Artists with Impact
The business community comes together to support the arts in downtown Fresno
This story is supported by a National Endowment for the Arts Our Town Knowledge Building grant supporting a partnership between Springboard for the Arts and the International Downtown Association.…
Pillsbury House Theatre breaks the ice and serves the community
What does it mean to be a "community theatre"? What does it mean to be an arts organization "for the community"? When we talk about community, and about arts organizations with deep commitments to…
ArtVenture connects the dots between visitors and public art in downtown Cincinnati
This story is supported by a National Endowment for the Arts Our Town Knowledge Building grant supporting a partnership between Springboard for the Arts and the International Downtown Association.…
Little Fyodor Leads Charge to Keep Denver Weird
For three decades running, weirdo DJ and musician Little Fyodor and his bandmate and partner-in-abnormality, Babushka, have fought to keep Denver strange. There are few who are keeping Denver weirder…
Michael O'Bryan helps people to find sanctuary in art
Sanctuary is a place of refuge or safety. In urban neighborhoods all throughout America, sanctuary is a luxury almost beyond attainment. But Michael O'Bryan is working to bring that sense of…
Newark's Lincoln Park Coast Cultural District embraces the transformative power of music
Lincoln Park is an 11-acre, four-block neighborhood in Newark, New Jersey. In the late 1990s, the area became a focus of conversation on redevelopment efforts, with a series of charrettes – planning…
Upcycle Parts Shop engages the community though creative reuse
Nicole McGee has been a self-described "reuse artist" for several years, but her practice wasn't always her profession. Her background is in the nonprofit sector, doing work in PR and marketing,…
Sara Daleiden focuses on cultural production and exchange in various roles of public arts leadership
In common use, "cultural exchange" tends to mean an exchange of ideas, customs, or practices between people of different countries. But "culture" isn't simply defined from one country to another; in…
Remembering Blake Brockington, Charlotte's first openly trans homecoming king, through music
Blake Brockington was raised in Charlotte, North Carolina. He was the bandleader and a drum major, and known as a talented musician and writer as well as a caring mentor. He was also crowned…
The Akron Art Museum will make art an everyday experience with their art library lending program
We all know how libraries work: you find a book (or maybe an academic journal, magazine, DVD, even a music CD) that you would like to check out with your library card, issued for free usually with…
Brigid Baker practices a holistic approach to contemporary dance in Miami
Brigid Baker, Director of 6th Street Dance Studio and progressive contemporary dance company WholeProject in Miami's Little Havana, has been a dancer, a choreographer, a teacher, an installation…
Kala Vandanam is a life-long commitment to one of India's oldest dance forms
Suchitra Sairam, founder of Kala Vandanam Dance Company in St. Paul, has been dancing classical Indian dance for 30 years. Still, she says, she got a later start than most girls. "It's usually…
ArtSpring's arts-based workshops for underserved communities promote self-esteem and understanding
Leslie Neal has been involved in the Miami dance community since 1981. In 1992, she held a tenured faculty position at Florida University as an Associate Professor of Dance with a focus on community…
Grupo Folklorico Los Laureles conserves traditional Mexican folklorico dance and culture
Grupo Folklorico Los Laureles in San Jose is a dance academy and professional dance company co-founded by Ashley Lopez-Gonzalez and Cesar Gonzalez. They started in the summer of 2007, teaching…
Quantum Theatre experiments with the language and location of theatre
Pittsburgh's Quantum Theatre is an experimental, site-specific theatre company currently celebrating its 25th season. Founded by Artistic Director Karla Boos in 1990, the one hard-and-fast dictum…
Urban Matter Inc. creates interactive installations that combine technology, design, and community
This story is supported by a National Endowment for the Arts Our Town Knowledge Building grant supporting a partnership between Springboard for the Arts and the International Downtown Association.…
Carrie Morris Arts Production uses experimental puppetry to narrate people's stories
Carrie Morris Arts Production uses performing objects and experimental theatre to tell stories. In other words, puppetry. But this isn’t the soft, plushy children's puppetry of Sesame Street – think…
Department of Play uses temporary play zones to connect people through imagined urban planning
The Boston-based arts collective Department of Play first started as an inkling of an idea when co-founder Kate Balug was studying interrogative design with artist Krzysztof Wodiczko at the MIT art…
The Lumonics Light Brigade
Sculptor Dorothy Tanner, 93, admits she's something of a rebel, a revolutionary. A petite woman, Tanner declares in a soft, slightly husky voice, "There's a certain 'straightness' that I can't help…
BOOM Concepts is a creative hub that reflects the faces of the community on Pittsburgh's Penn Ave.
D.S. Kinsel, co-founder of Pittsburgh's BOOM Concepts, is a painter, installation artist, event maker, and art curator. He says he is always trying to make sure that his art is relevant to and a…
Teatro Nahual is the Bay Area's first and only entirely Spanish-language theatre group
When Verónica Meza, founder and artistic director of Teatro Nahual, moved to Los Angeles from Mexico City in 2001, she couldn't find any options for Spanish language theatre anywhere. The same thing…
Ballot Box puts public art to the vote
Perhaps you've already heard: this year is a pretty big election year. And while you are going to hear a lot of folks encouraging people to get out there and vote this year, the folks at Northeast…
Corner Concerts promotes Macon's local music scene with a placemaking agenda
Macon's Corner Concerts exists in a unique creative space where placemaking meets urban exploring meets pop-ups meets professionally-produced live concerts. If that sounds difficult to define,…
The Yarrow Mamout Archaeology Project unearths the history of a prominent 1800s African Muslim
Yarrow Mamout was an African Muslim born in Guinea, West Africa in 1736, where he was thought to have been a member of the nomadic Fulani tribe. He was sold into slavery at the age of 16 and was…
Ivar Zeile has seen the future of public art, and it's on 25' x 60' screens
Before launching Denver Digerati and becoming a national leader in digital placemaking, Ivar Zeile founded the contemporary arts gallery Plus Gallery in Denver in 2001. He had previously worked in…
Colette Fu makes pop-up photo books that examine the self through photos of others
Colette Fu was a pretty typical teenager growing up in New Jersey: insecure about her looks and her identity, as so many teenagers are, Fu would peroxide her hair to alter her appearance. She was…
Radiant Hall creates co-working spaces for artists in need of studio space
Sculptural painter Ryan Lammie grew up in Pittsburgh and went to school at the Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, living there from 2007-2012. During that time he saw the Borough's rapid development, and…
BLU Jazz+ brings world-class jazz to Akron
If you think of the top jazz cities in America, you'll likely count New Orleans, Chicago, Pittsburgh, Kansas City, and New York among them. But Akron, Ohio? Not so much. But as 20th-century jazz…
1xRUN is the future of art
In November 2015, 1xRUN (one-time-run) celebrated its fifth anniversary of delivering limited-edition time-released prints through its e-commerce store. 1xRUN is the world's leading publisher of fine…
Witt Siasoco uses art to create home
If you take Twin Cities artist Witt Siasoco's extensive body of work as a whole, a common theme emerges: home. Not home as a physical place, or even a symbolic one – "Home is where the heart is," and…