I'm on the road in California this week, so posts to the CANblog and APInews will be a little sparse.

Yesterday I attended "Arts, Neighborhood and Social Practice: The Arts and Processes of Urban Community Revitalization and Engagement" at UC Berkeley, a small symposium put together by Shannon Jackson of the Department of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies and Karen Chapple of the Center for Community Innovation. This is a very interesting cross-sector project where two different groups of scholars and practitioners are putting their heads together over cultural community development and real estate (the latter still highly contested in the crowded and high-priced Bay Area).

Highlights included the joint framing presentation by Jackson and Chapple, bringing their scholarly tools to bear on the topic, but watching their language in recognition of the fact that the audience (about 100) came from diverse backgrounds. Those of us in the audience who are familiar with the culture side of things were thankful to Chapple, who introduced us carefully to some complex new urban-planning and revitalization concepts without loading them with jargon. They mapped the idea of the place of artists in neighborhoods using the latest theory and practical knowledge about the way culture works in the city, and I look forward for a lot more from this brain trust.

Another highlight was the twinning of keynotes by Jan Cohen-Cruz and Arlene Goldbard, two of our finest thinkers, teachers and practitioners in community cultural development. Goldbard, among other things, thought deeply about the state of her own community, nearby Richmond, and Cohen-Cruz brought case studies of neighborhood arts projects in New Orleans, the Bronx and her new home, Syracuse, N.Y.

There were also panels featuring some key people in both fields. We particularly appreciated hearing from Kelley Linquist, president of Artspace in Minneapolis, who talked about the astounding accomplishments of this developer of affordable, sustainable live-work space for artists in large cities and small towns nationwide. The slide show was inspiring, and he included lots of info about how they work with the neighborhoods around their buildings, and how those neighborhoods change after the artists move in. We were also delighted to hear from the younger generation of artists doing cultural development in their own neighborhoods, in the person of cultural anthropologist Elena Serrano from the EastSide Alliance in Oakland, a coalition of young creatives who are deeply committed to bettering their neighborhood by building a permanent cultural community center for everybody to use. Some of the older grey heads in the audience were nodding with satisfaction and relief that this work is still going and and growing in energy, heart and sophistication.

I'll try to stay up with this UC Berkeley project and let you know what happens. I have a feeling it's not going to be just talk.

Thanks to Lynne Elizabeth, New Village Press, for the great bed and breakfast.

Center for Community Innovation
Department of Theater, Dance and Performance Studies

   

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