Art and Community Development

1. Art and Community Development Katie Claussen Equitable Sustainable Community Development Dr. Nyden Soc 370 Fall 2004

2. Arts’ positive impacts on communities • Improved achievement for children and adults • More extensive social networks • Fosters sense of community • Facilitates interaction and relationships among diverse groups • Can be resource for community regeneration • Visual projects can improve looks of neighborhood • Fosters sense of accountability and responsibility in community

3. Local Examples • Exploratory Research • Meetings with 3 Organizers from Uptown • Mary Ellen McGarry, ED, People’s Music School • Patricia Murphy, ED, Beacon Street Gallery • Sarah Jane Knoy, ED, ONE Community Organizing Group • Meetings with 3 Organizers from Logan Square • Dawn Marie Galtieri, ED, aurorArts alliance • Joyce Fernandes, ED, ArchiTreasures • Rosita DeLaRosa, Logan Square Neighborhood Association

4. People’s Music School • Founded 1976 • People connecting through one common language, music • Community School • Offers free, high quality music instruction and performance opportunities • Program open to everyone • Helps create a sense of family among students and their families • Students required to take part in efforts to build and maintain program • Program facilitates a sense of community responsibility • Board of directors made up of students or parents • Funding • Illinois Arts Council • City Arts II • Foundations and corporations • Personal donations

5. Beacon Street Gallery • Founded 21 years ago • Brings together over 100 different cultures – gives them all a voice • Believe that art is a catalyst for change • Numerous programs for community • Exhibitions and performances by local artists • 21st Century Community Learning Centers, local elementary school program • Arts Impacting Achievement, using art as tool in classroom, 3-year study • Master Artist, program for at-risk youth in local community • Funding, varies with project • City Arts • MacArthur Fund for Arts and Culture • National Endowment for the Arts • Marshall Fields • Individual donations

6. ONE Perspective • Few art organizations involved with ONE • Attempts to utilize and highlight local arts did not succeed • Local art orgs serve community beyond Uptown • Arts in Uptown have reputation for being connected with gentrification • ONE has received some criticisms for not building bridges with art orgs • Several examples in Uptown of grassroots art • People’s Music School • Beacon Street Gallery • Scrap Mettle SOUL • Theaters, including Pegasus (Harry Truman College) • ONE sees potential for creating these relationships, but connection to gentrification, costs and lack of free space are challenges

7. aurorArts alliance • Young organization, 5 years • Logan Square – home to many community activists – strong civic engagement • Aims to connect community activists, artists, performers and educators with each other and Logan Square • Builds bridges and strong creative relationships • Fine Arts for Kids of Logan Square (FAKLS) -After-school program for kids – fine arts education • Involves community groups, volunteers, artists, dancers, actors, musicians, media specialists, performance companies • Vaudeville Underground, variety shows include local artists, 7 shows a year • Organization homogeneous, but is working to diversify • Funding • Donations • Monetary contributions, art supplies, musical instruments, business services, time and resources

8. Founded 1996, grew from public safety concerns • Works with communities all over metro Chicago to unite youth with local community • Raises community involvement in the urban landscape – redesign public spaces through participatory design and construction • Artists and architects work youth to identify spaces, train them in project development, and build spaces • Example results: community garden, parade or community event, murals, a school park, a bus stop • Brings art into shared community spaces and enhances physical environment • Funding • Donations, volunteers, local business sponsors

9. LSNA Perspective LSNA works with and benefits from aurorArts alliance and Redmoon Theater programs • LSNA donates space for aurorArts after-school art programs • LSNA involved with Redmoon Neighborhood Arts Programs • “The Dramagirls Program” • “Winter Pageant” • “Shrine Workshop Vehicle” • Benefits to Logan Square Community • Expose children to creative expression • Improves overall achievement • Foster relationships between middle-school children and senior citizens • Builds stronger community relations • Numerous other art programs that foster strong community

10. Grassroots art organizations do exist Connections between art and community are benefiting Logan Square and Uptown and beyond Art has potential to be stratifying but also to be unifying Art orgs are giving individuals a voice Key to arts and community development is a common language Opportunities exist for further collaboration between art orgs and neighborhood associations Conclusions

11. Art Alive in the United Kingdom • Digbeth, UK • Factory converted into art center draws new residents • Penzance, West Cornwall, UK • Community re-establishes festival tradition • Residents come together throughout the year to prepare for the event • Draws tourist to the small town • Other Community Art Organizations • “The Blackie” - a community art venue that houses cultural events such as exhibitions, art workshops and programs, youth residencies and performances. Its main purpose is to offer a place for the community to come together and share in cultural events. • Liverpool Network Theater Group –“They aim to produce the very best in community theatre, to encourage participation in community theatre at all levels, to develop new writing and new performance, and to use theatre to include, encourage and inform” (News from Nowhere). • Liverpool named European Culture Capital 2008 • Provides possible advantages and disadvantages