Ubiñas: "I have learned...how a vibrant creative community is a constant feature of places that have rebounded from decline."

Roger mentioned "a seat at the table" earlier this week, a concept of upmost importance not just to the message development process but to the content of the message itself. What are we telling a diverse, creative community about access and opportunity in New Albany? What should we be telling them and how do we go about sending the message?

Ubiñas: A Commitment to the Arts That Will Transform Communities

...Artists and cultural institutions have a unique ability to kick-start local economies, create jobs, and attract new businesses. We now know that more inclusive communities - urban and rural, places that welcome a diversity of ideas and people - grow faster than cities that do not. We now know that places with thriving arts communities and facilities grow faster than those that don’t have promising cultural assets. Art is not a luxury; art is a precondition to success in a world increasingly driven by creativity and innovation.

Arts spaces are economic anchors around which communities can build. Think about it: Communities will lobby to locate a small manufacturing plant that can be moved off shore at any point, but how many communities will fight to attract the diverse, creative people and art spaces that can create just as many jobs and become a permanent asset that nourishes not just the pocketbook but also the soul?

Indeed, investing in arts and cultural institutions that are strong, powerful economic catalysts within their local communities can be the economic equivalent of bringing a manufacturing plant to a neighborhood and - from a cultural and quality-of-life standpoint - more than surpass it...

Man's millionth march.

I feel like a million tonight, but one at a time. --Mae West

Having crossed the 400,000 site visits threshold earlier in the month, the NAC counter recorded page view number 1,000,000 this evening.

Roger's writing a history that, even with seven figures worth of interest, remains underappreciated. Thanks to him and those who take the time to read and comment. It's a community in which I'm proud to be a member.

Still saying it: It's about community.

I met Rory Turner in Bloomington when I was nineteen. He was working on a PhD and I was working on becoming a human being. He was and continues to be a teaching assistant in that endeavor, even though the titles may have changed. His is a way of being heavy without being hard to carry.

When I wrote what was for me the first collegiate piece that I felt went beyond rote academic exercise, it came back from Rory with a letter grade and a three-word addendum: "Say it, man."

Eighteen years later, he and some friends have started blogging and it's nice to return the favor, in response to a short introductory treatise that we'd all do well to consider.

Communitas and social value

May 18th, 2009 by Rory Turner

Community is one of the great mysteries of human experience. In what ways are we or are we not connected with other people, and other being, animate and inanimate? The notion of communitas proposes that a sense of fellowship is primary to human beings, that through the gifts of presence, resonance, and sharing, we can and do find deeper relationship with one another. A key element of cultural sustainability is to foster that urge to come together in culturally meaningful ways to share through play and other forms of cultural performance, a place to discover and feel communitas. What are some of the ways that you have been able to witness or participate in communitas? What moved you about the experience? What impact did these experiences have for your life?

I believe that such experiences are defining of human life, culture and community. I believe that by helping encourage the human capacities and condition that make communitas possible, we significantly improve the quality and value of life.