Artists Role in Re-building America?

President-Elect Obama has talked about a massive stimulus package to re-build America and put people to work. What role could artists play in this new program. Author, educator and cultural activist Arlene Goldbard says, plenty.

"Artists dedicated to public service can

• teach
• co-create plays and murals with people young and old
• run community darkrooms and workshops
• beautify the built environment
• carve out space for people to dream, invent and communicate about things that matter to themselves and their communities
• assist communities in creating archives of digital stories
• create public art that commemorates generative moments in the history of a community
• devise choral works and pageants, installations and exhibitions, dances and poetry journals that express and embody community identity and aspiration
• create workplace programs that engage workers in participatory management
• facilitate processes that help people dream their way into new approaches to community and economic development…."
  

Read her full essay. The Institute for Policy Studies has also weighed in with a cultural worker and arts-based stimulus package.