Works of Heart: Building Village Through the Arts

by Lynne Elizabeth, Suzanne Young

Citizen artists revitalize place, celebrate culture, and inspire social change This full-color celebration of communities engaged in creative cultural expression profiles nine exemplary grassroots arts projects depicting an intersection of creativity with love of place. Stories range from children applying an African-inspired mud facade on their Oregon middle school to an annual blessing-procession and festival in North Philadelphia that brings to life dozens of the most depressed blocks in urban America. Other regions ... Read More

Citizen artists revitalize place, celebrate culture, and inspire social change This full-color celebration of communities engaged in creative cultural expression profiles nine exemplary grassroots arts projects depicting an intersection of creativity with love of place. Stories range from children applying an African-inspired mud facade on their Oregon middle school to an annual blessing-procession and festival in North Philadelphia that brings to life dozens of the most depressed blocks in urban America. Other regions represented include Minneapolis, Boston, Berkeley, rural Maine, San Francisco, the New York Bronx, and Vancouver, Canada. Community-based arts resources are cited throughout. Works of Heart offers a compendium of multicultural human-interest stories that will inspire and inform both community development professionals and citizen activists. Among those profiled are Lily Yeh and the Village of Arts and Humanities, Clara Wainwright and the Faith Quilts Project, River of Words Youth Art and Poetry, and the Beehive Design Collective. Read Less