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The CAN Report
The State of the Field of Community Cultural Development: Something New Emerges
A Report from the CAN Gathering, May 2004
By Linda Frye Burnham, Steven Durland and Maryo Gard Ewell
Published by Art in the Public Interest July, 2004
Appendix IV: Participants' Commitments
The CAN Gathering ended with a satisfying bang when Arlene Goldbard suggested that the final session be used as a special opportunity. Instead of posing more questions about the field, she assumed that each of us had decided to take certain actions, based on what we had heard over the meeting. We went around the circle stating our commitments, which are compiled below.
This strategy led to:
INFLUENCE CULTURAL POLICY
Write a 3-4 page Cultural Policy Platform that can be given to the presidential candidates and circulated for people’s signatures. (Goldbard + Davis, Cocke, Sneve) Include voices from the Midwest. (Natarajan) Include Arab voices. (Ameri)
CREATE NATIONAL ARTISTS CALL + ONLINE IMAGE BANK
Call for artwork and images and performance ideas and different ways that people can use their artistic creativity to speak out on the issues that are really concerning all of us now – the War, the invasion of privacy, the declining civil liberties, the polarization of wealth… A simple, easy-to-operate, Internet-based structure for getting ideas and images out to people that they can work on in their own communities. (Goldbard + Baca, Davis, Atlas, deNobirga)
PUBLIC INFORMATION
Get information about these initiatives out to a larger public. (Burnham + Durland, Ewell)
PRACTICAL CONNECTION WITH OTHER ORGANIZATIONS
Explore direct connections with Americans for the Arts and Arts Extension Service for partnership toward education and connection goals stated at this conference. (Schaffer Bacon + Aprill, deNobriga, Persltein, Malpede, Ewell, Borrup, Sneve) Explore alliance with the Association of American Cultures (TAAC) and CPB (Corporation for Public Broadcasting) Minority Consortium. (Sneve)
SUPPORT FOR ESTABLISHED CBA INSTITUTIONS
Examine erosion of support base for elder institutions/organizations in the field, explore preserving and shoring them up for use by other generations. Archive their work. (Cocke + Ewell, Perlstein)
NATIONAL "ARTISTS FOR…" BRAND
Promote writing "Artists for…" in the memo section of campaign checks (i.e., if you write a check to the Keery campaign, write "Artists for Kerry" in the memo space to instill the idea that artists are a political force. (Cocke + deNobriga)
CURRICULUM SHARING
Exchange syllabi from training courses in community arts. (McCauley + Cohen-Cruz, Cleveland, Leonard, Atlas). Share exhibition models (ex: CAPE's Exhibitionist curriculum, with major touring exhibition on the role of the written word in visual art). (Aprill) Share publications ex: NCCA's manuals on creative aging). (Perlstein)
PERMANENT PHYSICAL ARCHIVE
Investigate possibilities for expanding the CAN Archive of objects and documentation from community arts projects and companies, in its infancy at Virginia Tech. (Leonard + Ewell, Perlstein)
VALORIZATION OF COMMUNITY ARTS WORK
Research and articulate value of work done by community artists as unique, irreplaceable and not out-sourceable. (Leonard) Network organizations in this movement, meet regularly and help shift the awareness of artistic value in the U.S.
