Resolutions: Building up and looking forward

A new year is upon us, and that means it’s time for looking forward and making resolutions. There are always the old standbys of eating better and getting more exercise, but if you need some more creative ideas, Woody Guthrie’s resolutions from 1943 includes excellent suggestions. Take heart from resolutions like “Wash teeth if any,” “Dance better,” “Learn people better,” and the ambitious and abstract “Dream good.”

Those are the kinds of resolutions that we’re working with here at Creative Exchange – we want to share more inspiring stories, make more resources available, and help spark projects and change in communities across the country. Artists, and our big, good dreams are at the heart of that. Here’s a quick list of our resolutions:

-We will share more conversations with toolkit creators and artists. If you’re interested in how to use the resources on Creative Exchange, check out the Hangouts for more, and tune in on Wednesday, 1/28 at 12PM Central for a conversation about Community Supported Art.

-We will keep on sharing the stories of artists across the country. We’ve got stories from Saint Paul, Detroit, Akron, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Macon, Miami, Cincinnati, rural Kentucky, Denver, the high plains of Colorado and San Jose on the site, and we’re looking for more. Share your story with us!

-We will have more toolkits! In 2014, we distributed 98 toolkits to individual artists, arts organizations, downtown alliances, city planners and other organizations. The requests came from 28 states across the USA, 2 Canadian provinces and Australia and Italy. Check out and stay tuned to the Toolkits page for new toolkits in 2015.

Sharing stories, creating connections, making new work – we hope Woody Guthrie would be happy. We’ll even remember to take baths and brush our teeth as we dream good.

10 most read stories of 2014

Welcome to Creative Exchange

Bunker Projects is an experimental gallery and live/work space for artists to engage the community

Joan Vorderbruggen is the one-woman powerhouse behind Minneapolis’s Made Here

John Haywood re-paints the narrative of what it means to be Appalachian and to be an artist

Charles Ladson is a painter who rediscovered his home in Macon

How the arts inspire change in Detroit

Erik Howard brings the corner and the community together in unlikely ways through The Alley Project 

How public art builds safer, stronger neighborhoods

Experimental performance group The Hinterlands explores the outer limits of identity

PAR Projects is building a home for arts education and programming in Cincinnati’s Northside