The Creative Communities’ strategy is an innovative
piece of the partnership mosaic required to adequately address the needs
of young people. On the local level, community schools of the arts and their housing partners are collaborating with:
On the national level, the National Guild of Community Schools of the Arts, is working with the following partners to manifest the Creative Communities vision:
National Endowment for the Arts (NEA): As
major partner, NEA has invested $500,000 to support the Creative Communities
Initiative over the initial three-year grant period and is responsible
for the administering the grant contracts for the 20 community schools
of the arts. Creative Communities is the inaugural program NEA’s
Leadership America Initiative. www.arts.endow.gov.
U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD):
As a major partner, HUD has invested $3 million in Creative Communities
to bring sequential arts education to public housing communities across
the country. HUD’s resources make it possible for the National
Guild to provide vital technical assistance and training services to
the 20 partnership sites. www.hud.gov.
Our evaluation partner, Emc.Arts and the Institute of Cultural Policy and Practice at Virginia Tech University, possesses a comprehensive understanding of the community school of the arts movement and the delivery of community arts education strategies like Creative Communities. The evaluation team is implementing a logic model methodology that examines Creative Communities impact in the following areas:
The evaluation logic model methodology introduces two tools, A Framework for Effective Programming and A Framework for Effective Partnering, that will explore the many ways in which partnerships and programs, and other factors, can explain and perhaps predict successes at Creative Communities sites.
Americans For The Arts: The National Guild
is one of five national partners with Americans For The Arts’ YouthARTS
Resource Initiative which seeks to share organizational
capacity-building information and encourage the planning, implementation,
and evaluation of arts programs for at-risk youth through a network
of partners. Creative Communities lead organizations will receive a
resource packet containing publications developed by Americans for the
Arts including the YouthARTS Tool Kit.
This multimedia kit provides models on how to plan, implement and evaluate
arts programs, including information on best practices in program planning;
tools to design a new youth arts program or refine an existing one;
information on artist training; sustaining collaborations among artists,
educators, and caseworkers; how to plan and implement a rigorous evaluation;
and information on costs and resources. www.artsusa.org.
Carnegie Mellon Center for Arts Management and Technology (CAMT):
Provides web hosting and development services for Creative Communities
Online. CAMT's mission is to Investigate existing and emerging information
and communication technology to stimulate thinking about the practical
application of this technology for arts managers. www.artsnet.org
Connecticut College: The Holleran Center for Community Action
and Public Policy provides Creative Communities partnership sites with
summer interns that enrolled in the Center's Certificate Program in
Community Action to support arts education programming in public housing
communities. National Guild staff conducts an annual "Putting Art
in the Heart of Community Building" training and personal development
seminar on the Connecticut College campus each fall semester. www.conncoll.edu
FUNDERS
The National Guild is responsible for matching NEA’s $500,000 commitment
to Creative Communities. The following foundations have invested in
the National Guild’s implementation of Creative Communities: