Theater

Marlina Gonzazlez

Marlina Gonzalez: The Craft of Storytelling

Marlina Gonzalez is part of a storytelling dynasty. Her mother, Marina Feleo Gonzalez, is an award-winning screenwriter. Her brother, Jojo Gonzalez, acts onstage and onscreen. Her father, Arling…


Sandra Kern Mollman

Sandra Kern Mollman: Creating with Intention

The Rural Regenerator Fellowship brings together individual artists, makers, and culture bearers, grassroots organizers, community development workers, public sector workers and other rural…


Bethany Lacktorin and Creative Placemaking

The Rural Regenerator Fellowship brings together individual artists, makers, and culture bearers, grassroots organizers, community development workers, public sector workers and other rural…


Annie Hough Creates Characters to Make the Truth Bearable

The Rural Regenerator Fellowship brings together individual artists, makers, and culture bearers, grassroots organizers, community development workers, public sector workers and other rural…


Atlese Robinson Headshot

Atlese Robinson’s Journey Toward the Divine

When she was in elementary school, Atlese Robinson started journaling and writing letters to her mother. Robinson’s childhood included times of adversity and some traumatic experiences. She wanted to…


Amoke Kubat in Black and White

Amoke Kubat is Still Exploring

An Artist Inhabits Her Identity Amoke Kubat begins at the very beginning. “I always loved making art as a child,” she says. In her formative years, after Kubat saw the Beatles movie “A Hard Day’s…


Zaraawar Mistry and plant

Zaraawar Mistry is in Dreamland

Zaraawar Mistry gets the job done. In India, he says, his last name translates to “worker” or “laborer.” “Sometimes it's used for a carpenter,” he explains, “but if the electrician comes, you might…


Contradiction and Creation Thrive in Ifrah Mansour

Ifrah Mansour is everything but a painter and a singer.  As a Muslim person and a Somali refugee, she has a quite particular point-of-view, which she channels into her quite particular artistic…


A man in a sweter kneels and watches a rehearsal

Aaron Fiskradatz Brings Zoom Expertise to In-Person Creativity

Aaron Fiskradatz is a theater artist, an educator, and, most recently, a “Zoom consultant” – a technical consultant for livestreamed productions, which we all need these days. A longtime advocate of…


Work of Art: Business Skills for Artists

Developed by Springboard for the Arts, Work of Art: Business Skills for Artists is based on a series of professional development and entrepreneurship workshops that have been taught at arts…


People sit at outdoor tables with art supplies in front of a blue trailer that says Tiny School of Arts & Design

Looking back to the Rural Arts & Culture Summit

The 2019 Rural Arts & Culture Summit was held in Grand Rapids, MN, October 3-5, 2019. With over 350 attendees coming together to share ideas and opportunities around rural-based creative and…


Patrick Scully Contains Multitudes

Editor’s note: As the national platform for Springboard for the Arts, Creative Exchange has long been a platform to highlight the artists, resources, and efforts in our national network. In this…


Black and white photo of A woman writing, with a box and tin of art supplies in the foreground

Alison Bergblom Johnson's career builds on fruitful partnerships

Editor’s note: As the national platform for Springboard for the Arts, Creative Exchange has long been a platform to highlight the artists, resources, and efforts in our national network. In this…


A row of actors reading from music stands

Adia Morris Swanger connects artists & nurtures family

Editor's note: As the national platform for Springboard for the Arts, Creative Exchange has long been a platform to highlight the artists, resources, and efforts in our national network. In this…


Handbook for Artists Working in Community

In this day and age of continued disparities, injustices, pandemics and systemic racism, artists are critical agents of change in our communities. More than ever, we need artists to be catalysts and…


Immersive Theatre in the Time of Coronavirus

By its very nature, immersive theatre doesn't lend itself well to social distancing. Immersive theatre has become increasingly popular in recent years, thanks to any number of factors—big production…


A theatre laboratory for the New World in Akron

Jairo Cuesta and James Slowiak, co-founders and co-artistic directors of the New World Performance Laboratory (NWPL) in Akron, each developed their personal theatre traditions and practices under the…


What does it mean to be Black? "The 'Black Card' Project" explores ideas around Black identity and belonging

Dominic Moore-Dunson says he was one of the rare boys who started dancing when he was just three years old. "I was a little hyper. I had so much energy. My mom was like, 'Let's put some tap shoes on…


Accomplished dancer, vocalist, and yogi Vie Boheme is embracing the world's yin energy right now

The multi-disciplinary artist Vie Boheme likes to say she was born in Motown, developed in Pittsburgh, and refined in Minneapolis, where she still resides today. She is a dancer, choreographer,…


Cado Musica

Take an artful break with these live-streamed events and performances

Whether you are currently responsibly practicing social distancing or live in a place under strict stay-at-home orders, it's probably difficult to feel very creatively engaged right now. So much of…


The Life of an ARTrepreneur

Some people know Felicia Perry from her time as a dancer with Ananya Dance Theatre. Others know her as an economic activist who served on the inaugural executive committee and board of the…


Mural Map & Community History Toolkit

Springboard for the Arts and Art of the Rural were inspired to commission a toolkit from an artist living and working in a rural place, as a way to bridge the Rural Generation Summit in May 2019,…


Using Performance Art as a Means of Engagement

Artists are everywhere, on every block and in every community. Finding the opportunities for artists to share their creativity and networks can strengthen community bonds, build relationships, and…


Two women in hijabs talking and holding camping lamps.

Connecting Community in Cedar-Riverside

Jamie Schumacher is the Executive Director of the West Bank Business Association, a partner with Springboard for the Arts and People’s Center Health Services on connecting and celebrating the…


How Grand Rapids, Minnesota Thrives Through Creative People Power

This article is part of a series highlighting artists and leaders featured at the Rural Arts and Culture Summit, a biennial, practitioner-driven gathering hosted by Springboard for the Arts that…


Creative Community Development Trainings

Do you believe that artists generate creative people power, and that communities thrive when they are connected to their artists? Have you downloaded the Irrigate: Artist-led Creative Placemaking…


Growing Up in the Arts Toolkit

“We are excited about the potential to use the toolkit for preparing other communities to host their own “Growing Up in the Arts” activities. We have found a method that facilitates collaboration…


Lightning Rod Toolkit

"Honestly? I hope people will steal Lightning Rod, make it their own and takes lots of pictures and notes and then send them to us," says Lightning Rod co-creator Kat Purcell. Lightning Rod is a…


New toolkits from the 2018 Toolkit Cohort

Creative Exchange is based on the idea that artists are everywhere, that artists are shaping their communities in all sorts of ways, and by sharing stories and tools from those artists, we can build…


Creative People Power

Springboard for the Arts and Helicon Collaborative are excited to launch Creative People Power, a new report and framework for combining creativity-centered and people-centered development to build…