Assessing the Practices of Public Scholarship

About The Curriculum Project Research, 2007 - 2008

The Curriculum Project

The Curriculum Project was conceived by veteran community arts educators and activists as a way of involving people in the community cultural development field in taking stock at this important moment of growth: How are we educating community arts practitioners? How could training in this field be deepened, strengthened, made more effective? What is needed to effectively embody the field’s commitments to scholarship, training, and community engagement? What is needed to support those doing good work and assist those who want to develop new, excellent educational programs in community cultural development?

The Curriculum Project began in 2007 when three colleagues -- Jan Cohen-Cruz, Dudley Cocke, and Arlene Goldbard -- compared notes from their combined experience with higher education-based programs for community artists. They recognized a unique moment of opportunity: more people were writing and documenting practice; universities across the U.S. had created dozens of individual courses, certificates, and degree programs in some aspect of community cultural development; growing numbers of students were interested in this work; and increasingly, social justice activists were bringing cultural awareness into their efforts, understanding the relationship between culture, community development, and social change.

They proposed to research current practice and future potentials for excellence in community artists’ education. Jan became director of Imagining America, a national consortium of colleges and universities committed to public scholarship in the arts, humanities, and design, and IA offered a home to the project. In the fall of 2007, the Nathan Cummings Foundation agreed to underwrite this research. At the end of 2007, three advisors joined the team: Ludovic Blain III, an experienced organizer who currently work at the Center for Social Inclusion; Jamie Haft, a recent graduate of New York University who also serves as Project administrator; and Sonia BasSheva Mañjon, vice-president of diversity and strategic partnerships at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut. (More about project principals here.)

The research tested the hypothesis that a model curriculum should have a balance of three key elements: training, in both aesthetics and community organizing; community engagement, based on reciprocity; and scholarship, focusing on the field’s history and animating ideas. Hundreds of community artists, educators, and friends of the field took part in the interviews and surveys on which the report is based.

Visit The Curriculum Project Report to read Project findings.