Cultural Democracy the Arts Community and the Public Purpose

Aileen Alon

Using the arts and culture to shape, build, and identify communities is not a novel concept; nevertheless, its place in the realm of community development is gaining more traction and credibility by community evolution practitioners, funders, policy makers, and customs stakeholders themselves. The process of integrating art into community development is rewarding merely arduous, particularly for emerging leaders such equally myself. It often feels every bit if you have to "bear witness" yourself in, sympathize, and speak the language of ii very different fields.

Simply the offset question is almost always why? Why should fine art be integrated into community evolution?

I recently had the pleasure of attending and presenting at the Cantankerous-Currents: Arts & Leadership Powering Rural Economies conference in Rocky Mountain, North Carolina, where keynote Jeremy Nowak said that "the arts…are non the dessert, only a key part of the meal." The arts and culture are not an choice in communities. The arts already exist – in some class – everywhere, and, in these diverse forms, the arts help to build bridges betwixt people, ideas, and places. With the right support, they thrive. They define. And then tell me then why a connective tissue similar the arts should not be included in other fields or sectors? If the purpose of community development is to empower community members and enhance a community's well-being, whether physical, economic, socio-cultural, environmental, or otherwise, then why not utilize the arts as the natural thread linking these unlike aspects?

That is the mentality that the Opa-locka Community Development Corporation (OLCDC) in Opa-locka, Florida, has taken since I joined as the starting time staff fellow member focused on the arts in its thirty+ year history. The arts came into play as the event of federal stimulus funds that immune for unprecedented organizational power to build capacity and reevaluate its community development model. A series of community charrettes led OLCDC to shift from a focus on affordable housing to a more than holistic approach, in which the arts take become primal. Artists, architects, designers and creative thinkers have proved to exist valuable partners in efforts to alter the housing mural, provide economic opportunities, ameliorate infrastructure, create public spaces, inform planning and zoning codes, enhance instruction and health opportunities, engage community members, and even rebrand the organization and community. Information technology is vital that such efforts are inter-continued and done simultaneously to build a stronger foundation for our customs.

Such instances of integrating the arts into community evolution strategies are receiving attention considering there has been a lack of supportive enquiry, infrastructure or policy to assist with the growing field. However, it is promising that entities, such every bit the National Endowment for the Arts and ArtPlace America'due south recently launched Community Development Investment program, are attempting to build a greater understanding of and create awareness for the feasible impact of purposeful arts integration into customs planning and development. The increasing support for arts-based community development, peculiarly on the national level, is truly exciting equally it emphasizes the unique role of artists and importance of the arts in creating sustainable change.

As emerging leaders, nosotros have the power and responsibility to button our field to be more innovative, inclusive, and impactful. And while information technology may be a daunting task, we benefit from having greater access to each other, resources, and other fields to learn, to collaborate, and to shape the future of the arts, particularly how they are connected to and fabricated more valuable to not-arts entities. The more that we reach outside of our traditional realm to link the arts to other parts of the community, the more we are able to help others run across the arts as "a central function to the meal" – integral to and intertwined with our daily lives and community's well-being.

Interested in joining the conversation? Meet us in Chicago for the Arts Leadership Precon during Annual Convention 2015!