BLOG POSTS
Thoughts and updates from Arts & Democracy staff, partners and allies.
Rural Art and Culture Yields Big Impact
Judi Jennings, Kentucky Foundation for Women and Savannah Barrett, Art of the Rural discuss Feminist Art: Advancing Social Change in Rural Kentucky, an innovative digital mapping project documenting the powerful and transformative work taking place across rural Kentucky.
Rural , Southeast , Cultural / Media Policy , Multi / Inter-disciplinary , Alliance / Movement / Field Building
Program
Arts and Culture for a Just and Equitable City
Dear Mayor-Elect de Blasio, City Council Members (new and continuing), and Transition Team Members,
Congratulations! We, leaders from across sectors, write to share how arts and culture can and should play a vital role in achieving the inspirational One City Rising platform.
What Would it Look Like if NYC invested $50 Million in its Communities?
New York City’s recent capital investment of $50 million dollars in the Culture Shed mega project begs the question – how would a $50 million dollar capital investment in the culture and wellbeing of New York City’s diverse neighborhoods look?
Northeast , Community / Regional Development , Cultural / Media Policy , Multi / Inter-disciplinary
Program
How Arts and Culture Can Advance a Neighborhood-Centered Progressive Agenda
Northeast , Community / Regional Development , Cultural / Media Policy , Policy / Law Change
Program
Creative Engagement and a Moral Economy for All
Making Change in Chinatown
Humanity After the Storm
Ice sculpture by Ligorno/Reese melted at the two political conventions
What Democracy Looks Like
Creative Placemaking and the Politics of Belonging and Dis-belongong
Shifting Culture Making Change
Civil Rights, Human Rights, and A Moral Economy for All
Urban Bush Women at SEIU Convention
Guest Blog by Maria Bauman, Urban Bush Women
The convention felt like a family reunion, with members addressing one another as “Sister” or “Brother,” and receiving warm greetings and rousing affirmations from SEIU president Mary Kay Henry. The Colorado Convention Center had become the largest organizing hub I have ever seen; think of a kitchen or a black church and then magnify times 10,000!
From the SEIU convention!
California local 521 about to perform
Arts & Democracy Testifies at City Council Hearing
Animating Democracy Has a New Web Site!
Animating Democracy's new web site is inspirational, informative, and promotes and connects arts and culture as potent contributors to community, civic, and social change. Animating Democracy co-director Pam Korza takes us on a tour of this great new resource.
Time to Vote!
Image: jcbonbon
Welcome to Our New Web Site!
We’re so happy to have this attractive new online home. We think this site is better able to explain our work, share resources, and highlight some of the exciting work our partners and allies are doing in the field.
Read on for an introduction to some of the features you’ll find here...
We've Been Busy!
The Line: An Unemployment Demonstration March 6
You Can’t Evict an Idea Whose Time Has Come
By Caron Atlas
At the recent Policy Link Conference in Detroit, at a session called “Holding Ground,” presenters spoke about maintaining equity in a time of cutbacks. At the end of the session, one of the younger audience members asked where in all this talk of holding ground were the progressive ideas, the vision for the future. His question significantly shifted the room.
Back to the Future (Part One)
We stand on the shoulders of those who came before us. We have a responsibility to those who will come after us.
These simple yet powerful concepts have been echoing in my head the past few days in New Mexico where I participated in a roundtable discussion held at the Institute of American Indian Arts sponsored by the Open Society Foundations, First People’s Fund, and Arts & Democracy Project. The people I met and the stories I heard reinforced the power of the arts – and more importantly culture – in transforming our communities.
Walking the Talk and Talking the Walk
Arts & Democracy Project hosted a People's Potluck in Brooklyn. The potluck was part of a series of artist-led conversations and meals focused on interdependence taking place in the summer of 2011 created by MAPP International Productions in collaboration with Samita Sinha and Create Collective.
From the Highway to Nowhere to the Power of Place
In June and July I was fortunate to attend ROOTS Fest National Learning Exchange in West Baltimore, the Rural Cultural Roundtable in St Paul, and the freeDimensional retreat on Wasan Island in Canada. While diverse in focus, the three events were all grounded in the power of place, culture and creative agency. Collectively they made me reflect on how we can take active roles in creating communities that reflect our values.
Music, Memory and Imagination
Two separate, yet related–events made me think about music and memory, and the healing properties they offer together.
Fabulous February of Freedom
February 2011 was the busiest month of my life. I participated in a revolution that toppled a corrupt regime after 30 years of dictatorship.
Update on Belarus Free Theater
Little Globe Crosstown #4, Santa Fe Bus Opera - photo Chris Jonas
Inspirations from 2010
Looking back on 2010, I am inspired by the grace and power of the imagination in the midst of challenging times.
A New Movement for Humanization
When I first met Grace Lee Boggs in 2003 she transformed me, along with everyone else. Boggs embodies the US Social Forum concept of "another world is possible, another U.S. is necessary," and she celebrated her 95 birthday at the Detroit Social Forum in 2010, looking to the future.
Reportback on the Creative Resistance Retreat
By Caron Atlas
Ricardo Levins Morales Reportback on the U.S. Social Forum
Cross-posted from his e-newsletter, reflections from artist Ricardo Levins Morales on his time at the U.S. Social Forum.
Javiera Benavente's Reportback on U.S. Social Forum
On June 22-26, 2010 the 2nd US Social Forum took place in Detroit, MI, and brought together thousands of people from around the country (and beyond) to participate in a movement-building process that distinguishes itself by focusing on creating space "to come up with peoples' solutions to the economic and ecological crisis" we face in the world today.