Participatory Budgeting begins in NYC

Posted on September 28, 2011 by

Participatory budgeting (PB) is coming to four districts in New York City. The Arts & Democracy Project has been collaborating with NY City Councilmember Brad Lander, Community Voices Heard, Participatory Budgeting Project, and the Center for Urban Pedagogy to make sure that this project engages the full creativity of our communities.

Over the next several months, budgeting decisions will be put directly in the hands of the people those decisions will impact most, the people who live in the neighborhood. Residents will come together, exchange and debate ideas, work together to turn ideas into project proposals, and then decide what ideas get funded at the ballot box. At stake is $1 million in capital funding per district (the part of the budget that is used to repair streets, improve parks, buy school technology, or build bike lanes).

Participatory budgeting has been done around the world, but this is only the second time in the US. We are working to get arts and culture involved right from the start for this pilot project, which will be modeled in years to come. This includes having the arts community come to the neighborhood assemblies, help facilitate them, and spreading the word to their audiences and partners. It also includes an online video project. Later in October we will issue a call for short videos (up to 3 minutes) to be loaded up to YouTube as another creative way for people to share their ideas.

The dates and locations for the neighborhood meetings in the 39th district of Brooklyn are:
• October 5th: Old First Reformed Church, 729 Carroll Street, 6:30 PM
• October 13th: PS 154, 1625 11th Avenue, 6:30 PM
• October 17th: PS 230 Cafeteria, 1 Albemarle Road, 6:30 PM
• October 20th: PS 58, 330 Smith Street, 6:30 PM
• October 26th: Beth Jacob Child Care Center, 1363 46th Street, 6:30 PM

Dates for the other three district assemblies, and more information on the process can be found at www.pbnyc.org

Also see this New York Times article about the process and this video of what participatory budgeting looked like in Chicago.

Posted in Arts & Equitable Delopment | Leave a comment

New Bridge Conversations book

Posted on September 28, 2011 by


We are happy to announce the new Arts & Democracy publication: Bridge Conversations: People Who Live and Work in Multiple Worlds.

Collected here are stories about the powerful change that results from the intersections between generations, cultures, sectors, and geographies. It is about the people who make these intersections happen: strategic artists and creative organizers, activist anthropologists and poetic politicians, loving family members. All are engaged in the deeply creative act of believing that something else is possible.

When the Art & Democracy Project first got started we talked to artists and activists across the country about their work for social justice and what was needed for it to succeed. We wanted to identify the values and the vision for organizing that is facilitative and transformative. We asked a diverse group of bridge people to talk with one another. We weren’t sure if anyone would respond; after all, we had asked some of the busiest people we know. To our surprise, everyone we asked agreed, and others, learning about the project, wanted to be included. These conversations gave a group of action-oriented people a moment to take a breath and reflect with someone they admired.

Copies of the book can be ordered at info@artsanddemocracy.org with a suggested contribution of $10. The book is also available as a pdf at www.artsanddemocracy.org

Bridge book design by Kristin Reed

Posted in Books and Reports | Leave a comment

Neighborhood Cultural Districts Launch City-Wide Alliance

Posted on August 20, 2011 by

NOCD - NY Launch at Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center 8/18/11

The Naturally Occurring Cultural District Working Group (NOCD-NY) joined with cultural and community leaders and elected officials from across the city to launch a citywide alliance to revitalize New York from the neighborhood up.  The Rockefeller Foundation recently announced that the Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center, on behalf of the Working Group, was chosen from nearly 400 applicants as one of the 16 winners of their annual NYC Cultural Innovation Fund competition.

NOCD-NY brings together a unique alliance of artists, activists, creative manufacturers and policymakers around the idea of Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts, recognizing the vital cultural, social and economic contributions of these community-initiated cultural clusters.  Working Group members include Arts + Community Change Initiative, Bronx Council on the Arts, El Museo del Barrio, El Puente, Fourth Arts Block, Greenpoint Manufacturing and Design Center, NY Chinatown History Project, The Point, and the Queens Museum of Art.

To address the lack of policy tools and support mechanisms for this powerful neighborhood-based work, NOCD-NY is strengthening practice through capacity building and collaborative programs, raising visibility and articulating the value of NOCDs, carrying out collaborative research, and developing policy recommendations.

Said Rockefeller Foundation Associate Director, Edwin Torres, “We are excited to support the Naturally-Occurring Cultural Districts in breaking down silos between cultural activity and other activities that engender community resilience.   We’ve all seen the role that cultural activity can play in an area’s economic health.  This project highlights the role of cultural expression that is indigenous to an area, highlights the voices of those that have on-the-ground expertise, ensuring that economic growth is culturally equitable.  Naturally-Occurring Cultural Districts can be a model ripe for replication nationally.”

