Special issue: Supporting community development through the arts

Editors’ introduction to the special issue

Leigh Hersey & B. Kathleen Gallagher

In this Special Issue of Local Development & Society, we are pleased to include articles that focus on “Supporting Community Development through the Arts.” We appreciate the endorsement of the editors of Local Development & Society for dedicating this issue to the exploration of the work occurring at the intersection of community development and the arts and providing assistance throughout the development process. We would also like to thank the group of reviewers who dedicated their time and expertise to providing feedback on such a wide variety of work. Reviewers are critical to the development of manuscripts and journal issues. The continuing effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic have imposed increased demands and so we offer additional thanks to those who made the time to offer essential feedback and insights for improvement.

Although the call for proposals of manuscripts for this Special Issue was released in December 2020, the efforts of this research reach back further than that. As editors of this Special Issue, we have been cultivating this topic for several years, with hopes for increasing the interdisciplinary way art and community development can be studied. Through our call for proposals, we reached out across many disciplines in search of articles that would share a variety of methods and viewpoints for the readers. We felt that Local Development & Society was the best fit with our goals, as the journal is also committed to cross-disciplinary research, drawing from both academic and practical contributors.

The submissions received were richly varied, reflecting many of the disciplines where these topics intersect and including scholars, practitioners, and instructors of practice. Our authors represent the fields of sociology, university extension offices, landscape architecture, educational administration, arts administration, and English translation (languages), as well as leaders of community organizations. It is this diversity of perspectives, research methods, and experiences of the impact of arts on community development that make this Special Issue so rich and vibrant. Research methods in this issue include quantitative data analysis, participatory action research, qualitative analysis through in-depth interviews, and case studies. Collectively, the body of work demonstrates the diverse way arts and culture enhance our communities. It is exhilarating to see that so many disciplines find the arts to play a role in community development. It is also reassuring that so many of these authors respect and acknowledge the role that equity and inclusion play when creating art projects that reflect the community.

As noted by Phillips and Pittman (2008), community development can mean different things to different people. Community members often focus on the outcomes, or the results they see from the development activities. On the other hand, academicians tend to focus on the process, or the ways communities collaborate to produce results. Many of these articles in this Special Issue describe the process that led to the results.

The arts contribute to community development in a variety of ways, including economically, aesthetically, and promoting prosocial behavior. Examples include cultivating the creative industries, developing cultural districts and trails, installing public art, encouraging arts and culture festivals, and more. As such, the arts present numerous ways to promote local culture and regional foods. Examples of leveraging the arts for local development are plentiful.

The arts have been identified for their economic contributions to communities (Americans for the Arts, 2017; Cohen et al., 2003; Markusen, 2013a, 2013b; Markusen & King, 2003; Markusen & Gadwa, 2010a). Research dedicated to the creative economy, creative cities, the creative class, and potential of artist entrepreneurs attracted significant attention at the end of the twentieth century and early years of the new millennium (Florida, 2004, 2009, 2017; Grodach et al., 2014; Landry, 2000). The arts have the power to create jobs, attract tourists, and revitalize buildings and districts in urban and rural communities. Such findings and representative case studies spurred many communities to leverage the arts, and arts organizations, for economic benefits (Frost-Kumpf, 1998; Markusen & Gadwa, 2010; Markusen et al., 2011). While the promise of economic benefits spurred the integration of the arts into many initiatives, the arts are central to community identity and cohesion, social inclusion, education, and civic engagement.

Place shapes and reflects individual and community identities. Jane Jacobs, the famous urbanist, is often credited with developing the concept of placemaking. Observing the social fabric of cities, Jacobs (1961) wrote: “A city’s very wholeness in bringing together people with communities of interest is one of its greatest assets, possibly the greatest” (p. 155). In the more than 60 years since the publication of Jacobs’ The Life and Death of Great American Cities, placemaking has evolved into sub-fields, including creative placemaking.

In creative placemaking, partners from public, private, nonprofit, and community sectors strategically shape the physical and social character of a neighborhood, town, city, or region around arts and cultural activities. Creative placemaking animates public and private spaces, rejuvenates structures and streetscapes, improves local business viability and public safety, and brings diverse people together to celebrate, inspire, and be inspired (Markusen & Gadwa, 2010b, p.3).

Creative placemaking leverages the organic arts and cultural assets of a place for community benefit. In addition to the economic benefits of arts and cultural community assets, research has documented arts and culture as influential in shaping individual and community identity (Belfiore & Bennett, 2010; Lena & Cornfield, 2008). Scholars have explored the role of arts in building understanding, empathy, and compassion in diverse communities (Belfiore, 2002; Nijkamp et al., 2018; Southcott & Joseph, 2017). Reports have documented improved test scores and high school graduation rates for students who have had art instruction (Arts Education Partnership, n.d.; Colorado Department of Education & Colorado Council on the Arts, 2008; Rademaker, 2007). And arts participation is associated with increased civic engagement (Campagna et al., 2020; Tepper & Ivey, 2008). Arts and culture are important tools that can be employed to develop community.

