NATIONAL TRAINING and TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE PROGRAM
Are you working in community? Are you staff at a government agency or community-focused organization, or an artist - with desires to make change? Are you looking for new ways to address your community’s most pressing issues?
Art-Train is a virtual technical assistance program for artists, municipal agencies, and community-focused organizations in all sectors, in communities of all sizes across the nation.
Art-Train is here to support you in developing strategies that will help you reach and engage more people, increase community relevance and connection, and find innovative ways to be more effective - and create authentic, equitable and lasting change. Tackle critical issues such as social cohesion, civic engagement, public planning, equity, workforce development, public health, housing, and economic growth by supporting and working with local artists.
Artists are in every place: from people who weave stories and craft meaning, to those who perform and create art in public places, local artists represent different cultures, experiences, perspectives and demographics. They bring not only their ability to make and produce, and to engage across sectors and people, but also to use critical processes to reconnect, re-imagine and rebuild in their own places.
Art-Train trainings ran monthly from April 2021 to December 2024. Trainings are now available "on-demand." Complete this form to start a conversation about possibilities for bringing Art-Train to your community, either virtually or in-person.
Two Tracks:
Art-Train will equip you with tools to design and support cross-sector, equity-centered, locally-rooted and culture-based collaborations in communities of all sizes. Art-Train brings together both sides of the creative equation with two parallel tracks:
Artist Track: Artists deepen and develop skills to work in collaboration with agencies, non-profits, and arts councils on critical community issues.
Agency / Organization Track: Staff of government agencies, non-profits, and arts councils deepen and develop skills to to work with local artists to support creative workforce development, economic growth, and authentically address community needs and concerns such as public health, housing and civic engagement.
For both tracks, Art-Train includes:
- -training topics covering: Impacts of Artists; Accessing Resources; Implementation Models; and Tools for Equitable Collaboration
- -virtual drop-in group office hours
- -online resource library
Connect with us to explore possibilities for bringing Art-Train to your community, either virtually or in-person.
Cover photo: La Luchadora screenprinting cart at a creative placemaking event in Bloomington's South Loop. Credit Bruce Silcox.
FAQ
Art-Train was co-designed by Springboard’s Jun-Li Wang and the University of Montana’s Co-Lab for Civic Imagination’s Michael Rohd. Since its launch in 2021, Art-Train has trained over 1000 practitioners across the nation in our innovative and proven approach. Complete this form to start a conversation about possibilities for bringing Art-Train to your community, either virtually or in-person.
Art-Train was originally developed in collaboration with a circle of thinkers and advisors including:
Anne Basting, Timeslips/MacArthur Fellow
Roberto Bedoya, Oakland Cultural Affairs
Jamie Bennett, United States Artists
Lyz Crane, former ArtPlace America
Deborah Cullinan, Stanford University
Jaime Dempsey, Arizona Community Foundation
Randy Engstrom, former Seattle Office of Arts and Culture
Liz Lerman, Choreographer/MacArthur Fellow
Jason Schupbach, Drexel University
Jill Sonke, Center for the Arts in Medicine, University of Florida
Leila Tamari, former ArtPlace America
Willa Taylor, Goodman Theatre
Carlton Turner, Mississippi Center for Cultural Production
Aisa Villarosa, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts
Margy Waller, former White House Senior Advisor
Anu Yadav, Artist/Cultural Strategist
Laura Zabel, Springboard for the Arts
- ALL PARTICIPANTS will gain skills to frame and translate their goals into formats that can be supported by multiple funding sources. All will have access to ongoing technical assistance, an online resource library, additional learning from experts and peers, and an expanding network of practitioners across the country.
- ARTISTS will build on their existing skills to collaborate in and with their communities. They will deepen their own practices around creative problem solving, equitable community engagement, and creating arts-based strategies to address recovery efforts, from public health to local economies.
- STAFF OF AGENCIES and ORGANIZATIONS will learn customizable models and best practices to design and implement local-artist centered programs that address community challenges through ethical, culturally competent and responsive public engagement with more equitable, authentic, culturally-relevant results.
Art-Train is here to support you in developing strategies that will help you reach and engage more people, increase community relevance and connection and find creative ways to be more effective. Artists bring not only their ability to make, to engage across sectors and people, but also to use critical processes to reconnect, reimagine and rebuild in their own places.
Through Art-Train, you will explore tools and examples that will help you build programming that supports:
- -Authentic, community-based solutions to sector challenges: public health, food security, housing, public safety, education, transportation, etc.
- -Enhanced community narrative, identity, pride and empowerment.
- -Increased social capital and diversified networks that contribute to community recovery and resilience.
- -Increased community and economic vitality that supports people and places.
- - Artists Respond: Combating Social Isolation (Springboard for the Arts): https://springboardforthearts.org/artists-respond/
- - International Downtown Association creative partnerships (Springboard for the Arts): https://springboardforthearts.org/work-with-artists/community-development/ida/
- - Artists on Main (Rethos and Springboard for the Arts) https://www.rethos.org/artists-on-main-street
- - Art of Recovery (Santa Monica Cultural Affairs): https://www.santamonica.gov/arts/artofrecovery
- - Creative Corps (San Francisco): https://sfmayor.org/article/mayor-london-breed-announces-san-francisco-creative-corps-support-artists-and-promote-public
- - Learning Lab (Metro Arts Nashville): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tuJhXTz95bw
- - Timeslips: https://timeslips.org/
keep reading
-
Creative ExchangePractical artist-created toolkits to spark change and stories to inspire connection.
-
Creative Change CoalitionA national coalition of place-based organizations that center people, creativity, and equity working together to create a stronger ecosystem for communities and artists.
-
Calendar of EventsExplore upcoming workshops, events, and gatherings presented by Springboard for the Arts.