New NEA Resources for Arts-based Community Development
- September 29, 2014
Washington, DC—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:
- Exploring Our Town, an online resource featuring case studies of more than 60 previous Our Town projects complete with an insights section of lessons learned
- 2015 Our Town guidelines with a new project type designed to build and share creative placemaking knowledge more broadly.
- Beyond the Building: Performing Art Organizations and Transforming Place a national convening to be held on November 3, 2014
"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."
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.
October 1, 2014 at 3:00PM EST will cover arts engagement, cultural planning, and design projects
October 6, 2014 at 3:00PM EST will cover the new knowledge building project type
If you can’t attend, both Our Town webinars will be archived and available for later viewing.
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.
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Contact Information
Victoria Hutter
1100 Pennsylvania Ave NWWashington DC 20506
vog.stra@vrettuh
www.arts.gov