
Partners for Livable Communities (Partners) releases Arts Organizations and Public Health, a guide to creating partnerships between art and health organizations. This primer was designed for the arts organization that wishes to initiate programming focused on local health issues, or create partnerships with health groups in order to best meet the needs of the community. Arts Organizations and Public Health identifies best practices of diverse arts organizations from around the United States to inform this work. The best practices can be used as references, and are cited throughout the publication to correlate with text.
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Partners for Livable Communities presents a PowerPoint presentation to accompany the 2012 Stories for Change report. This presentation is for community residents, city leaders, arts and cultural institutions, and many more to share the great stories of innovation and creativity featured in the Stories for Change report to begin discussions of reaching out to older adults and immigrants with the community.
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The D.C. Office of Planning (OP) has awarded a $75,000 “ArtPlace Arts and Culture Temporium” grant to Partners for Livable Communities (Partners) to develop and manage temporiums in underutilized spaces in the Deanwood neighborhood, one of the District’s earliest African American communities.
Under this grant, Partners will develop and manage DeanwoodxDesign, a project that showcases the rich arts, cultural, historical, and green space assets of Deanwood and Ward 7 through a community-wide, intergenerational, and collaborative effort. This project engages artists and a diverse network of Deanwood institutions and stakeholders to cultivate community pride, showcase and create great art, and invigorate the creative economy.
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Terms:Announcements, Arts & Culture, CBC Best Practice, CBC Event, Community Building, Community Engagement, Creative Economy, Culture Builds Communities, Design, Multicultural, Neighborhood Revitalization, Placemaking, Public Art, Public-Private Partnerships, Urban, Washington, DC
Stories for Change: Leadership Examples of Expanding Arts to New Audiences
A Report from Partners for Livable Communities Funded by MetLife Foundation
Stories for Change, a report by Partners for Livable Communities funded by MetLife Foundation, offers leadership examples that expand the arts to new audiences. This compendium of nearly 50 best practices showcases the notable strategies that increase access to arts and culture for older adult and immigrant populations.
Stories for Change broadens the scope of Partners’ 2011 report, Culture Connects All: Rethinking Audiences in Times of Demographic Change, which describes the innovative programs of arts organizations in six major American cities. It shows that arts and culture are as essential to sustaining communities as bricks and mortar.
In early 2011, the Jamaica Youth Initiative—a working group of governmental, nonprofit and private institutions in a bustling neighborhood in Southern Queens—convened to discuss an important matter affecting their community: disengaged and idle youth. At the end of every school day, thousands of youth crowd the streets of downtown Jamaica, where after school activities are in demand. Partners for Livable Communities (Partners) views this demand as a rare opportunity to focus positive attention on the assets available to and within this youth population. With support from the Hearst Foundation, Partners is currently collaborating the Youth Initiative, the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation, and the Cultural Development Corporation to develop a framework of goals and recommendations that will expand arts-based after school opportunities. Ultimately, the goal is to provide programming that will enrich the lives of these youth, provide them with meaningful experiences, and assist them in obtaining employment.
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Partners for Livable Communities’ 2011 publication, Culture Connects All, was featured in the winter 2012 issue of Preserving Your Memory, a magazine supported by the Fisher Center for Alzheimer’s Research Foundation. Sam Gaines’ article, Making the Connection, outlines the publication’s key objectives, and its recommendations to arts and cultural organizations pursuing arts programs to reach out to diverse audiences. Funded by MetLife Foundation, Culture Connects All was published in 2011 to showcase cultural institutions using innovative strategies or programs to engage two of America’s fastest- growing populations: older adults and immigrants.
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Rarely does the subject of water inspire poetic phrases or passionate dedications. While we may occasionally recognize its importance, this appreciation is usually offset by the size of the water bill at the end of the month. Regardless, I’m going to ask an odd question: have you ever celebrated water? If I got a single “yes” I would be very surprised, for the simple reason that there are few formalized occasions for the public to appreciate water. This year, a multitude of civic and non-profit organizations have teamed up to give individuals the opportunity to celebrate their “love for water” in the annual Rachel Carson Sense of Wonder Contest.
2012 marks the 40th Anniversary of the Clean Water Act. Although it was originally enacted in 1948, the Act was significantly reorganized and expanded in 1972 to regulate discharges of water pollutants and monitoring water quality standards in the United States. The Annual Rachel Carson Sense of Wonder Contest is honoring this anniversary and renaming itself the “Sense of Water Contest” for 2012.
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Terms:Aging, Aging in Place, AIP Best Practice, Arts & Culture, Community Building, Community Engagement, Diversity, Environment, Families, Intergenerational, Youth
Investors in America Award
Janet W. Thompson is honored for her expertise in community development, engagement, and reinvestment in nonprofit and financial management. As Interim President and Chief Executive Officer of the Nonprofit Finance Fund, community consultant to Morgan Stanley, and former Corporate Directorof Community Reinvestment at Citibank, her spirit and leadership has propelled public and private community engagement for more than 35 years.
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Quarter Century of Service Award
Arts Extension Service, at the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, is honored for their groundbreaking work as a leading arts service organization that bridges research and practice by providing education, training, research, and professional development opportunities to state and local arts agencies, arts managers, and artists. Their influential work has laid the groundwork that established local cultural councils throughout Massachusetts, launched the New England Film Festival, and developed a diversity of publications and programs. These include the nation’s only online Bachelor’s Degree in Arts Administration, a Peer Advising Network that transforms community arts leaders into peer consultants, and Artist-in- Business trainings that balances skill-building with creating community for the arts.
