Seeking a vision
Ariz. cities encouraged to strengthen art communities
Yuma is one of nine Arizona cities to be named this month as participants in the first AZ Creative Communities Institute, a program seeking to increase collaboration between cities as they work to strengthen their own art communities.
The new initiative, sponsored by the Arizona Commission on the Arts and Arizona State University’s Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts, gives recipients pretty broad parameters to work within, city Arts and Cultural Program Manager Lindsay Benacka said.
The state commission says on its website the objective is to “explore the many ways creativity can be put to work for positive community impact,” with the four members of each team learning from local and national experts as well as from the other participating cities.
Yuma’s team will be meeting with and traveling to at least some of the other cities participating in the institute to learn about their art programs, and host one embedded artistin-residence in their towns, selected through a statewide call for artists using local feedback. The state program will invest $15,000 to $20,000 into each community.”
“It’s one part educational, but the final product, think of it as a thesis project, is the artist-in-residency program, so we’re going to take everything we’re learning, and apply it to this funded artist-in-residency program,” she said. “Which is extremely vague.
“I’m sure we’re going to be spending the next year serving the Yuma community, seeing what the community’s existing assets are, from art education, community development standpoint, from the commercial sector and the nonprofit sector, seeing what does our community need, and how can we strengthen it through the arts?”
Isaac Russell, co-director of the Littlewood Fine Art Co-op, said the Yuma team is striving to create a long-term, sustainable artsrelated program through the Creative Communities Institute. But they have no idea what that will be, though it could take the form of a long-term artist residency program.
“We want it to be a broad encompassing thing, to draw from as many parts of the community as possible and reach as many parts of the community as possible, and how do we do that with a one-time thing? That’s the challenge,” he said.
Benacka said the team’s focus won’t exclusively be on visual arts, as it will reach out to local music and dance groups, as well as schools and the private sector for ideas on how to develop it and fund it. Because the state grant program is so new, there are few guidelines and so many directions it could go.
“I think what’s really exciting is this is the inaugural year. In the acceptance letter that we received, they said, ‘We’re sure you have a lot of questions, but so do we. We’re going to learn as we grow,’” she said.
A third team member, Maria McKivergan, is a licensed professional counselor and said possible art therapy components will be one of the things she is looking for as she begins looking to the other Arizona communities, which include urban areas like South Phoenix and Tempe as well as smaller towns like Casa Grande, Globe and Douglas.
“That’s what I’m hoping we’ll be able to integrate. That’s why I’m really curious about the other communities are probably brainstorming themselves about what they’d want to try to adapt to. So I think the way this grant is structured is supposed to be yearlong. So with every meeting I’m hoping to get more and more information as we begin to design what we’re solidifying, here in Yuma,” she said.
Russell said the overall goal the team is looking at is “not just make it about more art in Yuma, but make Yuma more aware of and appreciative of what art brings back to us.”
The fourth member is Cari Jean Nelson, a ceramics teacher at Kofa High School and co-president of the Yuma Area Arts Educators Association. She said the team’s vision is to help expand and nurture Yuma’s artists and art destinations into something that will draw out-of-towners, and especially locals.
“Our art city is going to be growing so much that if we can really get kind of everybody clued into the art scene, everybody who’s not even like an artist or teacher, or somebody who really supports the arts. But just the average people in Yuma, who would maybe have a special night out once in a while and they would go to an art show, get them to know that stuff is an option. It’s hard to communicate that in this community” she said.
“It’s just interesting. I’m really excited to get it going,” she added.
The team members say they want to get as much input and ideas as possible from other residents as they put the program together, and said there are several ways they can do that, including:
• Dropping into the Yuma Art Center at 254 S. Main St., calling (928) 373-5202 or emailing arts@yumaaz. gov.
• Dropping into the Littlewood Fine Arts & Community Co-op at 1480 S. 2nd Ave., calling (928) 276-3724 or emailing through its website at www.littlewoodcoop.com.
Yuma Sun staff writer Blake Herzog can be reached at (928) 539-6856 or bherzog@yumasun.com.