Featured News | September 24, 2014
This announcement comes from the National Endowment for the Arts:
The National Endowment for the Arts is launching new resources to assist practitioners who are working on arts-based community development projects. These resources will assist those practitioners to develop projects that are authentic, equitable, and that augment existing local assets.
Those resources are:
“The Our Town program is a prime example of the power the arts have on our everyday lives,” said NEA Chairman Jane Chu. “The arts can connect us, they can weave communities together, and they can infuse our lives with a deeper sense of place and purpose. The arts have the power to change where we live, and who we are, for the better. To that end, the resources we are making available today will provide the essential tools to those interested in undertaking the important work of creative placemaking and community development around an arts-based project.”
Exploring Our Town
Exploring Our Town responds to requests from the arts community for ready access to an easy-to-search resource on best practices in community development and creative placemaking. The resource is divided into two sections, Project Showcase and Project Insights. Project Showcase features case studies of more than 60 Our Town projects organized by project setting, project type, and by state. The Project Insights section, divided by Project Process, Project Setting, and Project Type, includes lessons learned, relevant case studies, and additional resources.
The NEA applauds the work of the project team which includes direction under GO collaborative, design by Hyperakt, website development by Entermedia, writing by John Gendall, and project research by GO collaborative and Alex Appelbaum.
2015 Our Town Guidelines and Webinars
New Our Town guidelines are available to support creative placemaking projects that contribute towards the livability of communities and help transform them into lively, beautiful, and resilient places with the arts at their core. As in the past four years, Our Town grants will support arts engagement, cultural planning, and design projects. New in 2015, the NEA is offering funding for up to five projects to fund membership organizations to build out technical assistance to those doing arts-based community development work.
There will be two how-to-apply-to-Our Town webinars, hosted by the NEA’s Director of Design Programs, Jason Schupbach.
National Convening
On November 3, 2014 the NEA, with support from ArtPlace America, will host a gathering on the role of the performing arts in transforming places, people’s relationships with their communities, and community development processes.
Called Beyond the Building: Performing Art Organizations and Transforming Place, the purpose of the convening is to develop a better understanding of how performance-based organizations, and the artists they engage, transform places through their artistic practices. The focus will be on operational and artistic strategies, rather than the creation of new performing arts facilities or public spaces. It will bring together a range of performing arts practitioners and supporters, creating an opportunity to connect and exchange key points of view that will benefit individual and collective work.
More information will be available in early October.
Additional Resources
The Wyoming Arts Council believes that experiencing the arts should be accessible for all, including people with mental and/or physical disabilities, older adults, military/veterans, people living in institutions and those who lack access to the arts due to geographic isolation, cultural difference and economic hardship.
