Free webinar for rural community leaders: Thinking Beyond the Town Line
Rural community leaders are invited to participate in a free webinar to learn how small towns are working together to support each other.
Offered by the Orton Family Foundation and the Citizens' Institute on Rural Design, Thinking Beyond the Town Line: Strengthening Rural Development through Cooperation will examine how pooling resources and cooperating across town boundaries can result in new efficiencies and improve quality of life. Susan DuPlessis, program director with the South Carolina Arts Commission, will share highlights from the agency's pilot project, The Art of Community: Rural SC. The webinar takes place November 17 from 3 - 4 p.m. EST.
The webinar is free, but online registration is required.
Webinar presenters:
- Brett Schwartz, program manager, National Association of Development Organizations (NADO) Research Foundation. NADO offers a myriad of programs aimed at cross-border cooperation including training, research, and peer networking services in the areas of economic and disaster resilience, transportation, and sustainable community development.
- Sarah Lucas, AICP, regional planning department manager, Networks Northwest. Lucas works closely with local governments, nonprofits, and other community stakeholders in northwest Michigan on a variety of community issues, including housing and economic development. She also coordinates and facilitates public outreach strategies and conducts in-depth community research and analysis.
- Lori Meadows, executive director, Kentucky Arts Council. Meadows has headed up the Kentucky Arts Council since 2005. Her work has included convening a 54-county Appalachian region to initiate economic growth and development through arts-related tools, resources and ideas.
- Susan DuPlessis, program director, South Carolina Arts Commission. DuPlessis has a wide range of experience in creative, place-based work including co-directing several significant agency partnerships including the four-state Gullah Geechee Cultural Heritage Corridor Commission, South Carolina's Rural Promise Zone and the Riley Institute at Furman University. Susan will share highlights from a pilot project, The Art of Community: Rural SC, which is part of the South Carolina Promise Zone initiative.
About the Citizens' Institute on Rural Design
The Citizens' Institute on Rural Design™ (CIRD) provides communities access to the resources they need to convert their own good ideas into reality. CIRD works with communities with populations of 50,000 or less, and offers annual competitive funding to as many as six small towns or rural communities to host a two-and-a-half day community design workshop. With support from a wide range of design, planning and creative placemaking professionals, the workshops bring together local leaders from non-profits, community organizations, and government to develop actionable solutions to the community's pressing design challenges. The community receives additional support through webinars, conference calls, and web-based
resources.
About the Orton Family Foundation
With an entrepreneurial spirit and funding derived from the profits of
The Vermont Country Store, Lyman Orton and Noel Fritzinger established the Orton Family Foundation in 1995 as a resource for small cities and towns grappling with change and searching for solutions. An active resident of
Weston, Vermont and a proud seventh generation Vermonter, Lyman saw that many communities around the state were unprepared for growth and lacking the information and tools needed to steer the change toward a vibrant, sustainable future. The Foundation began by developing a GIS-based 3D visualization and decision-support tool,
CommunityViz®, which has helped hundreds of communities across the US imagine new possibilities for growth and change. The Foundation now emphasizes the Community
Heart & Soul™ process, a planning methodology that uses broad citizen engagement to build economically resilient and socially vibrant communities based on towns’ unique local character.
Rural communities eligible for design grants
The Citizens Institute on Rural Design is accepting applications for a new round of funding. CIRD helps communities with populations of 50,000 or less that are facing design challenges, such as Main Street revitalization, designing community-supportive transportation, preserving natural and historic landscapes and buildings, protecting working agricultural lands, and providing adequate and affordable housing.
CIRD offers annual competitive funding to as many as four small towns to host community design workshops that link local leaders with teams of design, planning and creative placemaking experts. Selected communities will receive $7,000 to support the planning and hosting for a multi-day design workshop, and CIRD will work with the communities to assemble teams of specialists most qualified to address the communities' identified design challenges.
Find more information and the application online. The application deadline for 2014 awards is May 6.
CIRD, a design initiative of the National Endowment for the Arts, is conducted in partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Project for Public Spaces, the Orton Family Foundation and the CommunityMatters Partnership.
Via: Citizens Institute on Rural Design
Find out how to benefit from a design arts grant or program
This conference call was postponed in October and has now been rescheduled.
The South Carolina Arts Commission, in collaboration with the Columbia Design League, will offer South Carolina artists, arts organizations, designers, cities and communities an overview of design arts programs and grants available from the National Endowment for the Arts via conference call on Thursday, Nov. 21, at 10 a.m.
Join us to learn more about the variety of design programs offered by the NEA and how your community can benefit from a range of opportunities, including rural design workshops, design project grants, community development through the arts and creative placemaking initiatives.
To date, three South Carolina communities have received Our Town grants: City of Charleston, Town of Pendleton and City of Spartanburg
(Related: City of Spartanburg awarded $25,000 Our Town grant. Also, read how Spartanburg plans to use this grant: Emphasizing the arts during a neighborhood revitalization.)
