Art in the public realm activates public space for its intended democratic purpose,” noted Anne Pasternak, former director at Creative Time and currently director at the Brooklyn Museum in an NEA interview.