Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation

You’ve heard from Leo Vazquez from Rutgers University’s Arts Build Communities when he blogged about the New Jersey Creative Vitality Index and looked to the environmental movement for lessons about advancing the arts in New Jersey. Today, he shares some important lessons in engaging stakeholders in building creative communities.

Building creative communities?
It’s more about the connections than the art

By Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP
Arts Build Communities

Creative communities tend to be picturesque. We see images of galleries, street performers, and children doing art. What we see is usually built on a foundation of collaborations among artists, cultural professionals, businesspeople, and elected officials and their advisors.

Two recent reports talk about how to build these connections: Creative Placemaking, by the National Endowment for the Arts, and The Arts Ripple Effect by the Fine Arts Fund.

Both reports come to the same conclusions: It’s not enough to talk about how special the arts are; you have to connect with your audiences to show how the arts can add value to the things they care about. That means first you have to understand what your audiences care about most and then show how the arts can give audiences more of what they want. In some, if not most, cases, it also means creative people showing themselves to be good, caring neighbors. This is also what Arts Build Communities learned when it interviewed more than 40 cultural, community and economic development professionals throughout New Jersey.

Imagine dozens of people painting on a moving canvas with paints that fade, glow and blend in ways that you can’t predict. That’s why creative community building is so difficult. But it is easier with stronger connections among artists, public officials, civic leaders, businesspeople, and communities.

The first step many creative professionals use is the “pretty pictures/big numbers approach.” This involves showing inspiring images (at least one of which has kids doing something adorable) from creative communities and talking about the millions of dollars and thousands of jobs generated by the arts in their state. And some of these artists and professionals have been frustrated when their audiences nodded politely – and that was it.

It’s not hard to convince audiences that the arts are good. The challenge is in getting others to believe that the arts are good for them (or what they care about) and getting them to act on those beliefs. For example, it’s not enough to say that the arts benefit the economy. Public officials and business leaders want to know if the arts are a safer and better investment than something else.

Creative professionals could be more successful by speaking to the practical challenges of community and economic development. This means more than throwing out terms like “sustainable” and “workforce development.” It is about understanding the challenges of trying to balance the interests of diverse and competing communities, businesses, and those of future generations.

And building a creative community requires a different approach than most artists take in creating their art. Usually in creating an art work, the artist has a clear vision, develops it – sometimes with helpers – then tries to sell the vision. Most painters don’t expect their buyers to change the colors or add new figures.

The creative community builder tends to share, rather than sell, a vision for a better and more creative place. The vision – like the place – gets built by many people. How much effort and resources they put in depends a lot on how much the vision affects the things and people they value. As people and places change over time, creative community builders have to be more alert, connected and adaptable.

One of the best guides on this subject is The Creative Community Builder’s Handbook, by cultural planning consultant Tom Borrup. (Full disclosure: Arts Build Communities is working with Tom Borrup on two of its classes and is planning to work with him on at least two creative placemaking projects.)

Arts Build Communities offers several courses and events to help creative community builders and creative placemakers. Building Creative Communities is part of a series of online classes in creative placemaking. Designed by Leonardo Vazquez and Tom Borrup, the class runs from January 19 to February 26. On February 11, there is the ABC Cultural Planning Leadership Conference. It focuses on building, growing and sustaining creative communities.

Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP, directs Arts Build Communities at Rutgers University’s Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. Arts Build Communities supports local officials, civic leaders and arts professionals seeking to build more sustainable and prosperous communities in New Jersey through the arts. ABC helps leaders make more informed decisions through practical research, continuing education, and technical assistance; and by connecting leaders to other resources they need to make better decisions.

Michelle Knapik, Environment Program Director

Paterson has an extraordinary history as the first planned industrial city and as an immigrant stronghold. The Hamilton Partnership for Paterson is a new nonprofit with a vision and plan to thread Paterson’s past success with its current and future revival, and the Great Falls once again figures prominently in the story. You may also know that the Hamilton in the Partnership’s name refers to one of our nation’s founding fathers, Alexander Hamilton, who was also the architect, economist, and driver of Paterson’s rise as an industrial giant (click here for information about Hamilton’s “Society for Establishing Useful Manufactures”).

