the lingo

I recently came across an article by Bill Cleveland, director of the Center for the Study of Art and Community, based in Minneapolis, Minn, which outlined many of the basic concepts I am trying to build upon (or from, as it were) for the Community Arts Movement Project. Really interesting, inspiring and relevant stuff here:

When my colleagues and I established the Center for the Study of Art and Community these experiences informed both the philosophy and focus of our work. Our intention was to help the field learn from itself. As our work has evolved, we have developed a dictionary of sorts to help communicate with colleagues in and out of the arts. Building a common vocabulary has also been a critical aspect of our training efforts. The increasingly cross-sector nature of ABCD has demanded an increased clarity of focus and intent. In the mix, principals and definitions from other fields have been adopted and a lot of common ground has been discovered. Especially with the areas of asset-based and sustainable community development. Here are some of the basic definitions and core concepts that have found a place in our dictionary.

• The arts: Pertaining to the performing, visual, literary or media arts.
• Artist: A person who by virtue of imagination and talent or skill is able create works of aesthetic and/or cultural value in one or more arts discipline.
• Community: Our definition of community is derived from the one used by Alternate ROOTS:groups of people with common interests defined by place, tradition, intention or spirit.
• Community-based: Activities created and produced by and with community members that combine significant elements of community access, ownership, authorship, participation and accountability.
• Arts-based community development (ABCD): Arts-centered activity that contributes to the sustained advancement of human dignity, health and/or productivity within a community. These include:
  Activities that EDUCATE and INFORM us about ourselves and the world
  Activities that INSPIRE and MOBILIZE individuals or groups.
  Activities that NURTURE and HEAL people and/or communities
  Activities that BUILD and IMPROVE community capacity and/or infrastructure.
  Historically we see ABCD as a modern iteration of perhaps the oldest "field" with a lineage that stretches back to prehistoric shamanism.
• Sustainable development: We define sustainable development as locally generated economic, social and cultural development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs.
• Asset-based community development: The word "sustainable" has roots in the Latin subtenir, meaning "to hold up" or "to support from below." We concur with many in the community-development field who feel that a thriving community must be supported primarily from within—by its members, resources and capacities, for the present and future.
• Cross-sector: Many people feel sustained community development requires collaborative effort that emphasizes a holistic, systems approach. This is because many community issues are diffuse, multidisciplinary, multiagency, multistakeholder and multisector in nature. In this context, "cross sector" refers to community development activities among and between often separately defined areas of influence and expertise such as education, public safety, human services and the arts.