SPIRIT OF THE NORTHWEST

Key Lessons Learned

Fueling locally driven projects on community identity was a primary goal. The Spirit of the Northwest project also expanded learning locally and regionally about community identity issues, answers, opportunities and challenges.

Throughout the project, participants were continually asked to reflect on the work of the project (at the regional, state and local levels) to identify lessons learned that could be of value in similar projects in the future.

Lessons about Community Identity

1.1 Throughout three years, partnership leaders and many of the community leaders continued to wrestle to answer the question: How do we define what is meant by "community identity"? and "How can we impact identity?" These definitions continue to evolve.

1.2 Community identity evolves and continues to evolve over time. This evolution at first appeared to be random, but began to reveal a structure towards the end of the project.

1.3 The current societal model for expressing identity is actually to promote an image through advertising and public relations campaigns. One ancient model for expressing identity, a more positive and life affirming alternative, is the arts.

1.4 The arts can reflect community identity at a single point in time; can stimulate community dialogue; and build deeper connection between community members.

1.5 A large group of people working on the arts together inherently impacts community identity: how those people and others feel about one another and about their community.

1.6 Sustaining community involvement in the arts and claiming community identity ­ both are grounded in connecting the past and present to the evolving future.

Lessons about Regional and State Agency Partnerships

2.1 Regional partnerships must define realistic roles, not just add project management on top of ongoing staff responsibilities. Decisions must often be made without all partners involved. The partnership must know when it will act or respond centrally, and when team members have authority to act.

2.2 Leaders came and left the agencies involved. These departures seriously impacted the partnership effectiveness. Both expected and unexpected leadership transitions must be confronted realistically.

2.3 Regional partnerships between the state arts agencies and other statewide or regional organizations are extremely challenging to create and sustain.

2.4 The partnership of the three state arts agencies allowed for networking and information sharing between six communities across the three states. The sites felt "less alone" and learned from sharing experiences and examples.

2.5 Forming a Steering Committee to provide policy and philosophy input (detached from operational leadership) was helpful in forming a regional program or partnership. The role of the Steering Committee was unclear as implementation began and continued to present a challenge to decision-making.

Lessons about Rural Community Projects

3.1 Many people are too busy to make regional email or list-serve exchange a daily or even weekly priority. Electronic exchange of learning is not yet part of daily behavior. Local electronic exchange was critical to implementing the tasks of a number of local projects. Face-to-face time is critical for both partnership development and learning exchange, but travel costs money.

3.2 The process of developing the product is as important as the final outcome (when the goal is impact on community identity). Both the way a group gets there and the resulting product reflect and impact community identity.

3.3 Community members are interested in discussing and thinking about community identity, but if the talk cannot or does not move the community to action, interest quickly wanes in this issue.

3.4 The greater the range of groups and individuals (from outside the arts) involved in an arts project, the broader the results and impact on community identity.

3.5 Long term systemic impact on community identity requires years of ongoing effort. One shot projects can spur progress.

3.6 Community identity-building takes a "back seat" to more pressing issues as they arise. To assure impact on identity over time, arts projects and programs should be linked to those pressing community concerns.

3.7 Community identity is a local issue that can stimulate non-traditional arts partnerships ­ between local government, economic development interests, tourism, business groups, historical interests. The challenge is to identify the effort as different from public relations or marketing.

3.8 Local leadership (especially volunteer leadership) responsibility should move easily from one community member to another, particularly in a project that runs longer than one year. Uncomfortable leadership transitions at all levels of the Spirit projects were a roadblock to project success.

3.9 Technical assistance, providing answers to local questions, best practices and models from other communities, was regarded as equally valuable to direct funding. This assistance was provided both by the community development directors and by Steering Committee members.

Lessons about Evaluation

4.1 Methods to measure progress on community identity issues were illusive. Community identity could not be measured through traditional methods because 1) We did not share a clear definition of community identity at the start of the project; and 2) We did not have funding for a trained evaluator.

4.2 We hired a documenter (not an evaluator) and the documentation process of collecting lessons learned provided a framework through which local teams and the regional team analyzed project inputs and outputs. Outcomes could, however, only be discussed subjectively.

4.3 Process evaluation and development of lessons learned can be undertaken as part of documentation, but requires a documenter knowledgeable in process evaluation technique and facilitation.

Lessons about Future Steps

5.1 The arts are effective when used as part of a community's efforts to rebuild community identity. Specific types of projects can address all stages of the community identity cycle.

5.2 Funding can encourage communities to work in partnerships that employ the arts as a tool to help rebuild community identity.

5.3 Community identity measurements and evaluation design could be developed, tested and applied in future projects.

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The Spirit of the Northwest is a regional partnership project of the Idaho Commission on the Arts, the Oregon Arts Commission and the Washington State Arts Commission, funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts, a federal Agency. It is made available on the Web as a courtesy by the Community Arts Network. Questions or comments regarding this project can be addressed to Bitsy Bidwell, Community Arts Development Manager, Washington State Arts Commission, P.O. Box 42675, Olympia, WA, 98504-2675, (360) 586-2421 or email bitsyb@arts.wa.gov.