II 602: Building Better Communities 3 credits

How do we make community work joyful and sustaining? In this course, participants acquire fresh tools for community action, intervention and leadership. They experiment with using art, innovative research methods, and creative projects for social, economic and environmental goals. They discover how art strategies can enhance habitat and generate economic opportunity, while developing enjoyable projects with personal and real-world relevance.

Course text Beginner’s Guide to Community-Based Arts describes community-based arts initiatives tackling difficult issues including juvenile incarceration, adult-onset diabetes in Native communities and the struggle for worker rights. This and other course texts provided electronically offer students a practical toolbox for art, community development, and creative social change.  

Beginner’s Guide to Community-Based Arts: Ten Graphic Stories about Artists, Educators & Activists Across the U.S. by Keith Knight and Mat Schwarzman (Oakland, Calif.: New Village Press, October 2005, 200 pp.) Students order directly. (To order from the publisher, CLICK HERE).

This guidebook – illustrated in comic-book style and written in accessible language –describes community-based arts initiatives tackling difficult issues including juvenile incarceration, adult-onset diabetes in Native communities and the struggle for worker rights. It points to the power and accessibility of creative work, and offers many practical tools for arts and activism.

Guide Samples can be viewed at: http://www.xroadsproject.org/GuideSamples.pdf

The other readings for this course are in the form of articles that will be supplied as PDF files through links in your Course Guide. In addition, please see the materials under the "Resources" tab above.