Arts and Community Development

The Pocantico Center of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund (RBF), in Westchester County, recently announced plans for the creation of the David Rockefeller Creative Arts Center, a public venue that seeks to nurture the arts with performances and exhibits, residencies for artists working across disciplines, and space for school and community programs.

In a recent article that tackles gentrification and creative placemaking, Next City features three programs that, as James A. Anderson writes, activate community networks and help artists and residents lay down economic roots.

South Arts launched a program that seeks to provide significant support to projects that harness the power of “Arts & …”.

In an audio recording from the Haas Institute for Fair and Inclusive Society’s Blueprint for Belonging project, an interview called “The Battle of the Narratives: Organizing for Transformative Change,” shed light on issues facing 21st century social justice movements.

With the goal of helping underserved communities, R&B singer Khalid launched The Great Khalid Foundation, a music and fine arts organization in his hometown of El Paso, Texas, Rolling Stone reported.

In response to the "philanthropic neglect of rural, small city and suburban communities in the region," The Heartland Fund, a donor collaborative housed at the Windward Fund, was launched in 2018 by the Franciscan Sisters of Mercy and the Wallace Global Fund, according to a piece in the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy.

“Imagine a monument for today, for your city, for your community.” That's the question “New Monuments for New Cities,” a public art project, asked local artists when encouraging them to create proposals (in the form of posters) for new monuments. Houston, Austin, Chicago, Toronto, and New York City will produce an exhibition of the resulting 25 artworks specific to their site, as ArtNews reports.

The first annual impact report on the NYC Inclusive Creative Economy Fund, released by LISC NYC, looks at the creative economy as a driver of comprehensive community development.

A column in The New York Times is devoted to those who are combating social isolation, at a local level: community builders, weaving the social fabric.

“Why not put money in the hands of artists to spark projects that would inspire public imagination?”

That's the question the Barr Foundation and the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) asked as the Creative City program began in 2015 and there was a clear interest for more arts in Boston, write in a post San San Wong, director of Barr Foundation's Arts & Creativity and GIA board member, and Cathy Edwards, executive director of New England Foundation for the Arts.