Call for Rural Arts Toolkit Creation

If you have a good idea, a project that can can inspire people and spark change in your rural community, we want to know about it!

Finding projects with existing toolkits, and sharing toolkits from other practical, creative projects has been a key tenet of Creative Exchange since our launch. As the national program of Springboard for the Arts, we have worked through two rounds of toolkit creation previously, with larger organizations, and with smaller, artist-led projects. We created a Toolkit Toolkit to help folks organize their thoughts and share their work. “More is more,” is one of Springboard’s guiding principles, and the toolkits embody that.

This May, rural arts advocates, practitioners, and leaders will gather for the second Rural Generation Summit in Jackson, Mississippi. In October, the fifth biennial Rural Arts & Culture Summit will bring hundreds of these practitioners and leaders in creative community development from around the country to Grand Rapids, Minnesota.

To bridge these two aligned convenings of critical dialog on the power and possibility of rural culture, Creative Exchange is launching a new call to create a toolkit, open to attendees of Rural Generation or the Rural Arts & Culture Summit. Any artist or arts organization who is an attendee of one or both of these convenings is eligible to submit an idea to be developed into a toolkit, with a few key criteria:

  • The project must be led by artists, or have art and artists at the core of the work.
  • This must be a project that has been implemented already, with the practical ability to be replicated. A theoretical project, or one that can only exist under highly specific circumstances or contexts, is not eligible.
  • You must be willing to share the project. This is not to say that there is not associated consulting, materials, or resources that can be used as lines of business, but the toolkit will be free.

WHAT DO YOU OFFER? WHAT DO YOU GET?
You offer:

  • Your expertise in your project
  • To share materials such as contract templates, planning documents and timelines that made your project possible and make it easy to replicate

You get:

  • Editing and design support to create a finished, shareable toolkit for your project
  • A profile in Creative Exchange
  • $1,000 honorarium for project time

WHAT DOES CREATIVE EXCHANGE OFFER? GET?
Creative Exchange offers:

  • Editorial and design support in creating the toolkit
  • A profile in Creative Exchange
  • Ongoing marketing and distribution of the toolkit

Creative Exchange gets:

  • License to share the toolkit as part of the toolkit offerings
  • Content to add to the special features and profiles of artists with impact

TIMELINE
May 17, 2019 – Call opens 
June 14, 2019 – Call closes EXTENDED TO JUNE 21!
July 9, 2019 – Selection announced
July 2019 – Data & note gathering for first drafts, editorial interviews
August 2019 – First drafts and initial design work, editorial published
September 2019 – Toolkits finalized & prepared for release
October 3, 2019 – Toolkit release for the Rural Arts & Culture Summit

Top photo: Community members visit “Time Sensitive,” an installation made in collaboration with the Fergus Falls’ elderly population by Elyse-Krista Mische Homecoming Artist for Springboard’s Hinge Arts program. Photo by Eric Santwire.