Community development organizations have taken up arts and culture strategies to build stronger connections with residents, create and enhance neighborhood identity and solidarity, and achieve better outcomes in local planning and policy. When these groups make arts and culture a significant part of their work, it changes them in important ways.

 

In a time when social distancing and a massive public health crisis are forcing us to rethink how we operate nonprofit agencies and build connections among residents and stakeholders, we can learn from the experience of these organizations and the artists who are working with them.

 

This webinar features leaders of community-based organizations and the artists with whom they have partnered to hear the stories and learn the lessons from their local strategies and internal transformation. The webinar will be based in the four-year journeys and future plans of the Cook Inlet Housing Authority, a tribal housing agency in Anchorage, the Jackson [Mississippi] Medical Mall Foundation, and the other organizations in ArtPlace America’s Community Development Investments (CDI) initiative. These experiences provide lessons for community development corporations, nonprofit housing developers, health services providers, park associations, and economic development agencies on how this creative work gets designed, carried out, and sustained.

 

The PolicyLink brief, "How Organizations Change When They Embrace Arts and Culture," explores these themes and stories.