Civic Dialogue, Arts & Culture explores the power of the arts and humanities to foster civic engagement and demonstrates how arts and humanities organizations can be vital civic and cultural institutions. This book examines the experiences of 37 arts and humanities projects, realized by a wide range of cultural organizations, and supported by Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts. These projects explored such issues as race relations, economic inequity, gentrification, school violence, and the influx of immigrants and refugees in communities, among others. The book shares the findings of this highly regarded initiative by capturing the perspectives of artists, cultural leaders, and community partners involved with these projects. Civic Dialogue, Arts & Culture contributes to deepening our understanding of the artistic, civic, and organizational dimensions of the work, as well as the principles and practices that underpin effective work.
Civic Engagement/Community Development
Cultural Engagement in California’s Inland Regions
Based on two major surveys of more than 6,000 people, the report documents a wide range of cultural activity–in music, theater and drama, reading and writing, dance, and visual arts and crafts–happening outside of the boundaries of the traditional infrastructure of nonprofit arts organizations and facilities in two fast-growing and increasingly diverse inland regions of the state.
All Volunteer Force: From Military to Civilian Service
The central message of this report is that a new generation of veterans is returning home from Iraq and Afghanistan without sufficient connections to communities, is enthusiastic to serve again, and points the way forward for how our nation can better integrate them into civilian life. Although the 1.8 million veterans are from every corner of our nation, they are strongly united in their perspectives regarding civic responsibilities and opportunities as they return home. What’s more, the findings show that OIF/OEF veterans are underutilized assets in our communities, and their continued service is likely to improve their transition home. We believe there is significant potential to increase volunteering and civic engagement among this generation of veterans.
Chorus Impact Study: How Children, Adults and Communities Benefit from Choruses
According to a new study by Chorus America, an estimated 32.5 million adults regularly sing in choruses today, up from 23.5 million estimated in 2003. And when children are included, there are 42.6 million Americans singing in choruses in 2009. More than 1 in 5 households have at least one singing family member, making choral singing the most popular form of participation in the performing arts for both adults and children. There are 270,000 choruses in the U.S., such as a community chorus or a school or church choir, and participation is strongly correlated with qualities that are associated with success throughout life, the study finds. Greater civic involvement, discipline, and teamwork are just a few of the attributes fostered by singing with a choral ensemble.
Arts Participation 2008: Highlights from a National Survey
American audiences for the arts are getting older, and their numbers are declining, according to new research released today by the National Endowment for the Arts. Arts Participation 2008: Highlights from a National Survey features top findings from the 2008 Survey of Public Participation in the Arts, the nation’s largest and most representative periodic study of adult participation in arts events and activities, conducted by the NEA in partnership with the U.S. Census Bureau. Five times since 1982, the survey has asked U.S. adults 18 and older about their patterns of arts participation over a 12-month period. The 2008 survey reveals dwindling audiences for many art forms, but it also captures new data on Internet use and other forms of arts participation.
BOOK: Cultural Democracy: The Arts, Community & the Public Purpose, by James Bau Graves
Cultural Democracy explores the crisis of our national cultural vitality, as access to the arts becomes increasingly mediated by a handful of corporations and the narrow tastes of wealthy elites. Graves offers the concept of cultural democracy as corrective–an idea with important historic and contemporary validation, and an alternative pathway toward ethical cultural development that is part of a global shift in values. Drawing upon a range of scholarship and illustrative anecdotes from his own experiences with cultural programs in ethnically diverse communities, Graves explains in convincing detail the dynamics of how traditional and grassroots cultures may survive and thrive–or not–and what we can do to provide them opportunities equal to those of mainstream, Eurocentric culture.