WHAT: Conference call with Jason Schupbach, Director of Design for the National Endowment for the Arts, and Ken May, Executive Director, South Carolina Arts Commission (pictured left to right).
WHEN: Thursday, Nov. 21, 10 - 11 a.m
WHO SHOULD PARTICIPATE: Artists, designers, and representatives of arts organizations, cities, communities, local government and other institutions interested in funding and program opportunities for design projects.
COST: Free
PARTICIPATING IN THE CONFERENCE CALL
RSVP to Shawna Bauer at sbauer@arts.sc.gov or (803) 734-8687. Please indicate whether you wish to participate by phone or in person.
- By phone: Shawna will send instructions for connecting to the call
- In person: Up to 20 seats are available at the South Carolina Arts Commission on a first-come, first-served basis. Reserve your space with your RSVP
PREPARATION FOR THE CALL
Review the online guidelines for any of the following design arts programs and grants to determine if the opportunities fit your organization or community:
Can your community benefit from a design arts grant or program?
"From the typeface on this page to the neighborhood in which you live, every object and place is the result of design." -- National Endowment for the Arts Design Arts Program
Find out how your organization or community can benefit from a range of design grants and programs offered by the National Endowment for the Arts, including rural design workshops, design project grants, community development through the arts and creative placemaking initiatives.
Join the South Carolina Arts Commission as we welcome Jason Schupbach, director of design for the NEA, for a lecture and a conference call about these opportunities. The lecture takes place Oct. 15 at 6 p.m. at the Columbia Museum of Art, and the conference call is scheduled for Oct. 16 at 10 a.m. Read more below about how to participate in one or both events.
(Related: City of Spartanburg awarded $25,000 Our Town grant. Also, read how Spartanburg plans to use this grant: Emphasizing the arts during a neighborhood revitalization.)
- Event #1 October 15 Lecture: Design and Creative Placemaking in America (hosted in collaboration with the Columbia Design League)
WHEN: Tuesday, Oct. 15, 6 p.m.,
Columbia Museum of Art, 1515 Main St., Columbia
WHO SHOULD ATTEND: Anyone interested in how principles of good design can benefit communities
COST: $10.00 for non-members, free for Columbia Design League Members
RSVP: No RSVP required
- Event #2 October 16 Conference call: Overview of design arts programs and grants available from the National Endowment for the Arts
WHEN: Wednesday, Oct. 16, 10:00 - 10:45 a.m
WHO SHOULD ATTEND/CALL IN: Representatives of organizations, institutions or local governments interested in funding and program opportunities for design projects
COST: Free
PREPARATION FOR THE CALL
Review the online guidelines for any of the following design arts programs and grants to determine if the opportunities fit your organization or community:
PARTICIPATING IN THE CONFERENCE CALL
RSVP to Shawna Bauer at
sbauer@arts.sc.gov or (803) 734-8687. Please indicate whether you wish to participate by phone or in person.
- By phone: Shawna will send instructions for connecting to the call
- In person: Up to 20 seats are available at the South Carolina Arts Commission on a first-come, first-served basis. Reserve your space with your RSVP
Help for rural communities facing design challenges
Residents in rural America care deeply about the future of their towns and value their uniqueness, strong sense of community and special places. However, they increasingly face urgent challenges related to their local economies, growth, transportation and protecting the community's historic and cultural resources. The arts and design can play powerful roles in developing solutions to these challenges. However, few rural communities have access to design assistance or the expertise to tackle these challenges on their own.
The Citizens' Institute on Rural Design (CIRD) invites rural communities facing such design challenges to submit proposals to host local workshops in 2013. Each community selected will receive a $7,000 grant and in-kind design expertise and technical assistance valued at $35,000 to support planning and hosting a two-day workshop.
CIRD (formerly known as "Your Town") works to help rural communities with populations of 50,000 or fewer enhance quality of life and economic vitality through facilitated design workshops. The program brings together local leaders, nonprofits and community organizations with specialists in design, planning and creative placemaking to address such challenges as strengthening economies, enhancing rural character, leveraging cultural assets and designing efficient housing and transportation systems.
CIRD will help communities assemble teams of specialists based on the communities' needs. The workshops will be augmented with conference calls and webinars led by experts in topics related to rural design. The calls will also be open to the general public.
Communities will be required to provide approximately $7,000 in matching funds (cash or in-kind).
The Request for Proposals is on the CIRD website: www.rural-design.org. The proposal deadline is March 5 at 5 p.m. EST.
CIRD will offer three conference calls to answer questions and provide application guidance. The calls will take place Jan. 23, Feb. 7 and Feb. 28. Participation in each call is free, but registration is required. For details about the calls and to register, visit www.rural-design.org/application-assistance.
The CIRD is a National Endowment for the Arts leadership initiative in partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Project for Public Spaces, Inc., along with the Orton Family Foundation and the CommunityMatters® Partnership. Previous Your Town workshops held in South Carolina were in Pendleton (2011) and Spartanburg (2006).
Via: Citizens' Institute on Rural Design, National Endowment for the Arts