This Special Issue shares just some of the ways the arts can contribute to community development, including connecting different cultural groups, increasing civic engagement, and expanding economic opportunities. Authors also explore issues facing the arts such as accessibility. The collection of articles starts with Hwang and Kim’s exploration into how high-impact educational practices in college shape community engagement for alumni of college arts programs. Some of these course-based activities may include service learning, outreach programs, and public art. The authors used Strategic National Arts Alumni Project (SNAAP) data and found that many of the high-impact educational practices have led to increased community engagement practices of the alumni. While many think of arts initiatives predominantly at the local or community level, some states have incorporated the arts into their state-wide cooperative extension programs. In “Toward Improvement of Community Life: The History of Arts and Local Development in Cooperative Extension” Bond, Overholser, Drinkwater, Wilson, and Callahan describe the Arts Extension program in four Midwestern states and establish a baseline of research on this unique structure. Although the initiative is state-wide in each of these states, the efforts are focused on the community level. The practice of Arts Extension has shifted from outreach focused to engagement focused, creating additional opportunities for resident participation and input. The authors argue that an Arts Extension Network would allow for increased success for these programs.

Community-based projects in architectural design programs help develop the professional and citizen responsibilities of future designers and can connect the university to the community (Barker et al., 2017). Tofte, Stewart, and Martel demonstrate these goals in a class-based landscape design project on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, outlined in “Creative Placemaking Goes Virtual: How Cross-Cultural Collaboration Contributes to Students Understanding of Intellectual Arts and Local Development.” Not only do the authors describe how students from the School of Design at South Dakota State University worked with artists at Sitting Bull College on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, but also detail how they were able to continue working on the project through COVID to submit a final project. The authors found that the collaborative process of creating a third place increased participation in the annual Artist Workshop hosted by the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation, increased the skills students need to successfully engage with local development projects, and strengthened participants’ ties with their own cultural roots.

In “Emergence of Dalit Art Entrepreneurs: Exploring Anti-caste Songs as the New-creative Industry in North India,” Kalyani explores how music has given historically oppressed Dalit communities avenues for social justice and the ability to claim dignity within the caste system. Kalyani notes how music has played a significant role in spreading messages and raising public consciousness. The popularity of music makes the messages more accessible and accepted by a wider audience. The music and Dalit-art entrepreneurs have leveraged this popularity to become part of the new Dalit-middle class and created solidarity among community members. Through in-depth interviews, Kalyani is able to document the experiences of the artists and producers of Dalit Resistance music and the impact their music has. Despite the challenges they face, the Dalit music entrepreneurs have gained access to resources that they previously could not obtain.

The power of arts as a tool to support and enhance community development necessitates consideration of inclusivity and the arts. In “Exploring the Process of Adoption of Accessible Practices in Community Development Processes: The Case of InclusivOpera at the Macerata Opera Festival in Italy,” Di Giovanni, Luchetti, and Turrini review the evolution from accessibility design to inclusivity design. While accessibility refers to the organizational response to disabilities in order to facilitate participation, inclusive design is intent on building communities that nurture individuals’ sense of belonging. They present a process for inclusive design and then highlight the practices of the Macerata Opera Festival in Italy, which has been a leader in developing accessible and inclusive services for more than ten years. Their work highlights the value derived from interdisciplinary investigations of inclusivity and community development.

The longevity and maintenance of arts and cultural amenities depend on continuing commitment from the community. In “Leveraging the Arts to Advance Cultural and Economic Development in Deep Ellum, Texas,” Hudiburg describes the process by which stakeholders of the Deep Ellum district engaged in strategic and cultural planning through cross-sector collaboration. Through this process, the community balanced the preservation of a historic identity and arts and culture amenities with the economic opportunities of revitalization and development. The benefits of creative placemaking and arts-anchored revitalization have inspired many communities. Attention is increasing to the unintended effects of gentrification and community displacement. Hudiburg presents a case study highlighting how communities can manage these potentially competing forces and protect the authentic culture of a district through a process of community input and collaborative leadership.

In “The Stickiness of Muslim Neighbors: Evaluating an Interfaith Arts-Based Community Initiative,” Smith documents a grass-roots interfaith arts-based initiative that addressed Islamophobia in a midwestern city. From this initiative, she further develops an evaluative framework that measures how the project supported continued engagement on the issue at hand. When Smith applied the evaluative framework to this project, results showed that it built relationships, fostered diversity, and increased civic participation.

This special issue concludes with a review of the book Engagement in the City: How Arts and Culture Impact Development in Urban Areas, co-edited by Leigh Hersey and Bryna Bobick. In her review, Goldberg-Miller describes the wide range of disciplines contributing to the book, including arts education, community advocacy, visual art, arts management, psychology, public policy and administration, and social entrepreneurship. The book complements this special issue and builds on the literature on arts and community development.

The ongoing effects of the global COVID-19 Pandemic have challenged everyone. Best practices for fighting the virus (avoid large gatherings) can be at odds with building community (where gathering is essential) and have presented major obstacles for artists and arts organizations. As we continue to navigate this odyssey, we must attend to our communities and utilize the best tools available to cultivate and develop them. Creative placemaking and arts-anchored initiatives offer great potential for many neighborhoods and districts. In December 2021, as we were in the final stages of developing this issue, Maria Rosario Jackson was confirmed as the 13th Chair of the National Endowment for the Arts. Her work has made significant and important contributions to community revitalization and arts and culture resources in communities. We anticipate that this focus will continue and contribute to increases in the potential awareness and use of arts and culture to develop and enhance community development not only in the United States but globally.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).