Background papers prepared for discussions at national Support the Arts meeting. Publication prepared for the National Endowment for the Arts, Challenge Grant Program, in cooperation with Public Interest Public Relations. During the past several months, the National Council on the Arts has reviewed the management and fund raising [fundraising] programs of hundreds of Challenge Grant applicants across the country. As part of this effort, the Taft Corporation contacted some 173 applicants, interviewing each concerning its plans for fulfilling the guidelines of the Challenge Grant Program....

A strategic business plan, based on current research data, designed to address the needs and issues facing arts and cultural organizations and constituents in the Sacramento Metropolitan area.

A new study from the University of Minnesota Humphrey Institute of Public Affairs, "Artists' Centers: Evolution and Impact on Artists, Neighborhoods, and Economies," shows that Minnesota's strong creative economy owes much of its success to the unusual number and quality of dedicated gathering spaces for artists in Minnesota. The study profiles 22 arts centers and individual artists.

<P>In recent memory, the topic of community building has been examined and explored in countless ways. The arts have effectively played the role as convener and construction worker in matters of community. The arts have potential to connect people within a community in new ways, to bringing disparate people together, and to tap into a communitys latent creativity.ﾝ Another recent buzz-word often heard in community building circles is smart growth, ﾝ or a series of activities designed to re-orient and re-center the physical design of communities so that their community fabric is...

The Midtown Cultural District Plan outlines a balanced program of growth that will create a new downtown community of residences, businesses and cultural facilities.

The importance of cultural institutions to contemporary revitalization efforts in U.S. cities is attributed to several factors, including cities' dependence on their consumption economies, cultural institutions' interest in improving their surroundings, and cultural institutions' abilities to draw on serious and popular art forms.