Community Arts Perspectives: An Editorial
Introducing the online publication of the Community Arts Convening and Research Project. By Amalia Mesa-Bains

[classified]: stories that catalyze dialogue about diversity
Four Virginia Tech students bridge the gap between university policy and individual experience. By Laura Agnich, Kimberly Baker, Megan Carney and Shannon Turner

Between Grace and Fear: The Role of the Arts in a Time of Change
Creative thinkers talk about a major shift in worldview. By William Cleveland and Patricia Shifferd

Framework for Understanding Ruby Payne
Teaching art students to apply a theory about poverty to their internships in Baltimore’s public schools. By E. Blaise DePaolo

Finding Multiple Truths in Challenging Times
Liz Lerman Dance Exchange partners with science in a trans-domain process with many outcomes. By Jane Hirshberg

Structuring a Catalytic Arts Education Program: The Saturday Program at Cooper Union
Student teachers run a powerful community program for teens in New York, founded by undergraduates in the 1960s. By Karma Mayet Johnson

A New Day in the Academy
What happens when discussions about privilege, power and difference butt up against the entrenched conservatism of the academy and establishment art? By Ken Krafchek

Creating a Model for Institutional and Personal Change with Music Theatre Workshop
Collaborative playwriting helps incarcerated girls in Chicago heal from abuse. By Meade Palidofsky

Viewpoint: Community Collaborative Arts
Community art is an edgy collective experience with aesthetic qualities of its own. By Johanna Poethig

Interposing on the Collective Culture through the Arts: A Case Study of One University Course
What if artists merged discussions about formal aesthetics and the elements and principles of art/design with discussions about moral growth and public good? By Rachel Marie-Crane Williams

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ISSN#: Pending
Copyright: Art in the Public Interest unless otherwise noted; all other publication rights revert to the author(s) thereof.
Opinions expressed by authors of Community Arts Perspectives authors do not necessarily express those of the editors, Maryland Institute College of Art or Art in the Public Interest.
Submissions for further volumes of Community Arts Perspectives will be requested in summer 2008. Guidelines will be available at that time.
Citations : Please cite essays in Community Arts Perspectives in this way:
Author last name, first name. "Article Title." Community Arts Perspectives: A Publication of the Community Arts Convening and Research Project. Pub. Community Arts Network and Maryland Institute College of Art. Volume.number (Year). Day Month Year you accessed it, plus URL.
Example:
Doe, Jane. "Teaching Dance in Prison." Community Arts Perspectives: A Publication of the Community Arts Convening and Research Project. Community Arts Network and Maryland Institute College of Art. 1.1 (2008). 8 June 2008 <URL>.

Further information about The Community Arts Covening and Research Project (http://www.mica.edu/communityartsconvening)

Advisory Committee
The full Advisory Committee of the Community Arts Convening and Research Project includes the Editorial Board Members, above, and Jan Cohen-Cruz, Imagining America/Syracuse University; John Giordano, Massachusetts College of Art; Robert Leonard, Virginia Tech; Ian Watson, Rutgers University; Marianne Petit, New York University.

Funder, Sponsor and Project History

The Nathan Cummings Foundation (NCF) has provided funding to support the Community Arts Convening & Research Project, making possible a national convening, research and publication of research and writing arising from the project concerning the work of the universities with degree-granting programs in arts and community building.

For more than five years, NCF’s Art and Culture Program has supported universities that are teaching their students how to use art as a tool for community organizing. Each year, the number of universities creating these programs has grown, and in the spirit of community-based work, these universities have shared curriculum, they have partnered on grants, and five of them published a casebook. In 2006, NCF grantees convened in New Orleans and developed a strategy for strengthening the community arts program at Xavier University in New Orleans—recommendations that are being implemented this year. Additionally, universities from across the county convened at California College of the Arts in November of 2006.

The 2008 meeting at Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA) enabled faculty, students and community members to generate new ideas, solve problems, share practices and identify new research questions.

Maryland Institute College of Art has a long history of creative community engagement and is dedicated to the development and advancement of community arts models at several levels. Through its Master of Arts in Community Arts (MACA), under the umbrella of the College’s nationalCenter for Arts Education, MICA prepares graduate-level students in the art of building community through collaboration in the arts.  The Community Art Corps (CAC), an AmeriCorps program, works with a cadre of MACA students and other artists in intensive yearlong placements with nonprofit organizations in Baltimore, creating, supporting and sustaining community arts efforts, projects and programs. Since 1998, through the nationally renowned Community Arts Partnership program (CAP), MICA has supported ongoing community-based art projects that enrich the lives of children and families, unify and strengthen neighborhoods, and provide valuable professional development and social engagement experiences for MICA students. Through MICA’s graphic design, environmental design, illustration, and fine arts departments, students and faculty engage in real-world projects in collaboration with communities that focus on public health education, urban development, historic preservation, and empowering Baltimore communities and the surrounding region.