A HANDBOOK FOR ARTISTS WORKING IN COMMUNITY
The handbook was developed by Springboard for the Arts and made possible through the generous support of the National Endowment for the Arts through the Our Town Knowledge Building grant. It is a practical manual for individual artists who would like to begin or deepen this kind of artistic practice – work in and work with community. The stories, tools, and wisdom shared here were gathered from creative practitioners who regularly do this work.

AN INSTRUCTOR'S TOOLKIT FOR BUILDING BRIDGES ACROSS COMMUNITIES
This toolkit is a set of activities that can be done in an ESOL/ABE classroom and with the broader community to help foster dialogue among individuals, share ideas across cultures, find commonalities, and create spaces for building lasting connections. In celebration of Welcoming Week, the toolkit supports interaction among immigrant adults and various other groups (local residents, health care providers, library patrons, parents, employers).

ARE YOU READY FOR THE COUNTRY?
Rural America may be more connected than ever before -- through the Internet, better phone services, and improved transportation systems -- but it still faces unique problems. This issue of NEA Arts looks at the creative approaches rural communities have been taking with the arts to help improve their communities socially, aesthetically, and economically.

ARNSTEIN'S LADDER OF CITIZEN PARTICIPATION
Sherry Arnstein, writing in 1969 about citizen involvement in planning processes in the United States, described a “ladder of citizen participation” that showed participation ranging from high to low. The ladder is a guide to seeing who has power when important decisions are being made. It has survived for so long because people continue to confront processes that refuse to consider anything beyond the bottom rungs.

ART BECAME THE OXYGEN: AN ARTISTIC RESPONSE GUIDE
As natural disasters and social emergencies multiply, the need has grown for ethical, creative, and effective artistic response—arts-based work responding to disaster or other community-wide emergency, much of it created in collaboration with community members directly affected. Art Became The Oxygen was created to engage readers who share the intention of offering care and compassion and helping to create possibility in the midst or wake of crisis. Art Became The Oxygen incorporates first-person experience and guidance from respected voices deeply engaged in artistic response from Katrina to Ferguson, from Sandy to Standing Rock. It includes hundreds of links to powerful arts projects, official emergency resources, and detailed accounts for those who want to go even deeper.

ART, EQUITY, AND PLACE
Fundraising for your project is highly competitive, driven by relationships and a documented track record of achievement. More often than not, organizations will have to pay for their first project out of existing funds to get it going. This edition features stories of community developers, residents, and artists using creativity to help address complex neighborhood issues.