New Haven’s Elm City Mosaic
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. See more stories from the partnership here.
When the city of New Haven, CT, began construction on Route 34 in the 1960s, the idea was that it would connect the city to its suburbs in the Lower…
Rural Arts & Culture Summit Videos
The Rural Arts & Culture Summit was held from June 6-8 in Morris, MN, and it was magical. 400 artists, community development professionals, leaders, and advocates from 22 states came to the town of 5,000 people in the rolling Minnesota farmland to share ideas, practical steps, and paths forward together. Look for more writing, photos and coverage of the Summit to come, and check out the…
Soundset & Possibility
“This is possible,” Black Liquid, the Richmond, Virginia-based emcee, writer, instructor, and radio personality, told me at this year's Soundset festival. “Not only getting on the stage, but building the stage as well.”
Possibility and building community is at the heart of Soundset, and Rhymesayers Entertainment did it once again for their tenth year anniversary of their hip-hop festival,…
Citizen artist: Eric Liu on artists’ role in civic life
Artists embody what it means to be a citizen, says Eric Liu.
But the co-founder and CEO of Citizen University is quick to explain that “citizenship” doesn’t refer to a person’s documentation status under immigration law. It’s about membership in a community, about contribution to the whole. It’s about participating in civic life and in public spaces and institutions.
Civic participation is…
Make it Rain Poems
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. See more stories from the partnership here.
"The Biggest Small Town"
O, almost-city I love you
around me
& you love me around.
I want to kiss you every day
like the shortest skyscraper…
Join us in Denver for IdeaLab 2017!
Are you an artist, social entrepreneur or organizer? Do you want to connect to others to organize around racial equity and social justice? Do you believe in the power of creative storytelling? Join us for IdeaLab 2017 on April 14 in Denver to hear from exciting local and national organizers and artists, connect to like-minded creatives, and develop new relationships to move your projects forward.…
Beyond Blucifer and the Blue Bear: Advancing Public Art in Denver
Denver's "One Percent for Art" law has helped foster a collection of public art that's the envy of other cities. Where has the policy exceeded expectations -- and where has it fallen short?
Denver artist Patrick Marold's skill lies, in part, in his ability to capitalize on space, scale and natural elements to transform seemingly cold, industrial materials into a fresh sensory experience.…
Artist Hassan Nor draws old world vision of Somalia for new generation
In a high-rise tower located on Portland Avenue lives Hassan Nor, a Somali immigrant. Most of the residents in the building, like Nor, are seniors. He lives in a one-bedroom apartment by himself and the living room is set traditionally with beige- and maroon-colored Arabian sofas that are closer to the ground. This is where he sat when an interesting thought struck him about picking up an old…
Artists & Aging: Access, Storytelling & Change
The Artists & Aging pilot project was created by a partnership between the Citizens League and Springboard for the Arts in Minnesota, and supported by The Pluribus Project through their Narrative Collaboratory initiative, which supports citizen power by developing new narratives and tools for participating in policy change. Artist teams worked with aging communities on creative projects,…
Street Art Making Mark on New Denver
Denver's street art is attracting national recognition. How is the city's booming mural scene helping soften the impact of rapid development and gentrification?
A carbon monoxide donut once hung low and dark around downtown Denver, fed by an uptick in drivers and intensified by the city's altitude and geography. But today, Denver is a place where a visible pollution problem seems to have…
Fran Ilich believes another world is possible
Fran Ilich grew up in Tijuana next to the San Diego border. As a "border kid" in Mexico, Ilich has spent his life existing in a space somewhere in between – not quite Latin enough for Mexico, certainly not American enough for the United States. Just over the border were the promises of the American Dream; but his reality was that of Tijuana in the 1990s, a time of cultural evolution…and…
Friendly Streets: Bottom-up St. Paul project changes the way people look at their city
The following is excerpted from Jay Walljasper’s new book, “America’s Walking Renaissance,” which can be downloaded for free here. This excerpt was initially published by MinnPost.
Laughter, lively music and lip-smacking appreciation of food from many cultures animates St. Anthony Avenue in St. Paul as a crowd whoops it up at the Better Bridges Bash.
Even chilly spring temperatures and…
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. See more stories from the partnership here.
Public art and large-scale mural projects are often spearheaded by nonprofit organizations, philanthropic foundations, government organizations, or by…
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 than Little Fyodor. In the various incarnations of his band, ranging from a solo act to a quartet, Little Fyodor has been part of the city's music scene since 1981, when downtown Denver was a…
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 homecoming king of East Mecklenburg High School in February 2014, the first openly transgender homecoming king in North Carolina's history, after raising $2,335.55 for Mothering Across Continents, an…
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 less along the lines of Jim Henson's Muppets and more along the lines of Jim Henson's The Storyteller. In fact, if you ask Morris, most puppetry is unfairly dismissed as being solely "for kids,"…
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 department while earning her Masters of Urban Planning at Harvard. Having attended the University of Southern California in Los Angeles for her undergraduate degree in studio arts, she found Boston to…
FEAST Miami brings together the community to support new and emerging creative projects
Nothing brings a group of people together quite like the dinner table. Sharing a meal gets to the core of what a "community" is, a great social equalizer in ways few other everyday experiences can be.