IN-DEPTH STUDIES OF PRACTICE/STRATEGY/METHODOLOGIES
Find 20-30 community arts projects that have had a permanent transformative outcome and document, analyze and study how they made a difference. (Cleveland) Document innovative practices by collaborative groups with success in building up the social, cultural, and economic bases of their neighborhoods and communities. (Borrup)
SHARE REPORT ON THIS MEETING
Write a report on this convening and share it with staff and board, letting them know that we’re not an anomaly, that we’re in a field that is very rich and is valued. Share the wealth of what I learned here -- approaches and best practices -- with publications of related large organizations, like Museum News, Asian American Journalists Association, Asian American Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy. (Chew)
PARTNERSHIP ACROSS DISCIPLINES
Explore long-term working connections with nonarts groups like Legal Aid, Head Start, drug-policy activists. (Malpede)
NETWORK DEVELOPMENT
Explore development of connections between communities of color – locally, nationally and internationally – for discussion of imbalance of resources, new income streams, experiential learning and leadership development. (Parris-Bailey)
INTERGENERATIONAL CONNECTIONS
Work on the best way to connect the youth and elders, the newcomers and the elders of this field. Elders as a job corps for the field, or mentoring elders to youth and youth to elders. (Ewell) Relaunch successful NPN mentorship program. (Wegmann)
ARTISTS' BENEFITS
Explore National Organizers Alliance retirement plan set up for progressive activists. (deNobriga)
WORK WITH FOUNDATIONS
Represent issues arising in this meeting to foundations. (Jensen + Swaja, Hayes) Connect foundation initiatives we are involved in (i.e.: Ford Foundation Community Development initiative, Ford Foundation Leadership initiative (Aprill + Borrup, Yeh)
PRESENT PERFORMANCE WORK IN THE FIELD
Use existing venues to get workon the stage. (Rolon)
DEVELOP MUSEUMS WITH COMMUNITY COMMITMENT
Develop community commitment in new and existing museums. Ex: Wing Luke Museum (Seattle) and Arab-American National Museum (Detroit). (Ameri + Chew)
YOUTH RECRUITMENT
Help bring younger voices to meetings like these. (Assaf)
UNIVERSITY PRACTICE AND PARTNERSHIP
Articulate how we frame our work in the university, how we talk about it, how we place it. Support major degree programs in the field. Partnership between academics and practitioners in writing, research and skill sharing. (Cohen-Cruz + Burnham and Durland). Develop training and credentialing programs in higher education in Arts Administration, but bridging gaps in working with other groups in communities. (Borrup)
RESOURCE-SHARING
Tweak and model and work with resources we have to facilitate the projects articulated here. (Durland)
COMMUNICATIONS – STAYING IN TOUCH
Make a newsletter about my current collaborative and programmatic work and share it with this group. (O'Neal) Participate in group conversations online and by phone. (Natarajan)
PROMOTE GRASSROOTS ORGANIZATION
Explore development of collaborative organizations of "the grassroots people who drive our development artistically, economically, and philosophically -- not our greatness but the brilliance of the people whose interests we try to serve." (O'Neal) Door-to-door organizing in our own neighborhoods (ex: Village of Arts & Humanities' "Shared Prosperity" project for 100-block neighborhood of Philadelphia). (Yeh) Continue partnership with grassroots activists. (Bowles)
SHARE EVALUATION AND DOCUMENTATION CRITERIA
Share with each other our best practices and case studies (ex: NPN's model evaluation and documentation methods for projects supported through their Community Fund). (Wegmann)
PROMOTE INTERNATIONAL COLLABORATION
Learning exchanges with groups in/from other countries. (Houston + Rolon) Develop new (existing) nonprofit called Artists without Borders to share methodology internationally. (Yeh + Graham, Aprill)
SPONSOR CONVENINGS IN THE FIELD
Bring people in the field together. Ex: Fringe Benefits hosting a Theatre of the Oppressed conference in L.A. in 2005. (Bowles)
TEACH IN EACH OTHER'S COMMUNITIES
Fringe Benefits invites conferee participants to "teach other arts activists your methodology" when in L.A. (Bowles)
ARTICULATE AND USE NEW THEORY
Develop new ways of looking at the work. Ex: Rockefeller's new "two core pillars" theory: sustainable development and enriched lives – or "Making a living and making a life." Ex: Recognize the complex heterogeneity of communities of color – listening not just to the "bottom" (of the community, but to the middle and the top as well. Ex: Recognize the transnationality of communities. (Ybarra-Frausto)
[Next: Appendix V: Bibliography for the Field ] [Table of Contents]
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