THE THEORY BEHIND OUR TOWN
In 2011, the National Endowment for the Arts launched Our Town, a grant program that invests in projects that bring together diverse community partners to integrate the arts and culture into community revitalization work. Since then, more than 500 projects have been funded via Our Town in rural, tribal, suburban, and urban communities. The moment felt ripe for the agency to delve into past Our Town projects to better document, assess outcomes from the overall program and establish a theory of change.