Susan Caraballo is the artistic director of the ArtCenter/South Florida and has worked in the Miami arts community for over 15 years. Loren Pulitzer is a chef who specializes in vegan cooking and…
Artists can be the “connective tissue” of a neighborhood — but first they need a place to live
On any given day, Quest Skinner may be transforming her latest conversation with a neighbor into a vibrant painting. “My art is an expression of the people I meet,” explains Skinner, a long-time resident at Brookland Artspace Lofts in Washington, D.C., an affordable artist live/work project created by Artspace, which is based in Minneapolis. “I paint so much, my neighbors and neighborhood are…
Get Inspired and Connected at the Denver IdeaLab
On November 6, plug in to the IdeaLab! Join creative leaders from Denver and nationally for a full day event featuring panel discussions and workshops on getting inspired, building partnerships and putting creative ideas into action. Timed to coincide with Denver Arts Week, this unique event is designed to foster rich connections with Denver’s creative community, showcase Denver’s art and…
Mad King Thomas are the most earnest postmodern dance group probably ever
There is a pretty hard line between the high brow and lowbrow in art and culture. Postmodernists like to toy with that line. Mad King Thomas likes to play jump rope with it.
Discussions of challenging hegemony and writing while drunk don’t often happen in the same conversation, but a conversation with Mad King Thomas reels from drinking and disrupting hegemony to Swarovski-covered pasties…
When the Place Is Already Made: Lessons from a Folklife Project
This is the fourth story about work coming from the PLACE (People, Land, Arts, Culture and Engagement) Initiative of the Tucson Pima Arts Council. Read Executive Director Roberto Bedoya’s introduction here, a profile of Stories That Soar! here, and a profile of Finding Voice here.
Field Note, June 13, 2012: This morning the students chuckle, get distracted, make faces at one another, taunt,…
The ROOTS of Transformation: A Place of Action Alongside Community
Alternate ROOTS is a 39-year-old Southern based arts organization that supports artists working at the intersection of arts and activism. The organization was founded at the Highlander Center in 1976. The organization is artist led and artist centered, and embraces all forms of diversity in its membership and services. Together the artists in community with the institutional partnership of ROOTS…
Kyle Rosfeld builds boots the cowboy way
Kyle Rosfeld wears a cowboy hat and cowboy shoes. His friendly face sports a neatly-trimmed mustache that is reminiscent of men's turn-of-the-century shaving ads – the 19th century, that is. He works on turn-of-the-century equipment – again, 19th – in his workshop where he produces hand-made custom leather products. He is, by all urban millennial standards, a "hipster," but there is nothing twee…
Theatre of the Oppressed NYC uses theatre to address social justice issues
This is the second in a series of artist profiles featuring the work of artists around social justice, policing, and activism. The first, on Detroit's Allied Media Conference, can be read here.
Katy Rubin grew up in what she describes as an "arts and social justice" family where she was exposed to the idea of using art for social justice practice at a very early age. Growing up in that…
No One Can Do It Alone: How Working with “Disability” Enabled a New Artistic Ability and Approach
This is the first story about work coming from the PLACE (People, Land, Arts, Culture and Engagement) Initiative of the Tucson Pima Arts Council. Read Executive Director Roberto Bedoya’s introduction here.
Stories that Soar! is a theater company, composed of multi-talented adult performers who invite young people to write stories about whatever their imaginative minds can come up with. The…
Sam Rodriguez explores cultural hybridity and identity through a plurality of mediums
San Jose artist Sam Rodriguez doesn't fit neatly into any one particular category. You can't look at his body of work and say, "Oh, he's a graffiti muralist," or "Oh, he makes mixed-media pop art," or even, "Oh, he's an editorial illustrator." Because he does all of those things (and more).
For Rodriguez, the variety of his art reflects the hybridity of his identity; and, by extension, the…
Francis Grunow leads the charge for Detroit to “blame it on the Nain”
It's an idea that was born over beers, as the greatest ideas so often are. Somewhere in the cold winter months between 2009 and 2010, Francis Grunow took a break from writing a paper for law school and got into a conversation with Joe Uhl, musing on the Mardi Gras festival in New Orleans. Seeing that Detroit and New Orleans are both French cities in origin, Grunow and Uhl started to wonder what a…
Recovering the Story: How Arts Contribute to Emergency Recovery and Resilience
How does storytelling help individuals and communities overcome disaster? East Coast Hurricane Sandy survivors became storytellers through Sandy Storyline, a participatory documentary that collects and shares the impact of Hurricane Sandy on communities. In Chicago, Clemantine Wamariya became a storyteller and human rights advocate after she escaped from the Rwandan Genocide at the age of six.…
Hunter Franks: Reflections on the 2014 Creative Interventions Tour
“My parents said if you have a boy he will wrestle; that is what he will do,” Lisa remarked, referring to her son Martaz. I had just met Martaz and Lisa a week before, as they participated in my Neighborhood Postcard Project in Detroit. They shared what they love about their Detroit neighborhood, Lindale Gardens, on postcards that were then mailed to random residents in Grosse Pointe, an affluent…