Special Initiatives

Animating Democracy develops special initiatives with partners and funders in order to support program development and capacity-building in the field.

The Arts & Social Change Mapping Initiative
Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts, has launched an initiative to map and highlight the spectrum of ways the arts are being activated to engage and make change. A centralized online resource will make this important work visible and serve to link change agents, artists and the arts, funders, and an interested public.

By mapping this arena of practice the initiative seeks to enhance understanding of: 1) the growing spectrum of arts activity that fosters civic engagement and social change; 2) the expanding circle of artists and arts organizations actively pursuing this work; and 3) the funders who support such work. From the results of the mapping process, this initiative will:

  1. Assemble a current portrait of funding support for arts that foster civic engagement and social change available from a range of arts, social change and other funders;
  2. Design and implement a robust, online registry of artists as well as cultural and community organizations that foster civic engagement and social change through the arts;
  3. Synthesize a typology and a vocabulary that helps distinguish different streams of practice and intended civic and social outcomes as well as advances unifying language for the field.

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The Arts & Civic Engagement Impact Initiative
Animating Democracy, a program of Americans for the Arts, is implementing an initiative to advance understanding of and to help make the case for the social efficacy of arts-based civic engagement work. The Arts & Civic Engagement Impact Initiative is supported by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation. 

Americans for the Arts brings to bear its leadership and experience in research, policy, advocacy, and field service to advance these goals: 

  1. Coalesce knowledge and advance learning among leading practitioners, researchers, evaluators, and funders who have independently explored common questions about how to assess and communicate social change impact of arts-based civic engagement work;
  2. Position the arts as valid and viable contributors to civic engagement and the achievement of social change by developing compelling communication strategies; and
  3. Strengthen the capacity of practitioners to assess and describe social change outcomes by equipping the field with practical knowledge and useful/usable tools and models to measure and communicate the social change effects of arts-based civic engagement.

Core consultants to the initiative are charged with collecting and making meaning of existing information and resources, including research and evaluation findings; translating findings into frameworks and tools that are useful for practitioners; assessing what is needed for effective case-making; and disseminating resources to potential users.  The consultant team includes: Mark Stern and Susan Seifert, Social Impact of the Arts Project/UPenn; Suzanne Callahan, Callahan Consulting for the Arts; Chris Dwyer, RMC Research; Maribel Alvarez, Southwest Center, University of Arizona; and Maria-Rosario Jackson, Urban Institute.  (See Research Reports, Professional Papers, and White Papers for more details.)

The initiative also engages a Working Group comprising these contracted consultants and others with expertise in arts-based civic engagement who lend key insights and vet findings from their vantage points as field practitioners, leaders, and funders.  See the Working Group for a list of members.

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The Exemplar Program

The Exemplar Program provided two years of support, totaling $150,000 each to 12 small to midsized arts and cultural organizations nationwide. The organizations were recognized for outstanding cultural work in their communities and in the field, based on their participation in the Animating Democracy program of Americans for the Arts and the Working Capital Fund. Supported by the Ford Foundation, the two-year Exemplar Program aimed to foster a holistic and integrated approach to organizational health, institutional growth, civic engagement, and aesthetic investigation.

Representatives from the 12 small and mid-sized organizations participating in the Exemplar Program convened in early December 2005 in Santa Fe New Mexico. Recognized for outstanding cultural work in their communities and in the field based on their participation in Animating Democracy and the Working Capital Fund, the groups explored topic areas related to aesthetic investigation, institutional health and capacity, and civic engagement.  From the convening, a report was compiled by Caron Atlas highlighting the event from beginning to end.  With implications for the entire field, it summarizes key topics areas in relation to challenges and opportunities among cohort members.

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Animating Democracy Lab

During the four-year initial phase of Animating Democracy, the Animating Democracy Lab supported 35 arts- and humanities-based civic dialogue projects that demonstrated opportunities to advance the creation and presentation of arts-based civic dialogue work. Selected projects sponsored by arts and cultural institutions received financial and advisory support. These projects served as laboratories for experimentation and innovation. They were selected to create a diverse collection that, individually and collectively, would advance field learning about the philosophical, practical, and social dimensions of this work. Lab Projects were implemented following individual timelines during the period 2000 to 2004.

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Select an Animating Democracy Lab Project: