6 Quick Questions to Ask Before Starting a Creative Community Project
An example of community arts-based application in action: a great collaboration between Main Street Fort Dodge, the City of Fort Dodge, and the arts community to tackle littering and promote recycling in their downtown area. The community really strives to integrate art and artists into many of its civic initiatives. Learn more at Main Street Fort Dodge.
You should know that I had no real on-boarding getting into community art-based work. I don’t have an arts administration or community development background. In fact, the only real jobs I have had are:
Employee at a shop that sells organizing supplies (which had no influence on me at all in any way).
Trail crew leader on the Appalachian Trail.
Working produce at not one but two natural food co-ops named Rainbow Grocery (not a chain, just a weird coincidence).
Teaching middle-schoolers in Massachusetts environmental science and composting.
Teaching college students how to draw, paint, and use art for community betterment.
Working with Iowans to use art for community and economic development.
Circa 1998 or 1999. Somewhere in Tennessee or Georgia. To this day, building rock steps is the hardest professional task I’ve had.
As you can see, I have limited job qualifications.
On any given day, I feel like I don’t know what I’m doing. Still. Seven years in. I’ve learned by doing, screwing up, changing, redoing. From watching other folks way wiser and more experienced than I am.
I guess you could say I’m half dreamer/half pragmatist, so it suits me well to be both an artist and an arts extension specialist. I love to make all by myself in the studio, and I also love talking shop with folks about how art can be used outside the studio, to improve, shape, and challenge community issues. In some of these shop talks, I’ve been asked how I approach creative community work and I thought I’d share a few things that have helped me get my mind wrapped around where to start.
Art + Community: Getting Started
Over the years, I’ve begun to ruminate more and more about art and community and art gatekeepers and the motivations of gate-keeping. And now I start projects thinking about both the scope of the project’s potential impact and how the project functions where it takes place. Behold two arrows that encapsulate what’s marbling around my head. It’s not a perfect system, and there’s lots of overlaps, but it helps me get clear on the who, what, when, where, and how of project.
The Scope of Project
This first step isn’t overly complicated, although there may be some Venn diagrams that arise. No biggie - just more interesting.
First off, will it be a studio project, made by artists and destined for a conventional venue, like a gallery or a museum?
Is the intention to create a public art project, made by artists and destined for a more public, accessible space?
Or is it (my favorite most days) a community art project, made with and by community members? (Within these projects, the process and relationships are often the end goal, and not the aesthetics of the object/performance.)
The Function of the Project
Next, I consider how the project may function within the place or space or organization. All credit goes to Lyz Crane, former Deputy Director of ArtPlace America, for this brilliance.
At the base level, is the project adding to the presence of art in the community, something that folks can see, attend, or hear?
A step beyond that, is the project something that folks can participate in?
And finally, a step beyond that, is the project seeking to address or solve a larger community challenge?
Designing a project that can be applied to a civic challenge is the most complex and the most gratifying. Magic happens here.
For clarity’s sake (see: pragmatist half of brain), a few examples of what this may look like:
Say you have an arts organization in a community. Its existence is proof of the presence of art in a community.
If said organization offers classes or community conversations or interactive exhibitions, they would check off the participation box.
And finally, say the arts organization partnered with a mental health treatment facility to create a mask-making workshop to address PTSD and depression in veterans. Here’s an example of civic application of an arts-based project.
Breaking projects down into the potentials of impact and scope has really made me get more clear about possibilities and partners needed to really maximize resources and collaborate on something special.
What tips do you have for more effective and engaging community collaborations?