A team of Dodge staff and trustees recently had an opportunity to tour the Great Falls area – now the heart of the Paterson Great Falls National Historical Park (as designated by President Obama on March 30, 2009). Our guides, Leonard Zax, Executive Director of the Partnership, and Bill Bolger, National Park Project Manager, brought to life a planned project called “the Mill Mile.” The Mill Mile will involve “a series of walking tours and educational materials that will be an integral part of America’s newest National Park. Mill Mile will engage Paterson residents and visitors through history, art, literature, and environmental education.”

Our tour started at the Paterson Museum, which provides tributes to Paterson’s industry pioneers and visionaries.

We then walked up the block to the top of the falls – here the original 1913 hydroelectric power plant, back in operation since the 80’s, is generating clean energy for more than 11,000 homes, with strategies in development for ways to boost energy production. In Hamilton’s time, Paterson was the first urban center to harness clean hydro power through its “raceway system” that diverted water from the falls to power the mills. History buffs will tell you that Paterson was known as Silk City, and equally well known for operations related to early steam locomotive production, gun production (Colt Revolver), and submarine and airplane engine production.

Paterson also offers surprising “wilds” amidst its industrial relics. The area around the Falls provides exquisite vistas and anyone with a penchant for archeology will appreciate the imposing basalt rock substrate that underlies and surrounds the falls.

Unlike the eroding rock at Niagara Falls, this glacial remnant is not in retreat mode.  I only know this because Bill Bolger went way beyond NPS project manager role to act as naturalist, environmental and educational interpreter, historian, archeologist, and artist during our tour!  The National Park is comprised of 35 acres along the Passaic River and the Falls, and I have no doubt that there is inspired leadership behind the NPS planning process. The land use and educational programming promises to be groundbreaking – and to serve as a model for urban parks across the country. Imagine the trail system that will retrace and reclaim historical events such as the area at the top of the Falls where George Washington picnicked with dignitaries, then wind around to Hinchliffe Stadium, which was home to the New York Black Yankees and New York Cubans of the Negro Baseball League.

Land around the Falls is considered prime real estate, and Leonard tells us that it is attracting high quality and high integrity developers. In the name of sustainable redevelopment, and as a way to right the industrial pollution wrongs of the past, stakeholders are looking for ways that green industry can be a part of Paterson’s future, along with eco, cultural and heritage tourism.  Picture the raceway system with water rushing over the latest micro-hydro power technologies. Mix this with historic preservation plans and rehab projects that keep reuse in mind, consider new opportunities for brownfield development, preserve the ruins of our industrial history, and create space for interpretive public art.

Our walk through town and through history was punctuated by our awe of the engineering and design innovations of the time: the early use of renewable energy, and the diversity of the people past and present, which is part of Paterson’s strength. The key to success will be revitalization efforts that strategically integrate opportunities related to the economy, the environment, and equity/fairness. A positive sign in this regard is the news that Paterson recently enrolled in the Sustainable Jersey program. In addition, many revitalization efforts are being led by strong nonprofits. Dodge is encourage by the work of some key players including City Green (community and school gardening and urban farming), the New Jersey Community Development Corporation (see efforts related to the Great Falls Youth Corps and the NEA (Arts & Creative Revitalization Initiative), Paterson Habitat for Humanity (green arts & community initiative), the Paterson Education Fund (Learn and Serve Environmental Science Program), the Passaic River Coalition (PRC leads on land trust matters in Paterson), and now the Hamilton Partnership for Paterson.  The full revitalization of Paterson will take some time, and stakeholders will need to collaborate and leverage all available public and private resources, but the Great Falls is already powering hope, action and a good deal of momentum toward a sustainable, thriving Paterson.

What’s your favorite historical fact about Paterson? And what is your vision of Paterson’s tomorrow?

