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THE COMMUNITY PROJECTS
Each of the Spirit communities is different: some are in the midst of
painful, difficult-to-understand changes, some are releasing a previous way
of life.
The Spirit communities are similar: many have lost their logging industry,
all struggle to support over-extended volunteer leadership.
The Spirit communities' stories are described here in brief. A standard
format is used for each, to help readers compare the communities' differences
and commonalities. At the end of this section, Key Learnings synthesize the
six communities' experiences.
For each community, Background focuses especially on the parts of the
community's story that relate to the present day's "community identity". Impacts
are a relatively subjective synthesis of research, collected
documentation, formal and informal interviews. However, description of the impacts
is grounded in the selection of facts provided by each community in their original
project application and ongoing project reports.
The Project Team and Partners describes both formal and informal working
groups and relationships.
Key Learnings express opinions garnered through on-site individual
and group interviews with project teams, project leaders and key community leaders.
Project Purpose is as stated in project application, or as revised.
Project Outputs reflect information collected from the community final
reports.
Project Process describes key events of the project history as documented
in e-mails, group interviews, reports and conferences.
From the original application to the National Endowment
for the Arts…
"What is Loss of Community Identity?
A community loses its identity when it loses track
of what makes it unique and, as a result, begins to disregard the community
values that have held it together in the past. The community, then begins
to disintegrate, as evidenced by out-migration or growth management problems,
cross-cultural misunderstandings, natural resource use conflicts, and
limited leadership capacity, as well as by racism, drug use, and youth
and domestic violence. The Northwest has been featured in national news
recently through accounts of whole industry shifts due to mine or mill
closures, the change of an agricultural economy from family farms to agri-business,
conflicts over environmental issues such as the spotted owl and the salmon,
the incidence of hate-groups within the region, and even more recent accounts
of fires and flooding that have devastated whole communities. Additionally,
local news stations have covered stories of racial tensions between Indian
reservations and nearby communities that have escalated into violence."
Can the Arts Help?
"…Art and culture can be powerful problem
solving tools.… When used in tandem with more conventional problem
solving tactics, arts and culture can become significant vehicles for
building leadership, communications, and participation. Arts and culture
are effective because they help address some of the less cut-and-dried
issues that nonetheless color our ability to attack the causes of intolerance,
community deterioration, youth at risk and other social concerns."
Kathy Booth, Culture Building Communities:
A Guide to Partnership Building and Putting Culture to Work on Social
Issues, published by Partners for Livable Communities.
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The Spirit of the Northwest is a regional partnership project
of the Idaho Commission on the Arts, the Oregon Arts Commission and the Washington
State Arts Commission, funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts,
a federal Agency. It is made available on the Web as a courtesy by the Community
Arts Network. Questions or comments regarding this project can be addressed
to Bitsy Bidwell, Community Arts Development Manager, Washington State Arts
Commission, P.O. Box 42675, Olympia, WA, 98504-2675, (360) 586-2421 or email
bitsyb@arts.wa.gov.
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