Arts and Community Development

GIA members in Chicago are hopeful that you are preparing to join us for GIA's 1998 annual conference — “Arts Under 21” — that will concentrate on youth and arts using the city of Chicago as a laboratory and model. Here in the Second City, we're awfully proud of our cultural institutions and since the conference can't possibly show it all off in four days, it seems useful to give a snapshot of some of the other arts events and programs that will be in Chicago this November.

1998, 20 pages, The Flinn Foundation, 3300 North Central Avenue, Suite 2300, Phoenix, Arizona 85012, 602-274-9000, info[at]flinn.org

Here in Los Angeles, the thought of an "arts funding community" had been something of an oxymoron. Because of corporate policy, political agendas, and familial preferences, arts grantmakers have long worked in isolation from one another. Sure, we like one another, go to the same shows, eat the same special-event salmon, but collaborate and communicate on a regular basis? Well, if only...

1998, 82 pages, SPUR, 312 Sutter Street, Suite 500, San Francisco, California 94108-4305, 415-781-8726, fax: 415-781-7291, spur[at]well.com.

Produced by San Francisco Planning and Urban Research Association, this report provides details and insights from a three-day community workshop that addressed the following concerns:

• the ability of cultural institutions to meet their full audience potential, to educate needy individuals, to attract new donations, and to secure major traveling exhibits

I am a fan of peer panels and have always enjoyed serving on them. Coming from a dance/theater background I view them as a performance event rich with actors and drama, text and subtext. I particularly appreciate the transformation of a group of individuals into a temporary community of purpose. Panelists are introduced, size each other up, conduct negotiations, build consensus, argue and disagree, acknowledge their differences, struggle to find a common language, reach certain compromises, and finally come to a set of conclusions.

Why is it that the Twentieth Century has witnessed an abundance of large-scale utopian plans for social and economic development that have accomplished, contrary to their lofty objectives, immense human suffering and massive environmental degradation? In his book, Seeing Like A State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, James C.

The following article is based on excerpts from a program examination by Arts Action Research.

Bimbo Rivas: Artist Profile

1997, 175 pages, Columbia College, 1001 Rogers Road, Columbia, Missouri 65216, Review by Gita Gulati, The Cleveland Foundation.

Rebuilding the Front Porch of America is a collection of previously presented essays by Patrick Overton, an arts administrator and community organizer in Missouri. In this short but substantive book, Overton defines community arts as “the new front porch of America,” a place where family, friends, and neighbors gather to share their stories.

Intersections
This report began as a standard travelog, factual, but listless. The GIA conference title, Intersections, seemed appropriate, but irritating as it pricked at some memory I could not grasp.