At The Crossroads - Community Arts and Development Convening

Check the Resources section for notes, photos and video documentation from At the Crossroads!

THANK YOU TO ALL WHO ATTENDED!

The Community Arts Training Institute (CAT) and the Regional Arts Commission (RAC) hosted the inaugural “At the Crossroads: A Community Arts & Development Convening” from March 25 – 27, 2010 in St. Louis.

Over 150 practitioners and their partners in arts based community development programs and collaborations convened for hands-on workshops, panels, presentations and provocative thinking.

At the Crossroads was funded by a grant from The Nathan Cummings Foundation and with support from the Whitaker Foundation, National City-Now part of PNC, and Incarnate Word Foundation.

Featured presenters included Bill Cleveland, founder and director of the Center for the Study of Art and Community in Seattle and author of Art & Upheaval: Artists on the World’s Frontlines and Arlene Goldbard, social activist from the San Francisco area and author of New Creative Community: The Art of Cultural Development.

We participated in three days of lively exchanges in an energetic learning environment where arts and community practitioners connected, collaborated and conversed.

The Convening was kicked off an Thursday, March 25, 2010 with a special pre-conference workshop from noon to 5 pm: “What Difference Are We Making? Assessing Social Impact of Arts for Community Change” with Marty Pottenger of the Arts in Equity Initiative in Portland, ME and Barbara Schaffer-Bacon and Pam Korza, the co-directors of Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts.

See the Schedule to the right for entire Convening schedule of events. Please go to the Resources section for the full program, all the notes, photos, essays and video documentation.

For more information, go to the Contact section or contact the Convening coordinator Roseann Weiss, Director of the Community Arts Training Institute, roseann@stlrac.org

At The Crossroads: A Community Arts and Development Convening – Final Reading and Party from Regional Arts Commission on Vimeo.

Jane Ellen Ibur, CAT Institute Lead Faculty, is a poet, writer, teacher, consultant and community artist with twenty years of experience teaching creative writing and literacy through creative writing in jails, housing projects, homeless shelters, schools, art museums, and other community settings. In this video clip, she reads poetry she wrote over the course of the Crossroads Convening, at its closing ceremony.

The Community Arts Training Institute (CAT) and the Regional Arts Commission (RAC) hosted the inaugural “At the Crossroads: A Community Arts & Development Convening” from March 25 – 27, 2010 in St. Louis.
Over 150 practitioners and their partners in arts based community development programs and collaborations convened for hands-on workshops, panels, presentations and provocative thinking. For more information, visit crossroadsconvening.com/ .

At the Crossroads was funded by a grant from The Nathan Cummings Foundation and with support from the Whitaker Foundation, National City-Now part of PNC, and Incarnate Word Foundation.

At the Crossroads: A Community Arts and Development Convening – Standards, Schmanders, Who Needs Standards? from Regional Arts Commission on Vimeo.

William Cleveland is an author and the director of the Center for the Study of Art & Community (CSA&C) in Minneapolis, which he co-founded in 1991. This video is a clip from a workshop he led titled “Standards, Schmanders, Who Needs Standards?” At the Crossroads Convening on March 26, 2010. The workshop discussed ways community artists can be more assertive about what they need in order for their programs to be successful.

The Community Arts Training Institute (CAT) and the Regional Arts Commission (RAC) hosted the inaugural “At the Crossroads: A Community Arts & Development Convening” from March 25 – 27, 2010 in St. Louis.
Over 150 practitioners and their partners in arts based community development programs and collaborations convened for hands-on workshops, panels, presentations and provocative thinking. For more information, visit crossroadsconvening.com/ .

At the Crossroads was funded by a grant from The Nathan Cummings Foundation and with support from the Whitaker Foundation, National City-Now part of PNC, and Incarnate Word Foundation.

At the Crossroads: A Community Arts and Development Convening – Reframing the Role of the Arts (2) from Regional Arts Commission on Vimeo.

Arlene Goldbard is a writer, social activist, and consultant who works for justice, compassion and honor in every sphere, from the interpersonal to the transnational. In this video, she discusses metaphors we can use to reframe the process of art-making. It is an excerpt from her workshop, “Reframing the Role of the Arts,” which she led at the Crossroads Convening on March 26, 2010. For more information, please visit arlenegoldbard.com/ .

The Community Arts Training Institute (CAT) and the Regional Arts Commission (RAC) hosted the inaugural “At the Crossroads: A Community Arts & Development Convening” from March 25 – 27, 2010 in St. Louis.
Over 150 practitioners and their partners in arts based community development programs and collaborations convened for hands-on workshops, panels, presentations and provocative thinking. For more information, visit crossroadsconvening.com/ .

At the Crossroads was funded by a grant from The Nathan Cummings Foundation and with support from the Whitaker Foundation, National City-Now part of PNC, and Incarnate Word Foundation.

At the Crossroads: A Community Arts and Development Convening – Reframing the Role of the Arts (1) from Regional Arts Commission on Vimeo.

Arlene Goldbard is a writer, social activist, and consultant who works for justice, compassion and honor in every sphere, from the interpersonal to the transnational. In this video, she discusses ways that art is commonly “framed” or conceptualized. It is an excerpt from her workshop, “Reframing the Role of the Arts,” which she led at the Crossroads Convening on March 26, 2010. For more information, please visit arlenegoldbard.com/ .

The Community Arts Training Institute (CAT) and the Regional Arts Commission (RAC) hosted the inaugural “At the Crossroads: A Community Arts & Development Convening” from March 25 – 27, 2010 in St. Louis.
Over 150 practitioners and their partners in arts based community development programs and collaborations convened for hands-on workshops, panels, presentations and provocative thinking. For more information, visit crossroadsconvening.com/ .

At the Crossroads was funded by a grant from The Nathan Cummings Foundation and with support from the Whitaker Foundation, National City-Now part of PNC, and Incarnate Word Foundation.