Stories
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Jul 07, 2018
One of the oldest artist-owned ensemble theaters in the U.S. Double Edge Theatre, are getting ready to transform vacant and underutilized farm buildings on a 100-acre former dairy farm in Ashfield, MA into a vibrant arts campus, which aims to make Ashfield a destination that aggregates creativity, artistic expression, imagination, and culture alongside a rural identity; demonstrating how art is... Read More
Jul 11, 2018
Visual artist Amanda Lovelee is a based in Minneapolis, MN and has just finished her tenure as the City Artist for Public Art Saint Paul. She acts as translator between the city’s ideas and its residents with the goal of building the city everyone wants to live in. As City Artist Amanda has focused on engagement through both her... Read More
Jul 18, 2018
What began as a sort of arts-driven guerilla marketing campaign for the fictional return of a historic streetcar in the border communities of El Paso, TX and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, ended in an artist getting elected to government office and demonstrating of the power of art to capture the imagination of a community. Sometimes you just have to help people... Read More
Jul 20, 2018
In my family, instead of gifting Christmas presents, we have what we call “Traditions” - each of us invents a new game or activity. We all play; whoever wins receives a gift given from whomever invented the game. In the summer, my mom hosts elaborate obstacle courses on my great grandmother’s land, where we compete using old... Read More
Jul 27, 2018
When people from out of state hear that there is a state-funded, state-government-run arts agency in West Virginia, their reactions are always the same: a mixture of fascination and disbelief. At first, this struck me as odd. Do other states not foster this kind of relationship between the arts and their state government? Do their governments not... Read More
Jul 29, 2018
The words “artist” and “bureaucrat” can seem as opposite as the north and south poles. But poets, actors, musicians, dancers, and art-makers of all other stripes have been infiltrating our government’s ranks for years—and many are making great strides. In this story series, we’re visiting with accomplished artists who hold leadership roles in their cities about their... Read More
Aug 03, 2018
We’ve been working with The National Consortium for Creative Placemaking to produce Leadership summits all around the country. When we were in Charleston WV where we joined by attendees from as far away as Los Angeles, Canada, Alabama, South Dakota, Missouri, New York, and as close as down the street. The next leadership summit is happening in October in DC, please join us!... Read More
Aug 07, 2018
My interest in bringing art and music into vacant spaces began just after graduating college in Louisville, Kentucky. I was making visual art and playing in a band, and was looking for a venue that might go beyond the confines of the bar scene. There was a vacant warehouse space located right down the street from my... Read More
Aug 14, 2018
Three influential affordable housing and community development intermediaries—NeighborWorks America, Enterprise Community Partners, and Local Initiatives Support Corporation (LISC)—are serious about incorporating arts and culture into their work. As they grapple with the lasting effects of structural racism, rapid gentrification, and resources that vary widely from community to community, they’re learning what works, sharing their findings, and continuing to experiment.
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Aug 16, 2018
Ashley Hanson is a theater artist, social practitioner, storyteller, and lover of rural places. This featured essay is adapted and expanded from a Firestarter Talk given by Ashley Hanson at the National Rural Assembly in Durham, NC in May, 2018. "The drive to my mother’s house is one of my favorites. As I turn off the two-lane... Read More