Arts-based Community Research Articles

Tourism, Culture, and the Creative Industries: Reviving Distressed Neighborhoods with Arts-Based Community Tourism

Ample attention is paid to the role of arts and culture in community and economic development. however, much less attention is given to its role at the neighborhood area, as well as relationships to local or community tourism. Our goal in this article is to explore how arts and the creative industries influence community-based tourism in neighborhoods needing revitalization. Using an embedded case study analysis approach, two areas were explored: one in the Roosevelt Arts District in Phoenix, Arizona and the other in the South End Arts + Business District in Burlington, Vermont. We find that arts and creative industries do indeed play a role in fostering neighborhood revitalization. Much of the activity centers on fostering capacity building and social interactions, leading to community development outcomes. In both cases, revitalization is occurring. lessons learned are presented, illustrating the importance of arts and culture in a framework of community-based tourism and revitalization.

Art Spaces in Community and Economic Development: Connections to Neighborhoods, Artists, and the Cultural Economy

There is growing interest in the arts in community and economic development, yet little research examines the dynamics of community-based arts institutions to inform urban planning and policy. Drawing on interviews with participants and organizers of small and midsized art spaces, the study explores the factors that influence their involvement in neighborhood revitalization and outreach, support for artistic communities, and efforts to build bridges to commercial cultural sectors. Art spaces function as a conduit for building social networks that contribute to both community revitalization and artistic development. But issues pertaining to the location, organization, and management of art spaces may limit their community and economic development potential. The article concludes with proposals to craft stronger arts-based community and economic development programs.

‘Living with culture’: creative citizenship practices in Toronto

This paper addresses the contemporary creativity ethos through the lens of citizenship. The paper builds upon governmentality scholarship to examine how creativity and cultural participation are being recast as moral duties of active citizenship. It notes the development of governmental projects that seek to optimize the creative capacities of individuals toward a variety of ends. The paper develops these observations through an examination of cultural planning practices in Toronto. It notes how the city's cultural policies are viewed in increasingly therapeutic terms as technologies of creative citizenship. Emphasis is placed on the proliferation of participatory arts festivals and arts-based community development projects that enlist urban denizens into creative citizenship practices. The paper then explores a paradox at the centre of this emergent regime of creative citizenship. It describes how the creative citizen is construed in cultural planning practice as a heroic agent of innovation and civic renewal, and, at the same time, as an object of continual monitoring, assessment and risk-management.

Common ground: cultural action as a route to community development

AbstractCultural action has been used to promote community development for at least thirty years in the UK, often with good results. During that period, the theories, values, and approaches of professionals have varied and evolved, but there has been a noticeable shift in focus - particularly in cultural policy - from collective to individual outcomes, in line with the growing individualization of policy since the 1980s. Yet the potential of cultural action to bring people together and to build a foundation for lasting community development work remains important. This article considers the processes by which arts-based community projects can lead to the development of both informal and formal collective organization, and their potential in empowerment. Central to this process, it is argued, is culture's focus on people's strengths and interests, rather than on externally defined problems. The paper draws on two contrasting examples to demonstrate the continuing importance of cultural action in very different social and economic situations: the author's research into voluntary arts development in rural England and Wales, and his experience of community cultural projects in south-east Europe.

Artful business: Using the arts for community economic development

Communities across the United States are integrating the arts into their development efforts. Emerging as a viable approach, community development based on the arts is increasingly being recognized as a catalysing force. This article presents a typology of arts-based community development approaches: arts business incubators, artists’ cooperatives, development of tourism venues and comprehensive approaches. Five community vignettes illustrate the different approaches, providing evidence of the effectiveness of arts-based development. Considerations for communities include the need to be flexible and creative in programme implementation, as well as forming a strong basis of support for the arts.