Pennsylvania Council on the Arts Launches Creative Communities Initiative
Meadville, Sharon, Lancaster and Philadelphia are the host cities for four exciting community development projects to be supported by Pennsylvania Council on the Arts (PCA) Creative Communities Initiative (CCI). The four projects were selected from 105 applications submitted for the initial year of the CCI, a grant program established to empower communities to bring diverse individuals and organizations, including artists and arts organizations, together to make their community a place where people want to live, work and play.
“The PCA’s Creative Communities Initiative is an exciting opportunity for community and economic development and creative industries across Pennsylvania to collaborate on work that will benefit the priorities and identities of our cities and towns,” said Governor Tom Wolf. “I look forward to seeing how these innovative projects create a lasting mark on their communities.”
Earlier this year the PCA celebrated the adoption a new Strategic Plan and its first new mission statement since it was created by the state legislature in 1966. “The mission of the Pennsylvania Council on the Arts is to strengthen the cultural, educational, and economic vitality of Pennsylvania's communities through the arts.”After two years of examining best practices throughout the United States, and with a deep understanding of the impact that the arts can have when used strategically for community development, the Council initiated the CCI. In addition to CCI, PCA will continue to fund arts organizations, artists and arts education through its existing grants programs.
Announced in May, with a call for applications by June 28, CCI was has generated great interest throughout the Commonwealth. Applications were open not just to artists and arts organizations, but to community organizations, faith-based organizations and municipal governments. Two or more organizations were expected to be part of the application along with a municipal government partner. With wide ranging goals for community development, the PCA left interpretation of community needs to the community. Over 100 communities applied!
The four community projects selected for participation in the pilot phase of the PCA’s Creative Communities Initiative include:
Project location: Sharon (Mercer County)
Lead applicant: Shenango Valley Chamber of Commerce
Project description: Planning, implementation and programming of a community, arts-based, co-work, incubator, and workforce development space, with an emphasis on serving veterans and community members with physical and intellectual disabilities.
Project location: Meadville (Crawford County)
Lead applicant: The ARC of Crawford County
Project description: Transformation of a vacant lot, located in Meadville’s historic business district, into an inclusive community greenspace. The greenspace will include community-designed public art, environmental interventions to address stormwater management, and community arts activities.
Project location: Lancaster City (Lancaster County)
Lead applicant: Spanish American Civic Association (SACA) and Millersville University
Project description: Community-based arts programming in the Southeast neighborhood of Lancaster City, which will employ a team of artists representative of the predominately Latinx, African American, and refugee residents, in order to engage the community in the planning and creation of public art projects, performing arts events, and community arts education projects.
Project location: Philadelphia’s Mifflin Square Park/7th Street Corridor (Philadelphia County)
Lead applicant: Southeast Asian Mutual Assistance Associations Coalition (SEAMAAC)
Project description: Build a stronger sense of place through community-led public art, cultural programming, and support for creative businesses reflecting the diverse populations in the neighborhood.
If the communities meet the criteria for the grant, including obtaining matching funds and advancing the programs proposed in the grant application, the PCA will fund each program for four years with an annual grant of $25,000.
The PCA’s new mission statement and the CCI program have evolved from growing body of information on the impact of the arts in community development. Starting with the seminal 2010 work by Ann Markusen and Easton resident Anne Gadwa Nicodemus “Creative Placemaking” is an evolving concept that supports enhancing the viability of communities through artistic engagement. Under the rubric of creative placemaking, there are numerous programs, academic studies, grant programs (such as the National Endowment for the Arts Our Towngrants) and public programs, including a variety of creative district programs in several states.
Several Pennsylvania cities have experienced great success with long term arts related strategies, including Philadelphia with the Avenue of the Arts, Pittsburgh its Cultural District, and Bethlehem with Musikfest and SteelStacks, all of which had their roots in programs that began in the 1980’s. Several other communities are moving forward with a variety of arts-based development including Lancaster, Tamaqua and Pittston.
Sarah Merritt, PCA’s newly appointed Director of Creative Communities was assigned the task of designing the CCI program. Her process included examining the work practitioners of creative placemaking including ArtPlace America. Knowing that collaboration with other state agencies would be essential to the success of the program she also reached out to the Department of Community and Economic Development and representatives of other state agencies. She also worked with the non-profit Pennsylvania Downtown Center.
In conducting her research, Merritt noted that many creative placemaking programs did not have evaluation tools with solid metrics built into them. She worked with experts in the field to develop metrics that can will used in the new CCI program to assist the PCA and others in the field to improve outcomes for these programs.
