A Detailed History of Animating Democracy

Arts & Civic Dialogue National Scan

In 1996, the Ford Foundation awarded a grant to Americans for the Arts to profile a representative selection of artists and arts and cultural organizations whose work, through its aesthetics and processes, engages the public in dialogue on key issues.
 

This study's resulting report, Animating Democracy: The Artistic Imagination as a Force in Civic Dialogue (1999), mapped activity of the last couple decades of the twentieth century, identified issues and trends, and suggested opportunities for leaders in the field, policy makers, and funders to work together to strengthen activity in this lively arena. The study revealed pivotal and innovating roles that the arts can play in the renewal of civic dialogue as well as challenges faced by arts and cultural organizations as they engage in this work. The study led to the development of a four-year Animating Democracy Initiative to support this arena of activity.
 

Both the study and the subsequent Initiative were premised on the idea that a democracy is animated when an informed public is engaged in the issues affecting people's daily lives. Animating Democracy’s early phase (1999 – 2005) focused on the role of the arts in civic dialogue and noted the following: 

In the workings of democracy, civic dialogue plays an essential role, giving voice to multiple perspectives and enabling people to develop more multifaceted, humane, and realistic views of issues and each other. Yet opportunities for meaningful civic dialogue in this country have diminished. In the renewal of civic dialogue, the arts can play a pivotal role in many ways.
 

In fact, American artists and arts and cultural institutions have long engaged civic issues through a wide spectrum of activity. At one end of the spectrum, topical art articulates or comments on social issues; at the other end, artists and arts/cultural institutions use the arts to engage people in action to affect change. At the center of this spectrum, there is a realm of artistic activity referred to as arts-based civic dialogue that consciously incorporates civic dialogue as part of an aesthetic strategy. By exploring multiple perspectives on critical concerns, arts-based civic dialogue projects seek to engage more diverse publics in discussion and reflection on challenging issues. At the same time, this intersection of artistic imagination with the civic realm offers fertile ground for both aesthetic and programmatic innovation.
 

Beyond the basic role of producer, presenter, or exhibitor, arts and cultural institutions are playing a key part in this work as catalysts, conveners, or forums for civic dialogue. In exercising this civic role, they are expanding opportunity for both democratic participation and aesthetic experience, engaging a broader, more diverse public in giving voice to critical issues of our time.

Animating Democracy Initiative

In 1999, Americans for the Arts launched the four-year Animating Democracy Initiative to foster artistic activity that encourages civic dialogue on important contemporary issues. With the Ford Foundation’s initial investment, Animating Democracy’s core activities included an informational web site, publications, field convenings, and the Lab.
 

At the center of the Initiative, the Animating Democracy Lab provided grants and advisory support to 36 cultural organizations across the country to implement projects that experimented with or deepened existing approaches to arts- and humanities-based civic dialogue. Investigation through these diverse projects, individually and collectively, aimed to advance field learning about the philosophical, practical, and social dimensions of this work. As part of the Lab design, project leaders came together in Learning Exchanges to share and build knowledge and extend their learning to the broader field.
 

The Lab’s effects were felt by local communities and the field in several key ways:

• Projects across the country contributed in meaningful, creative, and often catalytic ways to civic discourse about a range of critical issues including race, gentrification, shifting demographics in the U.S., human genomics, and others.
• Civic intent prompted development of new artistic work and programming approaches, including innovative artistic work integrating art and dialogue.
• A cadre of artists, curators, presenters, cultural organizers and civic dialogue professionals continued to extend their knowledge and experience in arts- and humanities-based civic dialogue in their respective fields and communities.
• Cross-disciplinary work among arts professionals and inter-field work between arts and dialogue fields led to deepened understanding and application of principles and practices of civically engaged art and dialogue.

In addition, the Lab generated a vital set of resources. Case studies on Lab projects: describe in-depth the arts-based civic dialogue efforts, including artistic and dialogic methodologies; offer analysis of impact in terms of defined artistic and civic dialogue goals; and extrapolate lessons learned and issues raised about the principles, practices, and philosophical underpinnings of arts-based civic dialogue work.
 

Notes from Learning Exchanges held in Chicago (2001), Minneapolis, Seattle, and Los Angeles (2002) capture key issues and themes discussed by Lab participants and provide in-progress views of Lab project issues, challenges and successes based on project presentations.
 

Essays inspired by Learning Exchanges explore issues and context for arts-based civic dialogue:

Seeking an American Identity (Working Inward from the Margins) by Suzanne Lacy

Conducting Civic Dialogue: A Challenging Role for Museums by Selma Holo

For detailed information about the structure and workings of the Lab, click here.
 

National Exchange on Art & Civic Dialogue

Americans for the Arts held the Animating Democracy National Exchange on Art and Civic Dialogue in October, 2003 in Flint, Michigan on the campus of the Flint Cultural Center.
 

Supported by the Ford Foundation, Charles Stewart Mott Foundation, Ruth Mott Foundation, and the Community Foundation of Greater Flint, this national conference shared the learnings and findings of the initial four years of Animating Democracy. Over 200 artists, cultural and civic leaders, and community organizers attended from across the United States as well as from Japan, Paraguay, and Australia. The Exchange offered a multifaceted exploration of the philosophical, practical, and aesthetic aspects of arts and humanities activity that intends to stimulate civic dialogue on important contemporary issues. It was cited by Linda Frye Burnham as "one of the signal arts events of the last decade" in her Community Arts Network article, "Let’s Give Them Something to Talk About."
 

Visit the National Exchange page for more information including notes from 14 outstanding sessions and the transcript of an inspiring presentation by featured speaker Grace Lee Boggs, activist, philosopher, and cultural worker from Detroit.