ABSTRACT
Arts and cultural strategies are proving to be effective and innovative components of the practice of community development. Artists and culture bearers are working with community-based organizations in ways that enhance economic, physical, and social outcomes for places and strengthen the voice and agency of residents. This chapter describes a five-year effort to document and analyze the Community Development Investments initiative of ArtPlace America, one of the largest philanthropic investments of its kind. The chapter provides the context, structure, and evidence of some outcomes of the initiative, along with the goals, terms, parameters, and experience of conducting this research. The goal has been to dig deep into the ‘but for’ questions. What difference has the integration of arts and culture strategies made for the practice of community development? What has changed from the agencies’ previous way of doing things, and what has been the impact of that shift? The research was guided by a developmental framework suited to capturing the internal evolution of the organizations and their leaders, the eclectic, innovative activities of the artists, the wide diversity of the six places, and the time that was needed for the strategies to generate outcomes in these communities.