Karl Blischke, PCA Executive Director has reached out to local community development organizations in each region of the state to better understand the needs of the regions and how the CCI program might best serve those needs. He also worked with colleagues from the National Association of State Arts Agencies (NASAA) to look at best practices in other states in terms of how state arts agencies can encourage collaboration between creative industries and communities to support community and economic development. After reviewing several programs, Colorado Creative Industries seemed to offer a model worth further examination.
As you may have noticed, the word “art” does not appear in the title of the organization. It is one of three state arts councils that does not have the word art in its title. (The other two use “cultural”.) Words are important. The transformation was intentional. Historically arts are considered non-essential benefits of society, entertainment that you may enjoy after doing real work that produces economic benefits. Since Steven Jobs changed the world with a beautifully designed object that is at once a telephone, camera, computer and connectivity device, “creative industries” entails virtually every industry that constitutes contemporary economic activity. Automobiles (self driving or not), household appliances, clothing, furniture, advertising and every form of entertainment from professional sports to video games and virtual reality programs to streaming comedies and dramas to music requires creative talent. It was important that we take a deeper dive into the Colorado perspective.
There are a few things that might appear inconsistent. Colorado is a fast growth state, having gained over 650,000 new residents since 2010, while Pennsylvania has gained only 100,000. Colorado is where some of our young residents are moving. However, like most of the country Colorado does have communities that have been left behind by the massive economic changes in the country. Eastern Colorado is part of the great plains, historically a rural area that like most rural parts of the country is suffering economic and population loss. Portions of the mountainous western part of the state are former mining towns and many remain hard to access. They have not achieved the growth of the famous ski resort towns closer to the very successful “front range”, home to Denver, Boulder and Colorado Springs.
The Colorado Creative Districts program is the one that we thought most relevant to our interest in sustainable communities. CCI’s Executive Director Margaret Hunt was kind enough to meet with us on each day of our two day visit and to provide escorts as we visited three creative districts in the Denver area: Art on Santa Fe (an older, primarily Hispanic area of the city, with deeply rooted arts and cultural institutions), RiNo Arts District (a collaboration artists of four neighborhoods in an area of the city that was about to undergo major development as a part of the city’s growth) and Westwood Creative District, a near suburban area of Denver that was experiencing decline as it competed with newer suburbs and attractive new housing in downtown Denver.
The leadership of each of these districts took time to share with us their experience in developing their programs and the impact it has had on their communities. While there was a great deal to learn, we came away from this trip with some core concepts that have been incorporated into the Pennsylvania Creative Communities Initiative:
· Collaboration between community-based artists, residents, organizations and the municipality are critical to success. Without the collective leadership and support from community leadership and the creatives in the community a program will not succeed.
· A grant from the arts council cannot be the sole or even the major source of support for a program. Grants must be matched by support from the community or funders accessible to the community. Matching support can be in kind, particularly from cash strapped municipalities, but must be only a part of the match.
· There is no one formula for every community. Creative communities must have the latitude to develop their community in ways that make sense for the residents of the community. This cannot be a “top down”, one size fits all program.
I had the opportunity to visit a fourth Colorado Creative District by chance. Last summer my wife and I were traveling in southwest Colorado with the specific goal of visiting Mesa Verde National Park. Driving from Telluride to Durango we stumbled into the quaint town of Mancos. Formerly a railroad town and commercial center for surrounding ranchers, Mancos had lost the railroad in the 1950’s and was falling into decline as the mining industry in the surrounding region collapsed. We didn’t know this as we drove on to the main street looking for a place to eat. We stumbled into the Absolute Bakery & Café, right next to a craft cooperative. The bakery was crowded (always a good sign when traveling) and the food was amazing. The staff shirts “Old Hippies Never Die, They Bake”, told us we were in an interesting place. We strolled through the dusty streets, saw some more art shops and some rainbow flags and a sign for the Mancos Creative District. We were so intrigued that we stopped back the next day on our way to Mesa Verde to purchase some sandwiches for our visit.
When we visited Denver, I made an inquiry about Mancos. It drew some smiles. It seems some members of the LGBTQ community had settled into this town where housing costs were inexpensive, but the climate, surrounding Rocky Mountains and the quiet community atmosphere suited them. There was a bit of resentment from some locals who were not accustomed to diversity. But gradually as the town was being spruced up and the dining options were improving there was acceptance of new residents who may be different, but similar in their appreciation of the community.
PCA’s crosscutting value “Promote equitable access for all Pennsylvanians to participate fully in a creative life and in the diverse forms of arts and culture in the commonwealth” is baked into all of our programs. PCA is committed to encouraging diversity, equity and inclusion as a basis for bringing our communities together and enhancing the quality of life for all residents. As a practical matter, diversity is critical to growth of the Commonwealth. More on that in future posts!