The staff at the Dodge Foundation often challenges itself and our arts, environment and education grantees to think about the intersection of sustainability and creativity in our work. Leonardo Vazquez from Rutgers University’s Arts Build Communities makes this contemplation his daily work. He works to help community and cultural leaders make better choices in connecting the arts and community and economic development. ABC conducts practical research – most notably through the New Jersey Creative Vitality Index – provides technical assistance, and offers high quality continuing education. We hope you will share your ideas on how to better communicate the public value of the arts.

By Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP, Arts Build Communities

If you’re struggling to get more support in your community for arts, take a walk in the woods or go to your local farmer’s market.

Cultural organizations and their supporters throughout New Jersey work hard to show that art is more than decoration or entertainment for elites – it makes important contributions to the health and wealth of all communities. Environmental advocates have also worked hard to make their pitch for a greener planet – and have had the kind of success most politicians could only dream about. Over the past 15 years, the vast majority of efforts to support open space got passed by voters¹. In at least 218 of New Jersey’s 566 municipalities, residents passed bond or spending measures to preserve open space and farmland.

There are three keys to the success of the open space/farmland preservation movement: The movement connects to what many voters value most; people see and feel real benefits to themselves (think farmer’s markets); and there are a number of advocacy groups that work from the national to the community level to promote environmental protection.

You can tell what people value most by what they are willing to give up or spend more to get. In most of New Jersey, residents are willing to give up what large cities offer – a wide array of public transit, the ability to walk to shopping or entertainment – for more space in their homes and green space outside. For some residents, protecting farms feels like protecting your heritage – or at least the myth that their community could be a Norman Rockwell-type town nestled in Americana. Another desire is preserving and “protecting” a place from outsiders². (Consider that in New Jersey, open space initiatives tend to be more successful in places that are fast growing and have a high percentage of homeowners.)

One of the biggest challenges to getting support from community members is answering the question: “What’s in it for me?” The open space movement excels at this. When people see the green “Preserved Farmland” sign that seems to stop a subdivision in its tracks, walk through the woods, or buy a plump Jersey tomato at a farmer’s market, they can see, feel, and touch the benefits.

What can artists and leaders learn from the environmental movement?

1. Connect the arts to what your audiences value most. Watch and listen before you advocate. What do they spend money on, even in a tough economy? What do they worry about? What do they hope for themselves and their families? Arts Build Communities interviewed dozens of cultural professionals who were successful in their communities and what we found could help you. Please see “Building communities that support and nurture the arts: What works best?”

2. Show influential people how arts and artists help make their communities better places to live. Encourage them to go to your opening or show. Promote public art. Connect to and support the groups that leaders belong to. Lend a hand. Tell the story (or draw the picture) of how the arts connects to more vibrant and prosperous communities. To get more tips, please visit Arts Build Communities blog NJ-ArtiFacts or its sister publication, PDI Advisor

3. Connect to the advocacy organizations working from the national to the local levels. Americans for the Arts is perhaps the biggest arts advocacy group in the nation. ArtPride New Jersey works to promote the arts around the state, and has a number of resources to help you make your pitch. (Full disclosure: ArtPride is a partner in Arts Build Communities.) If your community has an arts council, get to know the people there. If not, think about collaborating with your neighbors and fellow artists to create your own group.

Above all else, remember that it takes time to change beliefs and behaviors. Even though the environmental movement is quite successful today, it took decades for it to bloom.

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¹ In their article, “Selection and Design of Local Referenda for Land Conservation,” Spencer Banzhaf and his colleagues say that between 1998 and 2006, more than 75% of 1,550 ballot initiatives supporting open space passed. The article was published online in Journal of Policy Analysis and Management this month.

² This idea was explored by Stephan Schmidt and Kurt Paulsen in their study of open space voting patterns in New Jersey. To find out more, please see “Is Open Space Zoning a Form of Exclusionary Zoning?” Urban Affairs Review, September 2009.

