Leveraging Assets
How Small Budget Arts Activities Benefit Neighborhoods
March 2003, 126 pages. The Richard Driehaus Foundation, 203 N. Wabash Ave., Suite 1800, Chicago, IL 60601, and John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, 140 S. Dearborn Street, Suite 1100, Chicago, IL, 60603
Download pdf: http://www.macfound.org/atf/cf/%7BB0386CE3-8B29-4162-8098-E466FB856794%7D/SMALL_BUDGET_ARTS_ACTIVITIES.PDF
This report documents how small budget arts activities play a role in leveraging local and non-local assets for neighborhood improvement, by focusing not on the arts themselves, but the activities that surround them. Based on extensive data collection from ten neighborhoods in Chicago, the report also finds that these arts activities help create social networks, build civic dialogue, and incubate social capital that mobilizes other resources to improve the quality of life.