Effective Community Arts Development

Fifty Years, Fifty Tips

Maryo Gard Ewell

In 2006, the Wisconsin Arts Board (WAB) looked back at the five towns that participated in the first "access" grant funded by the National Endowment for the Arts in the late 1960s. This was a seminal rural arts development program managed by the University of Wisconsin's Office of Community Arts Development at the College of Agriculture. The WAB study included interviews with elderly local artists, archival documents, a survey conducted in 1973 and replicated in 20052, and conversations with some of the field's earliest practitioners. A team including one of the original project directors, the interviewer, and six arts administrators articulated 50 "lessons learned" from these sources, which Americans for the Arts now present to you in the attached pdf.

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   Effective Community Arts Development (2.9Mb)

This AFTA Mongraph is made available to Grantmakers in the Arts by special permission from Americans for the Arts, Washington DC. It should not be copied, distributed or sold for any purpose.