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Leonardo Vazquez, AICP/PP, is the Director of the Professional Development Institute and The Leading Institute at Rutgers University’s Edward J. Bloustein School of Planning and Public Policy. He is an urban planner and leadership expert who specializes in cultural planning, community and local economic development, leadership and organizational development and strategic communications. He is a licensed planner in New Jersey and a member of the American Institute of Certified Planners. He is the author of Leading from the Middle: Strategic Thinking for Urban Planning and Community Development Professionals and edits two online publications, NJ-ArtiFacts and PDI Advisor. Recently, Arts Build Communities and the Bloustein Online Continuing Education Program launched a Professional Certificate Program in Cultural Planning and Development. Learn more about the certificate program and Deep Learning courses.

Images:
Jersey tomatoes: Molly de Aguiar/Geraldine R. Dodge Foundation
New Jersey Keep It Green campaign banner
Preserved farmland sign: Hillsborough Township, NJ
Gallery: Arts Build Communities
ArtPride NJ Logo

Molly de Aguiar, Program Associate

Seed bomb by Heavy Petal

If you’re not familiar with them, seed bombs are small balls – a mixture of clay, compost and seeds – that you can toss onto an empty lot or a neglected patch of ground to help green your community. The clay and compost protect the seeds from drying out in the sun (which makes seed bombs especially useful in dry/arid areas) or getting eaten by birds. When enough rain has permeated the ball, the seeds will begin to sprout, nourished by the compost mixture.

There are several varieties and creative shapes of seed bombs (see Guerrilla Gardening’s Seed Bomb Guide for examples and instructions), and you can make them, or buy them (here and here)

But what do seed bombs have to do with gumball machines?

The duo of Daniel Phillips and Kim Karlsrud of Common Studio created Greenaid, a project that cleverly repurposes old gumball vending machines to sell seed bombs.

Common Studios: Green Aid from ISHOTHIM on Vimeo.

You can purchase a machine (or several machines) directly from Common Studio, and they will work with you to develop a seed mix that’s appropriate for your location as well as a strategy for using the seed bomb machine effectively.

They are already in place in San Francisco, Chicago and Los Angeles—but wouldn’t it be great to see them in Newark, Trenton, Camden and other urban locations across New Jersey?

Molly de Aguiar, Program Associate

If you’re not familiar with GOOD (the magazine, the website, their events & videos), they are worth checking out. They show us how to collaborate – individuals, businesses and nonprofits – and move forward on a wide range of issues, and they are, for me, a really interesting example of building community and nurturing creativity through the internet.

They routinely give out assignments, such as “Help Us Create ‘Neighbor Day’” and “Design an Everyday Solution to an Extraordinary Problem” inviting anyone and everyone to participate. One of their most recent assignments was to design a way to give easier access to healthy, fresh food to people who receive government assistance. The winner of the Food Stamps and Farmers’ Market assignment shows us how this is already being done in Santa Monica, CA – useful, practical information for anyone else who might be working on these same issues.

I am also a fan of GOOD’s infographics, which are always fascinating.

Lately, I’ve been reading their feature on neighborhoods: what makes for a nice neighborhood? (See also Nate Silver‘s really interesting article, “The Most Livable Neighborhoods in New York“  in New York Magazine and his methodology for ranking them).

Also, how do you make your neighborhood better? As we continue to improve and expand Sustainable Jersey, these questions about improving our neighborhoods and communities are essential.

GOOD offers a lot of advice that may seem basic, but sometimes we need to be reminded to be good regulars at our local businesses, to throw an occasional block party, and to  get to know our neighbors. You can find their neighborhood issue here, which they will be updating until they’ve posted all of their articles. Given our work around healthy regional food systems, the article “Agriculture is the New Golf” is especially interesting.

You can also find GOOD on Facebook and on Twitter, where they ask a daily question (e.g., “Who or what inspires you?”), and it’s interesting to read people’s responses.

Do you like the neighborhood you live in? What would make it better – and what can you do to make it better?

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Tickets for the 2010 Geraldine R. Dodge Poetry Festival go on sale through the NJPAC box office on Friday, April 23 at 10 am.