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Jan 10, 2019
Minneapolis’s Mixed Blood Theatre has been a mainstay in one of the city’s most notable immigrant enclaves since the 1970s. Now, they’re using their neighborhood connections to help community members bring their personal health stories to the stage, screen, and each other. Minneapolis’s Mixed Blood Theatre “changes attitudes, behavior, and policy by paying positive attention to difference.” Since... Read More
Dec 06, 2018
Elena Serrano of Oakland’s EastSide Arts Alliance & Cultural Center reflects on the threats and opportunities people of color face in her city as development accelerates—and the role arts and culture can play in working toward racial justice. Our Humans of ArtPlace series takes its cue from the famed Humans of New York project. This month, as our blog tells... Read More
Nov 27, 2018
Our Humans of ArtPlace series takes its cue from the famed Humans of New York project. This month, as our blog tells stories of “the people behind creative placemaking,” we asked the driving forces behind three ingenious ArtPlace-funded projects to give us some personal insights on work, life, art, and place. Donna Neuwirth co-founded the Wisconsin-based Wormfarm Institute in 2000, and remains... Read More
Oct 25, 2018
Amid the opportunities and stressors of gentrification, and facing an existential water crisis, new and longtime residents of bucolic Bozeman, Montana, create and experience public art that amplifies their stories and brings them together. In a rapidly growing western town, indigenous and non-indigenous artists collaborate with ranchers, ecologists, and activists in a poignant performance series about the... Read More
Oct 23, 2018
When the place you live is a disorienting study in contrast—comprising great wealth and great poverty, soaring youthful hopes and debilitating structural realities, deep love and terrible violence—how can you find your voice, make wise decisions, stay grounded in the tumult? F R E E: The Power of Performance is a feature-length documentary film directed and produced by... Read More
Oct 18, 2018
What can the arts and culture do for our communities? A striking answer can be seen in Fargo, North Dakota, where residents came together with artists to show that civic and cultural improvements often go hand-in-hand. The City of Fargo, ND is located near the Red River, which floods seasonally. To manage this, Fargo has built storm water... Read More
Oct 10, 2018
In 2013, ArtPlace America invested in the implementation of two “Creational Trails” in Milwaukee, a project led by the Greater Milwaukee Committee. Both trail initiatives were intended to address specific problems, both were intensely collaborative, and both employed many of the same partners, including MKE<->LAX consultant Sara Daleiden and the City of Milwaukee. Through a partnership with NEWaukee, the West Wisconsin Avenue Creational... Read More
Aug 24, 2018
On a weekday morning earlier this summer, Anchorage artist Sheila Wyne and writer Bruce Farnsworth pushed box after box into an area with four wood walls and a gauze roof. They used power tools to screw wooden posts into a gridded floor. A full-scale studio apartment began to emerge. "This is like being in a dollhouse," Farnsworth said... Read More
Aug 16, 2018
Ashley Hanson is a theater artist, social practitioner, storyteller, and lover of rural places. This featured essay is adapted and expanded from a Firestarter Talk given by Ashley Hanson at the National Rural Assembly in Durham, NC in May, 2018. "The drive to my mother’s house is one of my favorites. As I turn off the two-lane... Read More
Jul 20, 2018
In my family, instead of gifting Christmas presents, we have what we call “Traditions” - each of us invents a new game or activity. We all play; whoever wins receives a gift given from whomever invented the game. In the summer, my mom hosts elaborate obstacle courses on my great grandmother’s land, where we compete using old... Read More