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Culture Connects All, a benchmark report by Partners for Livable communities funded by MetLife Foundation, offers new audience-building opportunities for arts and cultural organizations to engage two of America’s fastest growing populations: immigrant and older adult populations.
The 2010 census confirms what many have observed over the past decade—the population is growing older, and in many areas more diverse. And this change is happening across the face of the nation. Two rapidly expanding population groups present a timely opportunity for communities and their arts and cultural institutions to rethink and retool their outreach.
Click Here to Download the Publication
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Partners Releases "Culture Connects All" Report
Culture Connects All:
A Report from Partners for Livable Communities
Funded by MetLife Foundation
Culture Connects All, a benchmark report by Partners for Livable communities funded by MetLife Foundation, offers new audience-building opportunities for arts and cultural organizations to engage two of America’s fastest growing populations: immigrant and older adult populations. 
The 2010 census confirms what many have observed over the past decade—the population is growing older, and in many areas more diverse. And this change is happening across the face of the nation. Two rapidly expanding population groups present a timely opportunity for communities and their arts and cultural institutions to rethink and retool their outreach.
Download your free copy of Culture Connects All, and free copies translated in both Chinese and Spanish available on May 15.
Click Here to Read More>>
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"So, what is the point of public art? ” This question, posted online by Voice of San Diego's Kelly Bennett, came in response to the city of San Diego’s recent pull from public art funding; after its release on Twitter the post quickly turned viral. Responses to the post ranged from views of public art as superfluous and its place in the public sphere as luxury, to public art as necessary for community well-being, safety, and cohesiveness.
Many of us believe in the arts as integral to the livable community— but when measuring out our federal dollars, the arts are usually the first to go. But what if we could prove that in addition to instilling neighborhood pride and value in our public space, public art could actually serve as a deterrent for crime and violence?
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Terms:2010, Arts & Culture, Community Building, Community Development, Community Engagement, Creative Economy, Downtown Development, Economic Development, Multicultural, Neighborhood Revitalization, Placemaking, Public Art, San Diego, CA, Urban
What can you do to improve your community? There are many directions one can take but often times it requires a bit of foresight and planning. For many older adults, something as enjoyable and simple as volunteering can be a perfect use of time, but for many the willingness to volunteer can be met with physical and economic hurdles. Realizing there is much potential in their community members, the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center of Florida utilized an Aging in Place Initiative “Jumpstart the Conversation" Grant to engage more older adults in the local arts and culture community.
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Entrepreneurial American Leadership Award
For her extensive career in the preservation and promotion of local arts, culture, and heritage for our diverse American population.
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Founders Award for Civic Leadership
For his contributions to the Baltimore community through his leadership at MICA and local organizations involved in the arts.
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Oakland, CA
A Senior Theatre Company that uses theatre and storytelling to bridge generation gaps and break down stereotypes about aging.
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Partners’ recent forum with the Hirshhorn Museum, “ Building Livable Communities: Creating a Common Agenda,” served as a positive platform to re-announce a new and exciting agenda for architecture, design, and social experimentation: The Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden’s Bubble Expansion and book store renovation. Attended by Congressional representatives, federal agencies, think tanks, cultural institutions, and community development leaders alike, Director of the Hirshhorn Museum Richard Koshalek discussed the museum’s upcoming plans. The "Bubble,” as it is called for the short-term, is a joint venture of Koshalek and Diller, Scofidio + Renfro, a renowned New York-based design firm, to re-invent the Museum as an intentional classroom and illustrate intersections of public and private space. Additionally, the museum book store will undergo a transition from a common commercial entity to becoming integrated as a part of museum exhibition space, through a renovation and move to the basement of the building. Perhaps this new agenda comes from the idea that we need to adapt spaces to peoples’ readily changing needs. Perhaps this comes from Richard Koshalek’s desire to make the Hirshhorn a world class modern art museum with a daring new exposition. Perhaps this comes from the need to blur public and private space by incorporating The "Bubble” as an almost space-less entity into a negative, or void, of the concrete mass building; and the book store as an experiment in museum exhibit space. Or perhaps this agenda just comes from a need to make the stolid flimsy, the serious fun, and the patron part of the exhibit.
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President of Partners for Livable Communities, Robert McNulty, was quoted in The Wall Street Journal article “ Artists vs. Blight ,” discussing artist occupations of blighted homes and neighborhoods in transitioning communities such as Cleveland and Detroit.
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Terms:2010, Arts & Culture, Cleveland, OH, Community Building, Community Development, Creative Economy, Detroit, MI, Economic Development, Housing, Neighborhood Revitalization, Partners Press, Placemaking, Urban, Visioning & Planning
The American Society of Landscape Architect’s weekly blog, “ The Dirt: Connecting the Built and Natural Environments,” posts detailed highlights from “ Building Livable Communities: Creating a Common Agenda,” Partner’s recent Forum in collaboration with the Hirshhorn Museum. Recapping the panel of Federal officials including HUD, DOT, and their overlapping agendas to create an “infrastructure for livability” through “interdependencies,” the blog also includes highlights from the speakers representing local government, non for profit agencies, and corporate entities. The Dirt showcases some of the newest ideas and agendas surrounding the national livability framework presented at the forum. Read about it here
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Terms:2010, Arts & Culture, BLC Forum, CBC Press/Media, Design, Economic Development, Environment, Heritage, Housing, Jobs, Partners Press, Transportation
Nassau County, NY with its growing immigrant population, has witnessed a 107 percent increase in Hispanics since 1990. Recognizing the local demographics of their community are rapidly changing, the Nassau County Museum of Art has created a new outreach program to both attract and to serve this growing community. Nassau County Museum of Art collaborated with Queensborough Community College’s adult literacy program for English language learners to create Culture and Literacy through Art (CALTA).
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