The Arts Next Door: Neighborhood-Based Community Arts Training Institute

Tuesday, October 8, 9:50am – 10:50am

Commonwealth C, Second Floor

Organized and presented by Roseann Weiss, Director of Community and Public Arts, St. Louis Regional Arts Commission.

This session will outline the Neighborhood-Based Community Arts Training (CAT) Institute program as a model for community engagement and place it in the context of arts-based community development and creative placemaking.

Founded in 1997, the CAT Institute is an intensive cross-sector training of artists of all disciplines and community activists of all kinds, now with 225 graduates. In 2012, the St. Louis Regional Arts Commission (RAC) piloted the first Neighborhood-Based CAT Institute within a north-side, low-income neighborhood. Tested and validated by RAC as a vehicle for authentic, creative community engagement, this pilot is a replicable and powerful model for adapting cross-sector community arts training to different neighborhoods.