New York City Councilmembers added their congratulations:

Said Jimmy Van Bramer: “I am happy to congratulate my colleagues and fellow arts supporters in the Naturally Occurring Cultural District Working Group in kicking off the city-wide effort to support and encourage organically created cultural districts. This working group will help bring focus to an important aspect of cultural development in New York City. It will also help to provide an inclusive and holistic view of sustainable communities that include arts, small business and creative manufacturing.

As Chair of the Cultural Affairs Committee of the New York City Council, I believe that working with community and business leaders to strengthen the creation and continuation of artistic communities throughout New York is essential in maintaining the thriving artistic communities of the City.”

Said Brad Lander: “The unique cultural life of neighborhoods creates the diverse and dynamic mosaic that is New York City. I’m impressed with the work that the Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts coalition has done so far, and I know they’ll do great things in the future to strengthen cultural vitality, diversity, and opportunity in our city.”

Initiated in 2007, the New York City Cultural Innovation Fund awards two-year grants, ranging from $50,000 to $250,000, for groundbreaking initiatives that enrich the City’s cultural life and help to ensure the continued economic strength and diversity of the City’s creative sector.

Posted in Arts & Equitable Delopment, Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts | Leave a comment

Urban Omnibus Article on Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts

Posted on August 20, 2011 by

Urban Omnibus interview by Cassim Shepard.

A few months back, Interboro introduced us to the concept of the NORC, or naturally occurring retirement community. This got us wondering, what other kinds of uses tend to cluster, all on their own, in certain areas? Below, Tamara Greenfield, executive director of Fourth Arts Block (FAB), and Caron Atlas, a cultural organizer with the Arts + Community Change Initiative, share their thoughts on how better understanding of Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts, or NOCDs, can help inform a more holistic approach to cultural policy.

Few would argue with the notion that a robust cultural life is good for cities as well as neighborhoods. But how best to support it — through investments, incentives, philanthropy and public policy – is up for debate. Create new institutions and venues? Fund specific artists or projects? Incentivize cultural groups to move into your development or neighborhood from outside? Or learn from those examples where cultural opportunities emerged from the ground up?…To that end, FAB and Arts + Community Change have convened a series of roundtables in New York City with arts leaders, policy makers, and academics to develop a definition, identify support strategies, share effective case studies and initiate a working group that will continue advocating for policies to support existing NOCDs, while offering technical assistance to nascent organizing efforts in New York City. Read more about their initial findings in the interview below, and, while you’re at it, get a history lesson on one of New York’s most storied blocks. -C.S.

Click here for full article.

Posted in Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts | Leave a comment

Arts & Equitable Development Call and Newsletter

Posted on March 29, 2011 by

Arts and Equitable Development is taking place in Brooklyn; Skid Row, Los Angeles; Harlan County, KY; and beyond. In November 2010 Arts + Community Change Initiative joined with the Arts & Democracy Project to host a call about Arts & Equitable Development.  The call featured featured presentations by Higher Ground, Los Angeles Poverty Department, Housing is a Human Right, Laundromat Project, and Leveraging Investments in Creativity (LINC). Check out this great conversation here.

We followed up on the call with a newsletter full of great resources.  You can find this newsletter here.

Posted in Arts & Equitable Delopment, Newsletter | Leave a comment

Taking Over and Talking Back: Theater as a Forum on Gentrification

Posted on March 29, 2011 by

Taking Over and Talking Back: Theater as a Forum on Gentrification is an article by Caron Atlas about the community conversations following Danny Hoch’s performances of Taking Over in New York City neighborhoods. In Williamsburg, Brooklyn, an audience of 1000 people engaged in a call and response with Danny throughout the show and afterwards told their own stories of displacement. A longtime resident of Williamsburg’s Latino community said, “We fought poverty, violence and blight, and we made the Southside a better place to live. We are now strangers in our own neighborhood, and it’s painful.” The community dialogues were a collaboration between Danny Hoch, the Hip Hop Theater Festival, the Arts + Community Change Initiative and parters in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx.  The article is part of Community Arts Perspectives, the publication of the Community Arts Convening and Research Project.

Posted in Arts & Equitable Delopment | Leave a comment

New York City Naturally Occurring Cultural District Roundtable Report

Posted on March 29, 2011 by

We are please to post the Naturally Occurring Cultural District Roundtable Report.

Click here for report.

On August 12, 2010, arts leaders, policymakers, funders, and researchers met for a cross-sector roundtable discussion on “Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts”, co-sponsored by the Arts + Community Change Initiative and Fourth Arts Block and hosted by The J.M. Kaplan Fund. Highlighting exemplary practices from across New York City, this forum aimed to develop policy recommendations and implementation strategies to support these districts. The conversation was grounded in values of equity, inclusion and recognition of the integral role of arts and culture in communities.

 

Posted in Arts & Equitable Delopment, Books and Reports, Naturally Occurring Cultural Districts | Leave a comment