Why?
Judith Marcuse
The Resource Centre provides a list of books, useful web sites, research papers and reports, that give the most recent information and examples of community engagement in the arts and other areas.
You can edit your reading to your interest by selecting your interest(s) from the list on your left.
This section will be frequently updated with new information when it becomes available.
The following is a summary of key learnings and resources from a virtual conversation held as part of the
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The following is a summary of key learnings and resources from a virtual conversation held as part of the
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The following is a summary of key learnings and resources from a virtual conversation held as part of the
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The following is a summary of key learnings and resources from a virtual session held as part of the ArtsEngage Learning Community in mid-December, 2020.
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The following is a summary of key learnings and resources from a virtual session held as part of the ArtsEngage Learning Community in mid-November, 2020.
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The following is a summary of key learnings and resources from a virtual conversation held as part of the
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The following was adapted from the first chapter of Seeing Like a State: How Certain Schemes to Improve the Human Condition Have Failed, James Scott, 1988 - read an extract
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The following is a summary of key learnings and resources from a session held as part of the ArtsEng
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This resource is thickly layered and details everything you want to know about how Municipal-Artist Partnerships work (or can work).
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Starting an article by suggesting that arts charities are becoming "organizational dinosaurs with models not fit for purpose" was always going to be provocative!
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Here's an interesting article that addresses the question of whether attendance, as a measure of success, is still a helpful metric to museums.
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A brief read, this article by Christina Sackeyfio published on February 3rd, 2020 in Charity Village is a powerful call to consider the role empathy plays in successful diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) implementation.
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The link to the page below is a treasure trove of articles focusing on the role of the arts in post-crisis settings, found on Hill Strategies website (www.hillstrategies.com).
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Arts for Social Change is an organization rooted in social, environmental, and political justice, designed to engage heads, hearts, and hands, and is a form of cultural democracy designed to nurture insight, exchange, and action.
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John Killacky, a long-term arts manager and now member of Vermont's House of Representatives, penned this wonderful article on the importance of integrating the arts into all aspects of community.
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The Empathetic Museum is a concept supported by a group of museum professionals who “value and advocate for diversity of thought and authentic integration of empathy in museum practice.” While geared towards museums, their ideas and resources are highly useful for anyone in ar
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This past October, Agenda Paris hosted their Communicating the Arts conference in Montreal. Communicating the Arts is an international conference for cultural leaders.
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OF/BY/FOR ALL is an organization that "envision[s] a world in which all people are empowered to share their talents to strengthen their communities. Communities in which people feel safe, welcome, and connected to the strangers who cross their paths every day.
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The potential for positive connections between the arts and health/well-being are increasingly being recognized and explored.
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While written in 2012, Michael Rohd's article from Howlround rings true and relevant today.
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Animating Democracy has shared a collection of writings depicting the wide range of ways the arts make community, civic, and social change.
We found these two resources particularly useful:
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While not specifically about arts engagement, the Tamarack Institute for Community Engagement has a wealth of resources on its website about community engagement that are very useful for anyo
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As the title suggests, this thorough resource from Animating Democracy offers step-by-step guidance on planning arts-based civic engagement projects.
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There are many evolving conversations about how performing arts spaces can better serve society as a whole, not just those who have traditionally attended their shows.
Here are a few articles to provoke further thought, both written by Lyn Gardner for The Guardian:
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This report offers an initial framework of key organizational characteristics for cultural institutions that are genuinely engaging participants who reflect their communities' changing demographics.
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This inspirational article from Leah Sandals via the Culture Days blog explores two programs that address aging through the arts: Edmonton's GeriActors and Vancouver's
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In this webinar from Ontario Presents, community engagement consultant Annalee Adair and volunteer presenter Alyson Martin walk us through the process of executing a successful community engagement project.
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In this article The Guardian theatre critic Lynn Gardiner makes a compelling argument for the need for arts institutions to change the way that they relate to their communities, drawing on several examples of innovative British arts organizations:
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The Montreal Urban Aboriginal Community Strategy
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Well-meaning organizations sometimes have a tendency to charge ahead with a community project without stopping to listen to what the community wants or needs.
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This article explores the community
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Ontario Presents has developed a Statement of Guiding Principles for Presenting Indigenous Work.
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While not specifically about arts engagement, the Tamarack Institute for Community Engagement has a wealth of resources on its website about community engagement that are very useful for anyone wanting to explore why it's important and how to achieve it.
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Animating Democracy's Continuum of Impact guide defines six families of social and civic outcomes that arts practitioners and their partners commonly aspire to and achieve through creative work.
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This article tells the inspiring story of the Next Stage Arts Project in Putney, Vermont. After the community came together to create an arts hub in a vacant historic church, an art project was created that focuses on community projects and creative placemaking:
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This series of studies from The Wallace Foundation explores building arts audiences and relationships with diverse communities.
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This (US-based) article by Eric Booth explores the importance of teaching artists.
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This article by Margaret Hasse explores ways to support artists in community settings
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ArtBridges is a hub and forum for connection for anyone interesed in or active in community-engaged arts and arts for social change in Canada.
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Doug Borwick is a US-based artist, arts administrator, and leading advocate for community engagement in the arts. He has authored numerous useful resources on this subject:
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The AHRC Cultural Value Project: Understanding the Value of Arts & Culture is an in-depth, three-year study to understand the value of the arts and the difference they make to individuals
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Teaching artists are an important resource in arts engagement projects. The following links give more insight into the history and practice of this critical teaching artistry.
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This toolkit provides guidance on the issues to consider when planning and designing a community engagement project.
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This page contains a growing list of research and reports on arts engagement from the California-based James Irvine Insitute, including:
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This article from Nina Simon, author of The Participatory Museum and The Art of Relevance, takes a perceptive look at the need to understand and counterbalance many forms of privilege when enga
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This report, put together by the All-Party Parliamentary group on Arts, Health, and Wellbeing in the UK, "aims to improve awareness of the benefits that the arts can bring to health and wellbeing."
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This article discusses Creative Commonwealth, a new program in Massachusetts that will increase arts-based community engagement programs across the state.
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"This think-piece by Chrissie Tiller unearths and explores some of the complexities and challenges of sharing power, drawing on thinking from CPP directors, community managers and other team members, artists and project critical friends.
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This toolkit offers tips, tools, and case studies from Creative People and Places projects.
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This Community Foundations of Canada report argues for the effectiveness of the arts in creating a sense of community belonging- a sense that many Canadians do not currently feel.
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"From Community Supported Art in Canada to a New York project that stages work in laundromats, Laura Zabel looks at the ways in which artists and communities can pull together."
From The Guardian, February 2015
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