Arts & Culture

Bridge Builders Award (St. Louis, MO)

Richard D. Baron, Co-Founder and CEO, McCormack Baron Salazar, Inc. and Stephanie Riven, Executive Director, Center for Contemporary Arts for their efforts towards creating The Center for Contemporary Arts, which has become an exemplary site for affordable arts and education programs for youth and family in the St. Louis community. Special recognition will be extended to Mr. Baron for his 30-year commitment towards using culture and heritage as a bridge for community improvement in residential and commercial development of mixed income neighborhoods.

Bridge Builders Award (Charlotte, NC)

Kenneth D. Lewis, President and CEO, Bank of America, Robert Cannon, Executive Director, Public Library of Charlotte/Mecklenburg County and Bruce LaRowe, Executive Director, Children’s Theater of Charlotte for their visionary leadership and initiative in creating ImaginOn-The Joe and Joan Martin Center a joint venture between a library, children’s theatre, and progressive chairman. Through innovative programs using the written, spoken and electronic word, ImaginOn will be an interactive learning environment for young people and their families in the greater Charlotte area.

Bridge Builders Award

Raymond R. Christman, President, Federal Home Loan Bank of Atlanta and M. Craig Pascal, Vice President, Community Development Specialist, Washington, DC branch of BB&T of NC, for their understanding of the value of culture-based community development and their dedication towards creating opportunities for them to exist and thrive in the Washington, DC region through the successful EDGE Program which has benefited such organizations as The Dance Institute of Washington and Joe’s Community Arts Organization in Mt Rainier, Maryland.

What can you do to improve your community? There are many directions one can take but often times it requires a bit of foresight and planning. For many older adults, something as enjoyable and simple as volunteering can be a perfect use of time, but for many the willingness to volunteer can be met with physical and economic hurdles. Realizing there is much potential in their community members, the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center of Florida utilized an  Aging in Place Initiative “Jumpstart the Conversation" Grant to engage more older adults in the local arts and culture community.

Founders Award for Civic Leadership

For his contributions to the Baltimore community through his leadership at MICA and local organizations involved in the arts.

Entrepreneurial American Leadership Award

For her extensive career in the preservation and promotion of local arts, culture, and heritage for our diverse American population.

Lyz Crane draws on the work of practitioners and researchers to characterize the field of arts-based community development in which arts and culture can help achieve place based change related to the physical, social, and economic dimensions of place. This paper examines the premise that the existence of arts is considered a powerful end in itself, Crane then outlines the variety of ways that the actors and activities involved in arts and community development work can relate to and interact with each other to create sustainable communities.  Looking at the cultural ecology of place, creative economy development focuses on fostering local creative businesses and supporting creative workers both in the arts and in supporting industries while cultural development may focus on preserving cultural assets—traditions, language, stories—or on building on them to create stronger, more connected communities.  There is also a complex community development ecosystem of organizations, interests, and tools. Stakeholders may involve arts in their agendas, create arts programming, provide or develop arts spaces, employ artists, and/or partner with arts organizations. Indeed, both the arts and community development are part of the same ecosystem and all of these interactions fall into the category of arts and community development.

Crane places different types of intersections on a passive-active continuum of presence, participation, and application. Prominent nodes of intersection between the arts and community development are identified: animating public spaces; activating public spaces; serving as an anchor or focal point; and serving as a planning engagement tool.  Crane points out that, in terms of outcomes, there may not be much difference between an arts organization with a community-based program and a community organization with an arts-based program.  Oftentimes, the choice of language has to do with their founders or how they are being funded. The difference in effectiveness between these two methods and even a third that is an equal arts organization–community organization partnership is only recently beginning to be explored.

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Quarter Century of Service Award

For their role in transforming Richmond into a vibrant city with arts, culture, housing, nature, and historic offerings.

Oakland, CA

A Senior Theatre Company that uses theatre and storytelling to bridge generation gaps and break down stereotypes about aging.

In early 2011, the Jamaica Youth Initiative—a working group of governmental, nonprofit and private institutions in a bustling neighborhood in Southern Queens—convened to discuss an important matter affecting their community: disengaged and idle youth. At the end of every school day, thousands of youth crowd the streets of downtown Jamaica, where after school activities are in demand. Partners for Livable Communities (Partners) views this demand as a rare opportunity to focus positive attention on the assets available to and within this youth population. With support from the Hearst Foundation, Partners  is currently collaborating the Youth Initiative, the Greater Jamaica Development Corporation, and the Cultural Development Corporation to develop a framework of goals and recommendations that will expand arts-based after school opportunities. Ultimately, the goal is to provide programming that will enrich the lives of these youth, provide them with meaningful experiences, and assist them in obtaining employment.