My last blog “The Power of Place: The Importance of Dedicated 3^rd Spaces for Youth to Engage in the Arts” talked about the importance of creating dedicated 3^rd spaces in the community for youth to engage in the arts. I talked about our successes of creating the ARTS Center in National City – a low income, blighted community with high rates of violent crime, poverty, and unemployment. The ARTS Center is a colorful, vibrant, and safe oasis within the community for youth to come after-school and on weekends to be healed, inspired, and empowered through the arts. It will continue to be a work of art in progress for years to come, but we’ve also begun to look outside the walls of the ARTS Center and meaningfully engage youth in community art projects.

As we’ve seen the impact of these projects on the youth and the community, we recently asked ourselves two important questions:

1.      Why can’t the community be a safe, vibrant, colorful place – not just the ARTS Center?

2.      How can a youth based ARTS Center be a catalyst for change in the community?

We’ve decided to answer those questions with a new initiative called Vibrant Neighborhoods, exploring the intersection between Creative Youth Development and Creative Community Development. We will be creating 30 projects over the next 3 years within 3 sq. miles of the ARTS Center. These projects will be lead by professional artists who are trained in a community-based approach developed by the Pomegranate Center. ARTS has recently become their very first National Affiliate and we’ll continue to deepen the partnership with them through these 30 projects. The artists will act as artist, arts educator and community organizer, engaging a wide range of community members in the process and ensuring artistic quality in the final product. Each project will employ high school apprentices and engage middle and high school youth in various parts of the project – either during conceptualization, design, or creation. At the end of 3 years, our goal is to train 60 artists, employ 100 high school youth, and engage 2,000 middle and elementary school youth in the 30 projects.

Through these projects we’ll not only build the artistic skills, life skills, and civic engagement of our students, but also build the social capital of the community by having students working hand-in-hand next to government leaders, decision makers, business owners, educators, and residents. It’s this process of community connections and relationships that is just as important as the final artistic product. For it’s these students who will be National City’s future leaders, decision makers, business owners, and residents, so it’s important to have them shape and create their community and understand the importance of using an inclusive process.

We’ve raised almost half the money for the project through individuals, foundations, and government sources. It’s a team effort, with everyone having skin in the game. National City is also exploring passing policy to dedicate 2% of public development for public art and creative place-making. In a survey to the community, 85% of residents and business owners agreed to support this. Everyone loves living in a beautiful place. Place and environment have a neurological, physiological, and psychological affect on humans. They have the power to changes moods and behaviors – for better or worse. We see it happen with students every day at the ARTS Center. If we can change the moods and behaviors of a child at the ARTS Center, imagine what we can do for a whole city??

I recently returned from the 2015 Americans for the Arts Conference in Chicago and listened to artist, activist, advocate, community planner Theastre Gates speak about the community revitalization he’s doing in the South Side of Chicago. It’s truly a testament to the power of art and beauty on a community. When asked how he responds to critics who say money would be better used for basic city services, I loved his answer:

“Beauty is a basic service.”

Yes it is.