How can storytellers integrate the traditions and values of diverse indigenous communities into community-engaged artistic practice? Cornerstone Theater’s artistic director Michael Jon Garces and playwright Larissa FastHorse tell us how their newly evolved methodology working with Native American communities on indigenous land created its current touring project, “Native Nation.”
27.08.19
The Citizen University Youth Collaboratory empowers and connects a rising generation of civic leaders and doers. Students from around the country travel to cities around the nation, meeting leading civic innovators, sharpening their literacy in citizen power and producing their own independent projects in their communities for one year. Clara Nevins, from the very first cohort shares her story.
22.08.19
The RedCan Invitational Graffiti Jam, held annually in Eagle Butte, South Dakota, gives youth from across the region a chance to meld contemporary street art practices with their heritage, identities, and stories. The event builds young people’s creative skills, self-confidence, and cultural pride.
20.08.19
“One thing about it is you can never trust the coal company. … They call it Bloody Harlan for a reason. We don’t intend no harm. We’re just here trying to get what’s rightfully owed to us.” That’s what Shane Smith, a former Blackjewel and Revelation Energy miner, told alumni of our Appalachian Media Institute when they interviewed him last week on the train tracks in Harlan County where miners had gathered to protest.
15.08.19
While the work of creative placemaking involves plenty of “grown-up” tasks like applying for permits and analyzing data, young people can play pivotal roles in shaping projects by bringing high energy, fresh thinking, and honest questions.
13.08.19
When employees don’t feel they can bring their “whole selves” to work, creativity, productivity, and ultimately a business’s success can also suffer. In the third of a series of guest posts, Theo Edmonds explains how diversity, inclusion, innovation, and production interrelate, and how a new framework could help all sides measure and manage “cultural wellbeing” in the workplace.
08.08.19
Detroit’s Bright Art Paths is crafting a gamut of “creative play adventures” for kids and adults in the city’s Brightmoor neighborhood. We asked Laughing Moon of Superhero Training Academy, a Bright Art Paths partner, to tell us what’s been happening on the ground since the project’s 2016 ArtPlace grant.
05.08.19
The Cambridge, MA-based Loop Lab is a Swiss Army knife of creative problem-solving. Their internship programs train and hire young women and people of color for careers in the creative economy, help disrupt the monolithic perspective of mass media, and work to preserve the rich culture of their historic neighborhood.
30.07.19
Power is a broad concept, and its import ranges from who has it and how to get it to what it ultimately means and why it matters. At the ArtPlace America 2019 Annual Summit, we asked three leaders in creative community development from around the country to answer one crucial question: “In your work, how do you access people with power?”
25.07.19
“When you dig into any community organizing, anti-displacement, creative placemaking, or placekeeping work, you’ll find parties as a part of it.” In these highlights from a recent interview, Scott Oshima of the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center explains how fun, art, and culture can be some of our best tools in the fight against displacement and cultural erasure.